We woke up and headed to Safeway to get some cereal and milk for breakfast. From there, we hurried to the bike shop, which opened at 10, so that we could unload all of our bags and go figure out which bus we would that would bring us closer to the hot spring. There is a bus that would drop us of 10 miles from our destination, but we found out that the only busses are at 9:30 am (which wouldn't have worked because the bike shop would be still closed) and 1:30 (which, in combination with the bus ride and bike ride there, wouldn't give us too much time to get back before the bike shop closed). So, we were at a loss of what to do. Joey really wanted to go to the hot springs, but 80 miles in one day would give us almost no time to spend in the host springs, and riding there today and coming back tomorrow would put us a day behind schedule. In the end we decided to just ride around Port Angeles and see a little more of the town, including the hook, which was a lot like the spit in Homer, except without all the restaurants and buildings. It was really foggy on the way out to the hook, so much so that we couldn't even see the water on either side. We sat on the beach for a little while and watched the fog roll out; it was neat seeing everything come into view. Since we weren't going to go to the hot springs, our next destination was back to the bike shop to reload our bikes. On the way, we saw a touring bike outside a little cafe, but after further investigation realized that it was Mac's bike. So, we went in to say hello and chatted for a little while; it was nice that we got to see him again. After reloading the bikes, we went to Safeway to check our email in case Greg and Lea emailed us. Turns out we had gotten an email from Greg and Lea, one saying that they had left Vancouver earlier than planned and would be to Burlington (our planned meeting location) 2 days early! So, I guess it worked out that we didn't go to the hot spring so we could start heading back to meet them. Soon after, we followed the same trail we took in yesterday all the way back to Sequim. Since it was already close to 6, we decided to spend some time in the library uploading some photos and planned on camping behind the church next door. It was already pretty dark by the time that we set up camp and made some mac and cheese for dinner. We only rode 32.51 miles today.
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It was nice to sleep indoors last night! After we got all packed up, Sara made us a super yummy breakfast of eggs with carrots, squash and cherry tomatoes that we picked from her garden, and warm biscuits. She also had a nice plum tree in her back yard that is just loaded with plums, so we picked a few for the road! It was nice to get to spend a little time with her this morning and hear some of her stories from her tours. We bid farewell, with the possibility of maybe seeing her again if we ended up riding back to Bellingham to meet up with Greg and Lea. Before leaving town, we had a few errands to run. Our first objective was to find the Post Office. About 3 minutes after we left the house, we got a call from Justin, who was checking to see how everything worked out. Although he was out of town last night, he was on his way back and since we would be running around town for a while, there was a chance that we might get to meet him after all! When we found the post office, we decided we would wait for a little bit to see if we could find a box before we mailed the rest of our clothes from the cruise home (luckily we were able to send a bunch with Grammy when she was here!). Next we found the library, so we made a quick stop there too. We were lucky enough to find a box that was just the right size at the grocery store. As we were riding back to the post office, we realized we would still have to buy tape, but then would be stuck carrying that, or have to pay for it to be mailed priority if they taped it at the post office. As we were going by the fire hall, one of the firemen were outside, so Joey decided to ask if they had any tape that we could borrow. Sure enough, they had exactly what we needed, which was such a big help! We got everything we were mailing home all packed and the box all taped and ready to go. Luckily the post office was just down the hill, so Joey didn't have to carry the full box for too long. At one point, we decided to ride down and see what the waterfront/harbor was like. We called Justin back to see if he was back in town yet and found out it would only be about an hour before he was. So, since we had a nice spot to relax in the beautiful warm sunshine, we decided to wait. To kill some time, I reorganized my bags since they had gotten a little messy the last few weeks. Eventually, Justin met us right in the park where we waited and he led the way to one of his favorite coffee shops. It was the weirdest thing- when we pulled up to the coffee shop, Sara