Tour de Lopez – Day 1

For the weekend a group of us headed up to Lopez Island for the Annual Tour de Lopez bike ride, which you can choose to do in 10, 17 or 31 mile increments.  We of course, planned on the 31 given our recent athletic endeavors and were excited for the ride as Lopez is supposed to be a great place for biking (i.e., not a lot of cars and fairly flat).

Originally there was a group of ten going but by departure time on Friday afternoon, we were down to six:  me, Mar, Kelli, Kevin, Andrea & Ian.  We all headed out in three pairs from different destinations around 3:00pm, in hopes of making the 6:40pm ferry out of Anacortes.  As we crawled through the Everett traffic, our hopes were slowly diminishing but you never know right?  Mar and I were the first car to arrive and told we were car #11 on stand-by for the ferry, with less than a 50% chance of making it.  Kelli and Kevin arrived a little later and were told they would definitely be on the 8:25pm.  Andrea & Ian were still driving, so there was no way they would make this one.  As the ferry unloaded and began to fill back up, we inched forward towards the dock worker, we thought we might have a chance – but no.  Guess who would be first in line for the 8:25?  That’s right, we missed it by one car.  Math lesson for the day:  less than 50% = 0.

Not having eaten, we found Kelli & Kevin a few cars behind us and walked up the street to a nearby bar called Charlie’s – it didn’t smell good (Marlene C guest writing here: it smelled like sewer!!) and the hostess was not friendly.  Add to that the fact that we would only be able to order soup and/or salad, we exited and made our way down to the dock, to the Cheesecake Café in the waiting room at the terminal.  While none of us had cheesecake, the cookies that came with our sandwiches were quite yummy, as were the additional chocolate chip cookies we bought.  It was a beautiful night, so we sat near the waters edge awaiting our boat.  (MC-everyone ordered the same sandwich, the Southwest Chicken on Ciabatta rolls and don’t ever buy coffee out of a vending machine, especially an amaretto “latte”) Once it arrived, Mar and I were indeed the first car on, front and center. 

Landing in Lopez it was now dark, so we had a little trouble finding the house Mar had rented for us, but we eventually did, along with Kelli & Kevin.  It was perfect for the weekend, lots of bedrooms, right by the beach and close to town.  Nice work Mar!  Mar immediately dove into the bookshelves, grabbing every cookbook she could find, including first edition Julia Child: Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Andrea & Ian sadly were left behind in Anacortes waiting for the 9:30pm ferry.  We started to worry though as 11:00pm came and passed and there was no sign of them.  And unfortunately (or fortunately) Lopez Island is one of the last few corners of the globe with limited cell phone coverage, so we couldn’t call and see where they were at.  In one spot by the kitchen window I could get a couple bars, so I managed to send a text.  What came back was “Help!  We R lost.”  As reception allowed they slowly navigated towards us, arriving around 11:45pm.  It turned out Andrea had only printed directions for the rental office, not the rental house.  Oops!  Andrea & Ian took the downstairs, and we all settled into bed.