Sunday, October 18, 2015

Day 4 - Lopez Island, San Juan WA

Woke up ready for another day biking this time on Lopaz Island. Larry and I are hobby/enjoyment riders. We are getting more experience as we take these rides in our life but we enjoy the ride as we take them. As we do we learn from our previous experiences and take them on the next ride. Kind of like life wouldn’t you say?


It was another nice day. Not too hot, not too cold with a bit of cloud cover. The rain forecasted did not come. Arriving on Lopez you arrive into the port but there is no city close by. So you need transportation. We got off and saw a bike staging area so we rode up there and looked at the map and planned our route. Some people who know me know I am very organized but I decided with this vacation I wanted to just go as we go. I didn’t want the vacation to be too structured. We knew what we wanted to do this week and we’ve been figuring it out as we go along. Lately at home things have been so busy I didn’t want to much structure on vacation.

First we rode to Lopez village. It’s a quaint little village with cute shops. We have found on these islands the cutest book shops. We found another one today. 


We rode down to the water and watched sailboats and birds. We were treated to a couple of cute crows. I had never thought crows as cute. We got a cute picture as they snuggled each other on the railing.


We looked at the map again to see where we could bike to before we had to catch the ferry back to Orcas Island at 3:45. We decided to bike to Shark Reef and see what was there. It was about another 4 miles down the road we thought. We rode along looking at Lopez Island. It seemed to have more open areas than Orcas Island and the roads were wider. Bikers are cautioned to stay off Center street and so we did. Beautiful green was all around. We still biked up and down quite a few hills but they were manageable. As we got closer to Shark Reef it felt more and more serene. Not a lot of traffic, less houses that we could see. I liked that. We got to the end of the road which is like saying the same thing as the end of the land and the entrance to Shark Reef right before it. We parked our bikes and walked the ½ mile or so to the water. It was beautiful. 




As we got there a couple of guys were there saying they saw Orcas in the water. We didn’t see any Orcas but we walked further down the trail and saw seals! They were so cute. It was funny to see how some of them were laying on the single rocks that stuck up out of the water. Strong abs for sure. That for me made the biking trip worth it. 


The treasure we found was worth it to me. As I was watching the treasure we found I was thinking how much my grandchildren would love this and so I took many pictures to be able to share. We weren’t in a hurry anymore to make it to the Ferry so we got to enjoy the view for a while.





We had come 11 miles and now we had to ride the 11 miles back to the Ferry. I forgot to mention that when we got to the Reef we had to make the choice of not walking out to the Reef and ride straight back to the Ferry to catch the 3:45 or walk to the Reef and see what was there and wait for the 7:30 pm Ferry. I voted and Larry kindly agreed to walk out to the Reef. I mean that’s what we rode out there for! 


Found another road sign that reminded me of family. My daughters are into yoga and I have heard them say this word. I'm not sure what it means but I can guess peace and tranquility like this area we were biking in. Yes, that is Larry waaaayyyy up there. 


Heading back we stopped at The Galley Restaurant that we had seen lots of cars in front of on our way past earlier so we figured it was good. We ordered a French Dip sandwich to share which was yummy and it came with really good sweet potato fries. So far the food on our trip has been an A. 
We rode back to Lopez village so we could get batteries for our bike flashlights in case we had to ride in the dark. We actually made good time back to the Ferry and it wasn’t dark. We had to wait 1 ½ hours for the Ferry though and it would be dark on the other side when we rode our bikes to the car. 
Another 22 mile ride today.



We were the only two people getting off the Ferry at that time. Later night rides between islands does not get much traffic we were told.
The hot tub felt really good for all our tired biking muscles. I told you we would get good use out of that hot tub.

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