pulled up on her bike too, at the same exact time- it was totally crazy that we got to see her again. She came to use the internet, as did we in order to help figure out what we were going to do with our extra time while we waited for Greg and Lea. Over a fantastic cup of hot cocoa (compliments of Justin) we had a chance to share our thoughts and see what he thought as well as hear some neat places he likes to go. It was so neat that we got to meet him, and see Sara again. From there, he rode with us and showed us where the REI store was (we had to return the extra h2o proof bag we got to carry our cruise clothes). From there he gave us directions for the way out of town so we wouldn't get lost trying to find rt. 11. Once we started down rt. 11, I was excited because it was a pretty neat ride right from the start. It was very windy and totally surrounded by huge trees. When we got to the top of the first hill, we could see the water and islands off in the distance! It was stunning. The further we went down the road, the more fun it got. The curves continued and the road turned into being right up against a wall of rock on one side and a barrier before a cliff on the other. This goes on the list as another favorite road to ride. The traffic wasn't too bad even though a few sections of the road were pretty narrow-everyone seemed to go slower and give us plenty of room. It was very enjoyable! We came across Larrabee state park where we decided to stop for lunch. We found a little pavilion and even ruining water, which is always super helpful. As we were sitting there making our rice, a huge group of people on bikes came in. They all had hand-made panniers made of plastic buckets and were all about the same age. One of the leaders of the group came over to talk to us and we learned it was a group of incoming freshmen from the university doing some kind of outdoors program for a few days- sounds like it would be a lot of fun! After lunch (more like dinner since we had such a late start to our riding day), we continued on down our fun road. Eventually we made it to a long descent that took us from the wooded area in the hills to flat lush farm land. What a change in scenery! It was beautiful none the less. We followed the directions that Justin had given us and made it to the town of Edison. We though about staying in that town, but didn't see anywhere too good to camp, so we continued on. The next town was Bay View. There, we were able to find a good spot- right behind the Bayview Civic Hall. Before we even got our tent set up, we found a whole patch of wild blackberries. There were so many of them and they were so ripe, they were falling right off. We got the tent set up and then Joey went on a run. While I was inside getting our sleeping bags laid out, I heard a "Knock, Knock, is anyone home?" One of the neighbors had seen our tent and came over with a bag of homemade cookies and some plums from their tree! It was such a wonderful treat to "welcome us to the neighborhood!" Little things like this are what make bicycle touring so special. What a great way to end the evening! Tomorrow we will head down Whidby Island and take the ferry over to Port Townsend, where we will stay with Lys- one of the Warm Shower's hosts that we stayed with in FL a couple years ago while we were on our second tour. She has since moved to Washington, so we get to see her again! Our miles totaled 34.73 today, which was ok since we spent most of the morning and early afternoon in Bellingham.
Grammy woke up nice and early so she could catch the shuttle to the airport. I was pretty sad to see her go, but happy at the same time because I got to see her for a week! I went back to bed for a few more hours since it was only 4am. We were up around 7:30 to go to the continental breakfast downstairs. It was great- fruit, eggs, sausage, home fries, big waffles, toast, etc. Too bad Grammy didn't get to enjoy it, too. We e-mailed Greg (one of the cyclists we met in Smithers, BC who we plan to meet up and ride with) to let him know we had gotten to Vancouver. The plan was for them to meet us in Port Angeles, WA when Lea gets back from Germany. So we headed out so we would be able to get to Port Angeles on time to meet them. It was a little tricky getting across the South arm of the Fraser River, but eventually we found our way. The main road that crossed the bridge was not open for pedestrian/cyclist use, but after a little searching, we were able to find the bike path across the bridge. It was a little scary riding across the bridge because it was pretty tall and I'm not a huge fan of heights. Right after the bridge, we found a nice bike path through the woods that we rode on for a few miles. Eventually we found ourselves on a nice paved road again, that had a good amount of traffic. We stopped at a grocery store to get a couple things that we could only get in Canada: Fudgie-O cookies, and our favorite