Day 0 (August 10, 2008) - Traveling to Anacortes
Our vacation began on Sunday when we got the van packed for the long drive to Anacortes, WA. We left at 10am figuring a 4pm check-in time at the hotel would give us time for lunch and potty stops. However, this was also the day of the Providence Bridge Pedal which we missed for the first time in 9 years. So it took 45 minutes just to get out of Portland. Once we got on I-5 North, we were able to reach cruising speed. We stopped for lunch in Castle Rock, WA at Subway. Traffic became heavy again around Olympia, WA, and came to a near stand still in the city center of Seattle. The girls got to see the Space Needle as we crawled along at around 2pm. We stopped for ice cream at the McDonalds in Everett, WA, and made Anacortes just after 4pm. It was somewhere around our stop in Everett that we realized that we had forgotten to bring the girls' stuffed animals to sleep with. We knew the night wasn't going to be pretty.
We stayed at a place called Fidalgo Country Inn right on WA-20 which goes into Anacortes on the island of Fidalgo. When we opened the door of our non-smoking room, there was a definite stink of stale cigarette smoke near the door so we called down to the front desk and requested a new room. They were very accommodating, and got us another room right away. We took a few minutes to settle in and look through the information in the room for somewhere to eat. We settled on a place called the Rock Fish Grill in the re-vitalized downtown area of Anacortes near the bay. The food was very good. Jada and Ellen split a salmon dish, I had a pulled port bbq sandwich, and Phoebe had a tricolor pasta which she barely ate. The berry cobbler that we got for dessert wasn't great, but still good. There was an oil processing facility near Anacortes which we could see out over one of the inlets near our hotel. It's the primary employer in this part, yet gas is about $0.50 more here than elsewhere. It wasn't really an eyesore or smelly or anything.
When we got back to the room, we figured the girls wouldn't wind down much anyway, especially without the stuffies, so we let them watch the Olympics since women's gymnastics was on that night anyway. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 8pm, and the US didn't get over until 9pm. They were riveted by the gymnastics and even the synchronized diving that preceded the gymnastics. Then they, of course, didn't want to calm down and immediately started to misbehave. It was 10pm before they even passed out. We followed shortly after.
Day 1 (August 11, 2008) San Juan Island
| Miles | Average Speed | Max speed | Trip Time |
| 24.09 | 11.5 | 33.5 | 02:05:10 |
The first day was a long one. Since I wasn't sure of how the whole ferry system worked, I wanted to be at the terminal ~2hrs prior to boarding the 8.45am ferry as was suggested in our ride literature. We were up a bit before 6am, grabbed the free breakfast (eggs, sausage, English muffins, yogurt, and cereal. There was a waffle maker, but we didn't have time.), and headed off towards the terminal. I had visions of a long line of cars and missing the ferry. However, we found that we were actually quite comically early, but we weren't alone since there were at least 5 other cars there too. We were first in our line at least. We paid $67 at the gate for our round trip ticket to Friday Harbor for 1 vehicle plus driver, 1 adults, and 1 child. Phoebe was free since she wasn't 6 years old yet. There were several numbered lanes to pull down (we were in lane 4) and each number had 2 lanes of cars. The lanes also corresponded to which island you were going to, and some lanes were designated for the larger trucks to make sure they only went down the middle of the ferry where it was taller. To pass the time while we waited, we visited the rest rooms out in the parking lot and the waiting rooms for the walkers and bikers where there was a small gift shop. We bought a few post cards there. Then we looked out on the bay and watched the ferries pull in and out. Finally, we just sat in the car to wait the last 45 minutes where we just read, wrote post cards, and watched the whole loading and unloading process. They have it quite efficiently organized, and everything went smoothly. Finally it was our turn to go. We loaded up both lane 4's at the same time following the motorcycles in which always get to go first. In Anacortes, they had a separate gangplank for pedestrians and cyclists who also get to board first. We were directed down one of the side tubes all the way around to the front of the boat on the main level. This was one of the larger ferries, so there was a second level above ours on the side. The center of the ferry didn't have the second car level and was reserved for tractor trailers and larger load trucks.
