Today we took the ferry to Lopez Island! It was magical to be out on the water, and we are always impressed that these ferries are considered part of the WA state highway system.

But, before we got on our way we had a fun-filled morning. All of the animals needed visiting before we left! We also had a great time chatting over breakfast, and then we learned how to play Spoons. In this game you pass cards around the table in a circle and try to get four of a kind. After that, you grab a spoon! There is one less spoon than the number of people, so the spoon-less one was sent to pack up the tent (do the chores) until the next round was complete. This was a fun way to pass the time during clean up! Jude’s family would play this game during Thanksgiving to choose who would do the dishes. Excellent!

On the way to the ferry we bought lunch supplies from a grocery store and made good time. We were all in excellent spirits after an extra fun morning. While waiting for the ferry we ate lunch in the shade — it was hot and sunny! (Although not nearly so hot as at our home in Golden, with a high around 100°!) We rolled our bikes onto the ferry with a few other cyclists and enjoyed the boat ride. We were greeted on Lopez Island by Daisy’s parents – Sparkle and Grandude! (Those are their grandparent names.) A and H were very excited to see familiar faces, and H informed Grandude that the ferry was a type of boat. (One of many facts Grandude was sure to learn!) We put our heaviest items (excepting the children!) into their car and made plans to meet them at the cabin. This was key to being able to make it up the long, steep hill from the ferry dock without needing to push and walk the bikes up! Daisy must have previously been carrying a very heavy load, or was very excited to be on Lopez, because she zipped right up the hill!

After getting settled, Daisy and the kids met Lena and her family for some fun time at the beach while I went over to use the library wifi for my class. Grandude and Sparkle cooked us dinner and we slept inside (not a tent)!

Everyone got a good night’s sleep and we were ready for another day of cycling. We were particularly excited for today’s ride because there would be a bike path across Fidalgo Bay and then we would be meeting a family on Warmshowers and camping in their back yard!

When we got on the bikes (by around 11 again…) There was a very light, persistent rain. The bay was covered in low clouds, and we were glad to have the rain covers for the kids! Just as we were pulling out of the hiker/bicycle campsite a car pulled up and a man said “Hello Daisy Philtron!” It was Jude, the father of our host family for the night. He works right up the road and drove by to say hi since he knew from Daisy’s text we were there. With a warm welcome like that we knew we would have a great time in Anacortes!

The road was pretty flat, and there wasn’t too much to see with all the rain/fog, until we came up to the twin bridges. We were happy to find the separated bike lane next to the highway! At the top we stopped to take in the view.

At the bottom of the bridge we stopped at a gift shop and got a few bags of chips. We had been telling H that we would stop at a coffee shop, but they kept being the PNW drive-thru ones with no inside section to get out of the rain. The rain stopped and we got back on the road with a new coffee shop in mind: Moka Joe. This one had plenty of seating, drinks, and food to make it lunch-worthy. I had to eat two sandwiches since the kids didn’t like one of theirs. Got to fuel the body when it’s pushing all that weight! ;)

The bike path across the bay was amazing! The kids got on their own bikes and rode this section – actually they rode all the way into town, which is a few miles. We viewed the local wildlife, including various birds and seals. This is the largest nesting ground for great blue herons in North America. We were warned that the path could have lots of shells on it, and could give flat tires, but someone must of recently come out to clean it because it was perfect.

In town we found a much-needed playground. A and H climbed and slid, and then decided they needed to get wet at the splash pad. 65°F and cloudy, but kids don’t care! They had a blast and then we got them dried off and warmed up. It wasn’t too far to our destination. We rolled into the Apple family’s yard and received a warm welcome from Carrie. Our kids got a guided tour from their kids of the garden and various animals: hens, bunnies, and a cat! They were delighted. We had a great dinner, conversation, oh and showers, too! Thank you Carrie and Jude and family!!

The kids went to sleep late, and luckily didn’t wake up early. The late sunset has pushed our schedule back! In the night Daisy felt a bit sick, but thankfully she was feeling better in the morning. Our welcome to Washington State a few weeks ago was getting COVID, and it hit her the hardest. Since then she has been noticeably more tired after exercise, so this effort to bike tour leaves her, well, ready to sleep at night for sure!

Daisy woke up feeling good and made us a chocolate chip pancake breakfast! This went over very well with A and H (and me). We packed up and headed back to the playground before leaving the park. Daisy sat down to pump up her back tire, and it was a challenge. The tire became totally flat before it was back up to pressure! We recommend taking off all of the weight prior to trying to pump up the rear wheel in this case. :). I should ask her if it took 100 or 200 (or more) pumps with the travel bike hand pump to get it back up to pressure. Or maybe I shouldn’t ask.

