Epic day on San Juan Island

What a great day we had.

Our visit to the island started Saturday night when we arrived by ferry. We rode 5 miles to our campground Lakedale Resort. It's private and the biker sites are far from everything, especially water. We protested a little and got moved to a great site. We had our now normal meal of bagged salad and pasta purchased in Friday Harbor.

After breakfast on Sunday we headed out to ride around the island. First stop was English Camp where we learned about the Pig War. It was actually quite interesting. We walked around, reading the guide.

Next we rode to Lime Kiln Lighthouse. We had perfect timing for a pod of Orcas rounded the point and slowly swam toward us. What a sight! About 20 in all. They breached, they dove and showed their tails and the last ones came out of the water and splashed as if they were the finale to the show. Kids were cheering as well as many adults.

We continued riding around the island. We decided not to go to American Camp because we had a sunset kayak tour reserved. We arrived back at our camp and changed for kayaking. We had to ride 5 miles to get to Roche Harbor. It's a pretty ritzy place with lots yatchs and nice houses. We had bowls of chowder before going to the dock. Our guild ("Biscuit") was a college senior from Michigan studying biology. He was a lot of fun taking the 8 of us around the islands. We saw two nesting pairs of Bald Eagles. Held two kinds of jelly fish (they feel like silacone) and used seaweed as a lotion. The sunset was spectacular but it got cold and windy at the end of the trip. We had ordered pizza before we left and Ev went to pick it up while I got the bike. We were cold and the thought of riding 5 miles in the dark seemed daunting. We gave the pizza to Bisciut. He said he would drop it off at our camp. We headed out and a taxi van passed us. Ev waved and it stopped. The bike fit on the back and it was the best 16.00 we have spent this trip. Our pizza arrived shorty after we did, and we ate in our tent. We did not get to bed until 11pm. Considering the late night and long day we decided to stay another day here instead of going to Orcas Island. We'll take the ferry directly to Anacortes tomorrow morning.

Today we slept in and left the campground around 11:30. We rode to American Camp. It was windy and cold there but still a good time. We just had lunch (oysters again) and blogging from the deck of a coffee house overlooking the bay. We'll mail some stuff back and head back to camp. We met some others on the rode who are on their first self supported tour. We plan to meet up with them later over wine and discuss bike touring. They want to know how we do it carrying only 50 lbs.of gear.

Ev just talked to another tandem couple who left Wisconsin on their recumbent tandem on May 17 and have been riding Adventure Cycling's northern tier since then.