Once the car was parked, we were free to make our way up to the passenger compartments. On this ferry, there were 2 levels for people to sit. The first level was almost all inside except for the very front and back mandibles above the car level which were exterior. We watched the ferry pull out from this vantage point, but Phoebe soon grew scared, so we went just inside for a bit. Then we found that there was another level above this one that had a cafe and much more exterior room down the sides. We had a snack at the cafe, and spent the rest of the time outside. The air was cool, but I think I did see a porpoise or two while moving along. I don't think it was a whale since there was no dorsal fin visible in the shadow of the island we were passing, but I could see and hear the spout as it breached. The trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island took a little over an hour.
The unloading was just as efficient. They had lots of people directing traffic, and funneling cars and trucks to the main road called Spring Street which our hotel was on. It was only about 6 blocks up from the harbor. We arrived to see if we could check in even though it was only 10am, and check-in time was 4pm at the Best Western. Much to our delight, the room was ready! I guess it's handy checking in on a Monday when people who are there for the weekend probably had to catch the early ferry back to the main land. It was a nice room with a separate bed room. The couch was a hide-a-bed, and it had a small kitchenette. No air conditioning was in the room, but we figured we wouldn't need it for the week anyway since it was only supposed to be in the 70's. Jada noticed that the room normally went for $400/night. I don't think we were paying that, but it was all included in the cost of our trip, and I didn't want to bother figuring that out. After settling in, we wandered down the street for lunch. The big rental truck carrying all the tandems for the people who had flown into SeaTac airport had apparently been on our ferry as well since they were already there and unloading boxes. The clipper ship from Seattle that the participants were on wasn't due to arrive until noon. We found a place called Rocky Harbor Cafe which was still serving breakfast as well as lunch. We hit it just right and got a table right away. They had been running a waiting list, and the place started to fill up again for lunch after we had arrived. Phoebe had a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich while the rest of us had brunch. Jada and I split a a short stack of pancakes and a Denver omelet while Ellen had eggs, sausage, and toast. We then went to see if we could find some nice stuffies to replace the ones we had forgotten for the girls. We didn't find anything good, but we did find a nice 2x3' jolly roger flag to fly on our trailer's flag pole and a souvenir magnet.
Assembly was in full swing in front of the Best Western when we got back. We found Jan, one of the ride leaders, to get our packet with name tags and cue sheets for the week's rides. We still had about an hour before the pre-ride talk, so we went in to rest and get our things together. Just before the talk, I got all the stuff out of the van to assemble the train. We ended up using some bread clips to keep the flag flying high on the pole. We went over to the overhang where everyone was gathering their bikes together to wait for the talk. There were 3 quads, one of which was the purple that we chose for ours. There were at least 2 triples, 2 recumbent tandems, 1 other tandem pulling a Burley trailer, but we were the only ones in our particular configuration with the double trailers. Bill, the other ride leader, gave the talk about the course and the tip for finding whales (look for a whole bunch of boats in the same area, then look in the center). It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and 70 degree temps. Then we were all on our way around 2pm. We didn't have a lot of chitchat among the riders on that first day. Mostly we were all glad to be rolling. We journeyed south on Cattle Point road toward American Camp.
You can follow the link for all the details, but this was an American encampment before World War I before the final decision on who owned the island, England or the United States. There is a corresponding English Camp on the other side of the island. With WWI brewing, no one much cared about this little dispute which is known as the "Pig War" for reasons that aren't entirely clear even after reading the history. But essentially, in 1859 US and British citizens were both occupying the island, and a US citizen shot the company pig of a British citizen for rooting around in his garden. British authorities threatened to throw the Americans off the islands, but they requested assistance from commander of the Department of Oregon for help who sent a brigade to assist. The British did similar, and the 2 encampments setup on each side of the island and over the next 12 years they maintained an uneasy peace until 1872 when Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany (yes, that one) ruled that the Haro Strait was the boundary line making the San Juan Islands US territory. As they say in the history, it was a 12 year war in which the only casualty was the pig.