seasoning to put on our rice. I was so excited to have a Fudgie-O cookies- it's been so long since we had them and just like before, once this package is gone, I am going to miss them terribly. Shortly after, we found a MacDonalds, so we stopped to fill up on water and check the internet. We found out that Greg had e-mailed us back and said that we should come visit him in Vancouver to hang out on the beach. The only problem was that we were already over 30 miles away from where he was and it was tricky riding with all of the traffic. So, disappointed that we weren't there enjoying the beach with him, we continued on. At one point we stopped at a Safeway and decided to get a sub for lunch. Since we had burned the rest of our fuel before getting on the ship and we were trying to hold out to buy some in the states since it would be cheaper, the sub was our best plan (and plus it was much better than rice or mac and cheese would have been!). While there, we got another email from Greg that said he and Lea had changed their plans and that they would now be riding a similar route to us-meaning they wouldn't be going to Port Angeles. At that point we were very frustrated because had we have known that we would have taken our time in Vancouver in order to wait for them. But, since we were at a point of no return, we decided to keep riding and figured that we would figure something out so that we could still meet up with them. Shortly after getting off of the bike path, the terrain became very hilly; hills that were long enough to feel "long," and some that were really steep. The traffic was so bad in the one area that we rode through that we were forced to take the sidewalk for a while. Luckily, the closer we got to the US border, the less traffic there was. Compared to some of the other border crossings that we could have gone through, the one we chose would probably have the least amount of traffic because there was no interstate involved. We continued riding, starting at 64th ave when we first got off of the bike path, all the way to 0 ave, which ran right along the border. When we got closer to where the crossing would be, we found signs that said there was no access to the US border from 0 ave and that we had to detour back and catch highway 13. There was a pretty steep hill involved with this detour. When we got to the border crossing, we found that if we stayed on 0 ave, we would have been able to get to the same place after all-without having to climb the steep hill. The border crossing went very smoothly. We were standing in line with all of the cars, but at one point a guy popped his head outside of the Canadian customs side and told us to take the sidewalk down to the the main office. So we did and it worked out great-first of all we no longer had to wait with all of the cars, and second of all it ended up being very quick. The border crossing guy didn't ask us a huge amount of questions like they normally do, so that was nice. Once through, I was happy to see a "Welcome to Washington sign! We took our usual state picture, making this our 31st state total (plus D.C). The terrain went from being pretty hilly to being almost completely flat, at least for about 10 mile or so. We were in such a beautiful farm area, it definitely felt like a different world from where we just were across the border. Originally we didn't expect to stay in Bellingham, so we hadn't contacted any Warm Shower's hosts. Although it was last minute, we tried calling a couple of hosts to see if they were available. At first we didn't have any luck, so we got back on our bikes and continued riding the last 10 miles or so there. We were happy to see a Wal-Mart since we needed to get some more fuel for the stove. Since we were super hungry, we decided to get some ice cream for dinner--and it was probably the cheapest ice cream we've seen in so long! While we were enjoying our ice cream, Joey got a call back from one of the Warm Shower's hosts we had called. He wasn't home, but said his roommate was and that we were welcome to go there for the night! So, we put away the rest of our ice cream and headed down the road, which ended up being perfect timing since it was already getting dark. We are definitely missing it being light until 10 or 11! When we got to Justin's house, Sara was there to greet us. We had a nice spot in the garage to stash our bikes and enjoyed the rest of our ice cream. Unfortunately Sara had to leave for previously established plans, so we didn't get a lot of time to chat with her, but there is always tomorrow morning! We each took a nice hot shower and went to bed pretty early. Sara let us sleep in Justin's room, so we got to sleep in a bed (but we rolled out our sleeping bags), which is always awesome. Another great day on the road; still a little weird after being on the cruise, though! We rode 62.27 miles today (definitely some sore legs after not riding for a week!)