It felt good to get back on the road and start moving again. Somehow it had gotten to 11 AM already!! Luckily we weren’t in a rush because we were only heading 15 miles to the next park. The morning’s ride (what was left of the morning, haha) continued along the coast, with rolling hills in the cliff-forest. We stopped for views of the ocean and to read info signs. Daisy showed us where some fossils were in a rock cutout on the side of the road! She used to ride this road regularly when she lived in Bellingham. The kids got chilly, so in addition to sweatshirts we figured out how to put the clear plastic rain covers on the wee hoos. That kept them warmer!

We made it down to the flats and it got sunny (less cloudy) enough for me to put on my sunglasses! Pedaling on flat ground is a lot easier with these loads. The sea breeze felt good and we were happy. Our next stop was Edison, at the elementary school playground. Eventually we made it a couple blocks further into town proper and bought some cookies from the bakery and tacos from the taqueria (Jason’s lunch #2). While I filled up the water bottles, Daisy took the kids down the street to look for vegetables and eggs. They came back from the Lucky Dumpster with a couple decorative light switch covers for the kids’ rooms back home, local eggs, and fresh kale and sweet peas from the owner’s garden (thank you!). Yum! We were ready to finish our ride for the day. It was 7 more miles to the park campground, mostly flat, next to farms and along the bay.

We rolled into the campground and found our site. There are three designated hiker/biker sites here! The kids and I continued our new tradition for how to get our sleeping gear in the tent: we line up and throw each bag to each other in a row! There was much laughter.

After dinner we made our way down to the beach. It was rocky and the tide was in. There were many small snails in long pointy shells. A enjoyed trying to find a shell that didn’t have a snail in it. Daisy ran into the mom of an old Bellingham friend and we learned these snails are an invasive species introduced in the 1930s, Japanese mud snails, when they brought over Japanese oysters to repopulate the bay. There is an article in the local news about them. It is hard to fathom that there are billions of them in the bay! However, we did see them at every step.

We attempted to skip some rocks into the calm water (or in the case of A and H, simply throw in the stones) and enjoyed the ever-so-slowly setting sun over the water. Back at camp we had uncooked s’mores for dessert before getting ready for bed. It was an adventurous day with only a couple minutes spent inside!

Wow does it feel good to be back on the bikes!! This is our first trip more than an overnight for quite awhile. We left on the bikes at about noon, starting from the Alabama Hill neighborhood at our wonderful home exchange house. Daisy and I did all the cleaning and packing while the kids watched some t.v. when we were finally on the bikes, it was nice to start by going downhill! Let me let you in on a little (not) secret: our bikes are very heavily loaded. We have gear for camping, cooking, and general traveling, as well as two kid bikes so they can ride on their own sometimes. Two days worth of food (and a bit extra, which is too much!) and 6 stuffed animals (they couldn’t be left behind and be lonely, and they are pretty light). We knew right away that we wouldn’t be setting any speed records, to say the least. :)

We followed the bike path downtown to the farmer’s market. Bellingham has an absolutely amazing one, complete with all the goodies plus plenty of buskers to provide music. We stopped to eat our lunch. The kids, A (5.5) and H (3.5), played on a donkey statue and enjoyed climbing on the water fountain. Yes, it was clear from the start that we would be making plenty of stops for the purpose of kid entertainment. Although us parents are working hard pedaling, the kids are not working so hard on the trailer bikes. They need to get out and run.

We got on our way again and were treated to the section of boardwalk at Boulevard Park. The ocean views are beautiful, and it is amazing how calm the water is. We met a man fishing with two poles — one for fish and one for crabs — and H got a kick out of seeing him show off one of the crabs he caught. H decided to ride her bike for a few hundred yards, then got back on my trailer bike. (I guess that made it worth it that I was carrying the bike for the day!? Haha. Alice, on the other hand, declined to ride her own bike at all.) Our first steep uphill was coming off the boardwalk. We were treated to cheers from the pedestrians for our efforts!

It is amazing how long it can take to get out of Bellingham! It isn’t a small town anymore. We made our way to Fairhaven Park for a break. By this I mean that Daisy and I took a break, while the kids got out and ran and climbed! It was almost as if they didn’t help us pedal up those hills at all. ;). Right as we arrived, all of the kids in the park ran over towards us. But, they were just going to see the ice cream truck that pulled up right behind us. Yum.

After a snack and playtime we got back on the bikes. Chuckanut drive is beautiful, and hilly. We rode on the bike path for part of the way down the coast, which is an old railroad grade so it was nice and flat. However, it was quite steep where we chose to get up to it from the main road! The kids got off and walked for us.

This bike path led us through a beautiful forest along the edge of the hill (cliff) above the ocean. It was flat, until it wasn’t! Instead of going down the steep gravel incline, we got back on the road with only a couple more miles to go to the campground. We were all getting excited about that!

The campground was full! But Washington State has a policy to not turn away hiker/bikers from their State Park campgrounds. We made our way to walk-in site #1 to get set up. This involved pushing the bikes up a steep hiking trail of course! But it was worth it to have a site tucked into the forest and ferns. After dinner we found a fun playground, the outdoor stage, and walked down to the beach. 14 miles didn’t sound like a lot at the start, but it sure felt like it at the end.