In American camp over looking the Cattle Point Lighthouse is where we saw the tell tale signs of a whale pod. After looking out at the water with a couple other tandem riders, we finally saw a whale breach. We saw it a few times, but not terribly well since it was so far away. It was our only sighting of the week though. We met a couple from Alaska who were riding on a loaner tandem from Calfee since half of their new tandem ended up in San Francisco instead of where they were. The loaner was a bamboo tandem. It was really cool. The tubes are bamboo, and the joints use a hemp based compound. It's part of Calfee's newest line of sustainable bikes which he started several years ago with single bikes for a trade show. I had never seen one up close. From here, it was mostly downhill to the turn around at the point of the island where we had to retrace our route back. The hills were tough. We stopped at the American camp visitors center on the way back through the park for a potty stop, and another attempt to find stuffies for the girls. They had some great, soft orcas. Since I'm much happier spending money at a National Park knowing it goes back into the parks than I am at some store and lining Matel's pockets, I bought them. Though a warning to anyone who might be going here, they only accept check or cash at this visitor center. Luckily, I had just enough for the Orcas and a couple new books. Phoebe spent the rest of the ride playing with her Orca and singing songs about it. Near the end, we did our first unpaved road of the week, but it was actually smoother than the chip seal road we had been riding on for most of the day so it wasn't too bad. I just kept the speed in check. (The drum brake got quite a workout this week.) On the way back into Friday Harbor we stopped by the bike shop to buy a lock. I didn't bring the keys to the lock I did bring. We were just forgetful on this trip.
We got back to the hotel around 5pm with just enough time for me to shower before walking down town to the Yacht Club for dinner at 6:30pm. It was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to the water front down Spring Street. They had started cocktails at 6pm, but we didn't need to be there for that, so we waited out on the deck where it was a little cooler anyway overlooking the marina. It was still a very clear day, and the water was clear. We got to see a float plane take off, but we missed it land. We chatted with some of the other couples there before finally being called in to get seated. We sat down at a table, and we were quickly joined by one of the quad families. They were riding their deep blue quad which they had just gotten fairly recently. They live in California near the Santana factory and knew the ride leader, Bill McCready, from there. They had a 5 year old son and a 10 year old daughter. Since our table filled up first, Bill let us hit the buffet first. We had a nice spread of salad, steamed green beans, potatoes, coos coos, bread, and a choice of prime rib or chicken. Jada and I had the prime rib, and the girls and chicken. We had a berry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Someone had called the hotel shuttle to pick them up after dinner, so we were able to ride that back up to the hotel. It was already after the girls' bedtime again, and they misbehaved again. I had to sit and watch Phoebe until she calmed down, but at least this night, it was only about 20 minutes before they passed out. Jada fell asleep by 10, and I followed after I finished my notes for the day.
Day 2 (August 12, 2008) - Orcas Island
| Miles | Average Speed | Max speed | Trip Time |
| 39.95 | 8.5 | 39.0 | 04:42:01 |
The girls may have actually slept in on our second day on the island if the alarm clock in our room hadn't been set to go off at 6am. I was still first up at 5:30am, but I don't remember why. (To pee! That is why he is always up early. TMI? Sorry!) We were catching the 8.45am ferry to Orcas this day, so we rode down to our breakfast spot for the week, Down Riggers, at the end of Spring Street overlooking the marina. The breakfast was good consisting of eggs, oatmeal, sausage, bacon, yogurt, and fruit. We met the other quad families during breakfast. One of the families had 2 girls aged 7 and 9, so Ellen and Phoebe latched on to them immediately. They were riding a yellow quad with one of those iPod stereos bungeed to the rack on the back of their bike. The captain had the iPod mounted on his handle bars, and they had it going all week on the road. They were traveling with another quad family (purple, just like the one that we ordered) who had 2 boys who were a little older maybe 9 and 11. I can't remember now. When we saw the ferry pulling into the bay, we hurried out of the restaurant and staged ourselves to board the ferry. We were put on last since we were such a large group with large bikes where normally, bikes would load first. It was a 45 minute ride, and it was sunny and cool out on the deck. This was a slightly smaller ferry than the one that we had taken from Anacortes in that it only had 1 level above the car level, and it only had 1 car level on the sides. The only outside portion was the bow and stern mandible sections. During the trip we got the girls picture taken with Bill McCready who was our ride leader and organizes all the Santana tours with his wife Jan. I talked to him about our new bike and packing possibilities for a while.