We woke up around 7:00 so that we would have time to enjoy our last meal on the ship before disembarkment. We were both pretty sad that the cruise was already over, but like all fun things- the more fun it is, the faster it's over. This week was just a blast. There were a ton of activities on board from shows to ping pong tournaments, to dance classes (yes, Joey even went with me to them-we learned a little bit of Ballroom (Marenga and Cha-Cha!)- and I got to enjoy a Hula class too!). And the food, it was just incredible! We could eat whatever we wanted, as often as we wanted, enjoy the buffets and the separate food stations and could order as many appetizers, entrees, or desserts as we wanted at the sit down restaurants! The staff on board was so great too- everyone was just so nice (funny too!) and really went out of their way to make the cruise as awesome as it could be. We really enjoyed the glaciers and just being on the ship. Although we didn't do any of the "excursions" while in port, we had just as much fun walking around and exploring (even though it poured rain most of the time while in port- so we didn't end up riding our bikes around at all like planned). Every day we spent some time with Grammy and some time doing activities we wanted to do. I really enjoyed getting to wear "normal" clothes and especially getting to dress up for the formal nights! This morning, when we came out into the main area on our floor we got our first glimpse of downtown Vancouver. It was like we went into a time warp! The little town of Whittier that we started in was the complete opposite of where we were now. Here, the ship kind of blends in- but in Whittier, the ship overwhelmed the tiny little town. The ship traveled 1,652 nautical miles (1901 statute miles) since Whittier and we couldn't believe that we were already way back down in Vancouver- it is hard to explain, but it is definitely a weird feeling to have gone so far in such a short time. We met Grammy for breakfast and even got to see some of the people we talked to most while on board, one last time. Joey had a hard time sleeping last night for some reason, so he was pretty tired this morning (me too since he woke me up a few times). After finishing packing and getting the bags back on the bikes, we waited with our bikes out by the pool on our deck for our disembarkment time (which wasn't until 10:25- the last group to get off the ship!). We just lounged, took a few more walks around the ship (that is going to be something I'm going to miss a lot- just walking around the ship since there was so much of it to explore!). Eventually the time came to go to our meeting spot. It was so bitter sweet getting off the boat. We are ready to begin the second half of the trip, but we had so much fun on the cruise that we are going to miss that a lot too! Disembarkment ended up being a breeze, just like when we first got on board. We didn't have any trouble going through customs at all and since we didn't check any bags, all we had to do was walk out of the cruise terminal. When we came out into the streets, we were definitely in a completely different world than Alaska. There was so much hustle and bustle (probably because there are more people in the Vancouver area than in all of Alaska) and SO many cars! There was beautiful sunshine and it was nice and warm again- a welcome change from the cold rainy weather we've experienced in Alaska for the past few weeks. Since we had all day to explore the city, we took the long way to get to Grammy's hotel. Before we knew that Grammy was here, we had a place lined up to stay (a friend of Elise's- our host in Ninilchik, AK), but since she is here- we wanted to get to spend an extra day with her- and enjoy a hotel room too, since it will probably be the last one until December. Right near downtown was a huge park (Stanley Park) that had a bike path running along the entire perimeter, right next to the water! It was perfect. The view of the city across the water was stunning and not to mention it was great to not have to deal with traffic (even though there were a bunch of casual cyclists out for a leisurely afternoon ride). After going around the whole perimeter of the park, we crossed the first of a lot of bridges we would have to cross as we headed south. After the bridge, we found another great bike path that again followed the water. We stopped for a little snack in one of the parks and enjoyed the little package of yogurt and an orange we had left over from this morning's breakfast. At one point today we rode through the UBC (University of British Columbia) campus while we were in route to our next bridge crossing. That bridge ended up being really busy with traffic, but there was a pretty good shoulder and an entrance to a bike path as soon as we got across! This area is just so bicycle friendly, which makes me excited for Seattle and Portland. The bike path took us to yet another bridge and soon enough we were in the area of Vancouver known as Richmond. Grammy's hotel wasn't too far from the bridge and ended up being really easy to find. Our life of luxury gets to be extended for one more day! I relaxed for a little bit and enjoyed a nice hot shower while Joey went on a run for an hour. He plans to run a half marathon in San Diego and hopes to continue training and possibly up it to a full marathon when we get to Florida. For dinner,the three of us went on a little walk and Grammy treated us to Subway! Joey and I were pretty tired and Grammy had to get up to be on the shuttle bus to the airport by 4am, so we all went to bed pretty early. By the time Joey and I rode around Vancouver, we had 26.30 miles by the time we got to the hotel. It was so great to enjoy another evening with Grammy. The transition from being on the cruise ship to going back into touring mode is going to be a challenge, probably the most drastic change over on the trip. Partly because of going from relaxing to riding, but more importantly because of going from ring in AK where there is pretty much just one road, to riding through Vancouver where we could easily get lost if we weren't paying attention. The next few days will be interesting I'm sure, but eventually we will be used to riding in these populated areas as that is how it will be for the majority of the west coast.
Cruise: Day 4- Skagway 6 month mark of trip!
Cruise: Day 3-Glacier Bay National Park
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