We followed the cars off the boat to our rally area just to the side of the loading ramp and had our pre-ride talk to go over the essentials. This island is the most hilly, and as I would soon find out almost entirely up hill. I don't know how they did it, but they did. We started off with a ride on a gravel, but low traffic road. We made it up some pretty gnarly steep gravel encrusted hills, but the descents on the other side were way too dangerous for us to make it down riding it. We walked most of the downhill sections in this part (which contained almost all of the available downhill on the island which we couldn't enjoy because we were trying to keep ourselves safe) because the brakes were useless on the dirt. I don't remember how many miles it was, but it took us a good hour just to clear this section. Luckily there were 2 ferries to shoot for today so if we missed one, we could still get the next. We eventually got out of the dirt and back on the chip seal. Around every bend, it seemed like the road just continued to go up. This would have been a really fun island for me on the single bike, but it was kind of torture with the train. I think it'll be easier with the quad because we won't have the dead weight in the back to drag. We never gave up though, and we rode up every hill.
We made it to the first rest stop at an artist studio, but it was along walk up a steep dirt hill. Ellen had to pee, but someone who came down said there weren't any facilities up there. So Ellen finally went in the bushes, and then we went on again. There was a short drop into the village of Eastsound where we stopped for elevensies. We enjoyed some sweets and ham and cheese croissants at a shop in town. The climbing started again almost immediately. We went by a bay where the tide was out and saw rows of what looked like little sticks, but I think were some sort of natural plant life that were covered up by the water when we came back by later in the afternoon. This was the road that was going to our lunch stop at Rosario Resort which didn't start until 1:30pm. We rolled by the entrance at 12:30pm, so we continued up the road into Moran State Park to tackle the initial slopes of Mt. Constitution to do the hike at Cascade Falls. We saw a fawn grazing on the other side of the road just as we passed by the Rosario turn off. The climb up Mt. Constitution was brutal, but we made it to the Cascade Falls which was our goal. The hike down to the falls was only .2 miles. It was a good sized falls. The hike back up was a little harder because our legs were so tired. As we were getting back into our cycling shoes 2 of the quads passed on the road heading up to Mt. Constitution. I would have loved to try that climb, but not on this bike with 12% grade on the switch backs. I wasn't so much worried about getting up, but I don't trust the brakes enough to stop me on that sort of grade with all the extra weight. The ride back to Rosario Resort was pretty quick. This was another steep downhill that we would have to come back up again, but it wasn't as steep as they were making it out to be...and it was paved so we had that going for us. This resort was on a fjord along East Sound on Orcas. We got to park on a nice lawn overlooking the water, but we got to eat inside at this plush resort. I just had to look for the group of inappropriately dressed folks for this upscale establishment to find out where the buffet was. It was another good bounty of food including salad, pasta with chicken, salmon, and fruit with chocolate brownie and ice cream bars for desert. Ellen and Jada had the salmon.
The climb back out was difficult but doable. The ride back toward Eastsound Village was mostly pleasant with some downhills, but then we missed a turn in the village itself...or as we found out later, we were at the right place, but it was not signed as it was supposed to be on the cue sheet. We did help another couple who had the same problem get through, but we lost 10 minutes finding our way back to the route. It had clouded over, and was sprinkling a little bit. We were a little unhappy that we found the route since the very first thing we found on Enchanted Forest road was a climb that had to have been 10% grade with ramps up to 12% or 15%. We had definite doubts about making it to the early ferry in time with every climb around every bend that kept pointing us skyward. We passed some of our tribe and commiserated about the hills. Then we all pushed on still trying to catch the 4:30pm ferry. At lunch, Bill had said that even if it's 5pm, go down to the terminal because the ferries are often late. As the clock struck 5pm, we were flying down the hill to the terminal. As we pulled up, we saw a ferry pulling away from the dock, and our hearts sank. There were some other tandems waiting there as well, and I yelled out, "did we miss it?" The response was an unbelievable no. Our ferry was just pulling in to which we responded "We made it!" and everyone else responded "You made it!" So I know I complained about all the climbing, but the scenery was really nice. We were rolling along some nice roads that skirted farms and the bays of deep blue water. We sat with some new friends on the ferry ride back to Friday Harbor who are about celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, but they sure didn't look like they were old enough for that. We went to the closest restaurant we could find when we got off which happened to be Down Riggers. Ellen and Jada shared crab cakes, I had a burger, and Phoebe had a little fruit, cracker, and cheese plate. The girls weren't good going to bed again, but we once we got them calmed down sleep came quickly after showers.
Day 3 (August 13, 2008) - Lopez Island
| Miles | Average Speed | Max speed | Trip Time |
| 33.42 | 11.0 | 34.0 | 03:01:03 |
The sun and warm temperatures returned on Wednesday for our trip to Lopez Island. The breakfast at Down Riggers was a little bit light on the protein. We had a shorter time to eat too since we were catching the 8:15am ferry to Lopez. We were glad to see that everyone had successfully made the last ferry back, and those who had attempted Mt. Constitution's slopes had made it successfully and safely. The ferry ride was about 40 minutes, and we all crowded on last again since Lopez was the first stop, but the ferry comes in backwards. Well, I guess there's not really a front and back, but it docks the same end as we boarded at Friday Harbor. Then it goes on to Anacortes and pulls in the opposite way. I'm not great at explaining it, but it works. Trust me. During the pre-ride talk, a bald eagle was spotted in the trees. I couldn't see it from where I was standing, but I did hear it's call. We kicked things off with a climb because on these islands, anything leading away from the water is a climb, but it was replaced by a nice little descent with a left hand turn at the bottom just before it leveled out so I couldn't let it go. Through the interior of Lopez Island, it reminded us a lot of riding through Washington County with less traffic, and with eagles flying over head. We were actually rolling along in a pretty good gear this day unlike the previous day's leg crushing climbs in the granny gear (someone had asked us how we are able to climb so well pulling so much weight. My response was that I'm stubborn, and Jada's overly competitive so we never give up. Once we hit the last gear we can use, we just bare down and churn it out. As long as the pedals are moving forward, we're not moving backwards.). The mid-point of our ride seemed to come really quickly with the Islandale General Store where many folks already were hanging out. We spent a little time there eating bagels we had brought from breakfast and black berries from the bushes near the parking lot. From there, it was 2 miles to the Agate Beach County Park where we combed the beach for polished rocks. I love the sound that the rocks make below the waves as they roll in and out with the tides. We spent probably 20 minutes there looking for good rocks and shooting the breeze with the other participants. I gotta tell ya, there's comedy, there's high comedy, and then there's a group of cyclists dressed in spandex trying to walk around on a pebble strewn agate beach in cycling shoes.
Given our constraint of making the 1:30pm ferry, we probably spent too much time there, but the girls were having fun looking for good stones. We back tracked for a few miles before we turned off toward the west coast of the island heading toward Lopez Village where we hear tell of a good fudge shop and home made ice cream. At the bottom a of screaming descent we found one of the quads in trouble. It took me a good 500 feet to stop and circle back to see if we could help. Unfortunately we didn't have a cable cutter they were looking for (mental note, add cable cutter to tool bag), so we set off again to see if we could find someone with one. As luck would have it, we found the yellow quad at the T of the road where we were going to turn. They had come back looking for them, but had missed the turn. They didn't have the cutter either, but just then a triple came by who did have one. They sent it back with the yellow quad. (The purple quad did get back underway. We saw them give the cutters back on the ferry). In Lopez, the map showed the fudge shop up a little ways, so we stopped at a bakery where we saw a lot of our fellow riders. Jada tried to get elevensies while I took the girls across the street to the market for a potty stop and Gatorade. We pushed off to find the fudge shop only to find that it was just around the corner in the same strip! We had just gotten in line with Bill stopped in to let us know that it was only 55 minutes until the ferry left, and there was still at least 1 big climb between us and the harbor. Everyone took off at that point, but it didn't last when we saw one of the couples stopped at the top of the next big climb. We needed to stop to pull something out of the trailer. The couple had bought a pint of raspberries, and they were sharing them with us and anyone else who came along because they realized they didn't have anywhere to carry them anyway. (There were just a bunch of fun people on this ride). From there, we rocketed to the harbor with 12 minutes to spare. On the ferry back, we sat with the quad family we had had dinner with the first night. The girls played with their kids comparing the haul of agate from the beach and making a little outlines of things with them like in the story Roxaboxin. Wednesday afternoon, Bill and Jan had arranged for us all to go to the San Juan Island county fair. They provided us each family/couple with money for lunch and rides. We used it for lunch, dessert (home made ice cream we had missed on Lopez), pie, and pony rides for the girls. Ellen couldn't have been happier. It was like a dream come true. Phoebe took some time to decided if she actually wanted to do it. Finally deciding to, and then wanting to get off immediately. We made her stay on, and she gave us the grumpy face for the first few rounds, but then she started to enjoy it. (oddly enough, the people running the ride were playing Journey's greatest hits at full volume. I don't know if it was for the ponies benefit or what...though the mane on the ponies was vaguely reminiscent of Steve Perry's hair.) We went over to check out the other rides, but the girls were too short by about an inch. We were probably there for about an hour before heading back to the room to clean up. We walked down town to find dinner around 5pm. There are a lot of places that are just cafe's open for breakfast and lunch, but not dinner. I guess it coincides with the ferry traffic somehow. We found an Italian place with slow service be good food. The girls got to bed a little more quickly that night, but not without the usual messing around first.
Day 4 (August 14, 2008) - San Juan Island - Roche Harbor
| Miles | Average Speed | Max speed | Trip Time |
| 32.55 | 10.7 | 38.5 | 03:01:14 |
The girls were up well before 6am again this morning. They did fall back to sleep, but it was about the time to get up by that point. They woke up around 5am and fell back to sleep around 6:10am. This was a more relaxed day since we weren't catching a ferry. We had breakfast in the hotel lobby just to get some protein into Ellen early to keep her attitude in check. Then we headed down to second breakfast at the Down Rigger which started at 7:30am going until 9am. We got down there a little before 8am, and we just lounged around and took our time eating. We had french toast, fritata, eggs, oatmeal, and fruit. We had the route talk at 9am out front of Down Riggers. The town Sherriff stopped by to remind us to ride single file and leave gaps for cars to get into when passing. We had been doing those things anyway, but he just needed to remind us. We climbed out of town taking a north west route around the north end of the island. I missed a shift a short way into the ride and got the chain stuck. Luckily, Brett, the mechanic, happened to be right behind us to stop and help us get the chain unstuck, and we were back on the road in no time. Farther up the road on Rouleau Rd, we found another tandem team inflating their rear tire with a tiny little travel pump so I offered them my larger frame pump to use. A bit further on, we entered this high-end neighborhood via a back trail through some woods that may or may not have been private. Bill wasn't concerned, but he wanted to take us this way because there are some ruins from the family who settled this island back in the 1800's. His name was McMillin, and he was a Stone Mason who lived in this northwest corner of the island by himself building everything on his own. He built himself a lavish mausoleum that we also got to hike up to. It's hard to describe, but it had a gate with the title Afterglow Vista on it. Then the structure itself had a set of steps followed by a ramp for no apparent reason, and then more steps leading up to the circular platform. This platform had a stone table with 6 stone chairs around it with one space left. Corresponding to the 6 chairs are pillars, and a seventh pillar is purposely broken where the 7th chair would be. It's all very interesting.
Across the road from the mausoleum entrance is a neat sculpture garden and nature reserve. We stopped for the bathroom, but I wish we could have spent more time there. It looked like a really neat place. We did go into Roche Harbor to have elevensies and some doughnuts. It was a neat town with some restored Lime Kiln's which was apparently a big trade on this island from back in the day and lots of gardens. We were starting to get late in the day already and lunch was going to be available starting at 1:30pm again, so we pushed off. We did stop in at English camp, but the road wasn't paved down to the parking lot and main visitor area. So we walked down to look around briefly. Then back up to push on toward Lime Kiln State Park where it was supposed to be the best possibility to sight whales. However, due to our excursion to English Camp, we were bringing up the rear of the group. What we didn't anticipate with long steep climb just before the park in the foot hills of Mt. Dallas. The chip seal stole all of our momentum, and it was getting very hot with not much wind blowing around. We finally did pull into the park, but we didn't have much time to hike down to the light house since it was already 1:30pm by then. We made a quick look around the gift shop and information center before starting up the next climb around Mt. Dallas. We saw an eagle not far off the road sitting in a tree overlooking the Haro Strait looking toward Vancouver Island. We pulled into lunch at the Pelindaba Lavender Farm tired, hot, and hungry. We spent probably an hour there sitting in the shade and chatting while the kids ran around with the other kids. No one seemed eager to be on their way, but eventually we decided that we should be getting back. We actually skipped the longer 13.5 mile route along False Bay toward American Camp, and opted for a 5.5 mile option that brought us back to town a little earlier, and back in near our hotel.
We were showered and changed by 4:30pm and walked down to the whale museum. Since we were with the Santana tour, we were able to get in free by showing our name tags. The museum was pretty small, but interesting. They did a nice job with the decor making it feel like you were underwater. The girls found a little room with dress up and paper for drawing so that kept them occupied while Jada and I watched a video about one of the pods. We were the only ones up there. For the last supper, we ate at Down Riggers again. We really like the food there, and it was one of the few places we found that had something that Phoebe would actually eat. We followed that up with some home made ice cream at a shop just along the front street across from the ferry ramp. Back at the room, we got everything packed and ready to go for the morning. I had put the bike back in the van more carefully this time since all week I had just been putting everything in there however I felt like it. The girls had another tough night going to bed even after a story. Phoebe managed to kick Ellen in the face. So I had to sit on the bed until they had calmed down enough to fall asleep again.
Day 5 (August 15, 2008) - Return trip
We were up at 6am on the last day. Since everything was all ready to go, we just took it all out to the car, and then we went for the hotel breakfast. We were the first of our trip in there followed by Bill. He gave us the list of people who were on the tour, and he corrected Jada's name (Juda, even though it was correct on her name tag) and Phoebe's age (listed at 4 which she was when we registered). We thanked Bill for a great trip, and the girls told him how much fun they had. He thanked us for bringing them too. I think he liked seeing the kids out for the trip. All the kids were very nice and polite when we saw them. They weren't out of control and running around all the time. We didn't see any electronic gadgets at breakfasts or along the route to keep them occupied. We talked to a couple at one point during the week, and they had said that they were worried when it was advertised as a family friendly ride. They thought there would be too many kids, but they ended up having a great time. The kids were all well behaved and fun to talk to. The majority of the folks on the ride were grandparents, I think. One set actually brought their tween aged granddaughter with them on a triple. They were very engaging with Ellen and Phoebe, and in return, they enjoyed themselves also. One couple, in particular, made friends with Phoebe. They were riding a pink and white fade tandem, so the captain was always teasing Phoebe when he'd see her that he was going to get her pink helmet. On the last day, he saw her head to the bathroom, so he came to find us to get her helmet so she'd see him when she came out. She gave him the grumpy look, but she knew it was all in good fun too. She didn't yell or cry or anything. It was just good people and a good time. Most of the participants seemed to be from California, but there were others from all over including a nice couple from the UK. I would have liked earlier starts, but we were at the mercy of the ferry schedules most of the time, and lots of people don't want to get up as early as we do, so I can see why they start late. I would have liked to spend more time at Lime Kiln State Park on San Juan Island and around Roche Harbor. Maybe done more hiking and climbed Mt. Constitution on Orcas, but all in all, I still enjoyed myself. We proved to ourselves that we can climb some pretty steep hills with the weight on back. We could even feel Ellen helping a bit when she wanted to catch up with her friends on the yellow quad. I'd love to do it again some time. Next year, they have a family friendly one in Door County, WI, but it's at the same time Jada has a conference for NEA in San Diego, so we may go down there instead.
Anyway, we caught the 8:15am ferry with a stop at Lopez before heading to Anacortes. We queued up at the dock at 7:15am, and we were near the last ones there. We hit traffic on WA-20 just before the I-5 on ramp due to construction where it looks like they are working on widening it to 4 lanes, and there was a stop light at the ramp. Getting through Seattle wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It was slow, but moving. We stopped in Tacoma for lunch at a Subway. Around Olympia traffic was heavy again and eased afterward. We were moving pretty good past Longview before we came to a complete stop near the exit to Kalama Port. I-5 south bound quickly became a parking lot. It was 100 degrees outside, and we were sitting with our windows open and the engine off in the shade of tractor trailers. When we did turn on the radio for a little bit to see what was going on, we heard that there had been a brush fire blocking traffic in both directions at La Center, WA. We were there for 2 hours stopped with small movements every 30 minutes or so before we started crawling at last. We were about 12 miles from there. I'm sure that the traffic must have been backed up on I-5 south for 30 miles. It was my first experience with the parking lot on a freeway. People were getting out of their cars and stretching. I fetched some things out of the back of the van. I had a notion to hook up the bike since we were only 28 miles from Portland and ride home, but we were stuck in the center lane. After another 50 minute crawl, we got through the burn area. By this time it was almost 6pm. Portland rush hour traffic was pretty light both into and out of the city. We stopped by New Seasons for dinner and to pick up a few groceries. We showered the kids, and put them to bed. The house was hot and stuffy due to the last couple days of 100 degree heat. None of us slept well that night.
Journal entry: August 17, 2008