Tour de Lopez - Day 3

I finally finished my book before going to sleep last night – The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Janet had given it to me awhile ago, so it was good to finally get through it.  It’s an interesting story, and apparently there is a movie coming out so I’m glad I finished it first.  Sunday morning woke up around 8:00am and made some tea.  Mar & I hung out on the couches until Kelli & Kevin woke up and we formulated our plan.  The problem with visiting islands is of course the ferry issue.  We knew there was a ferry at 11:00am with limited space and the next wasn’t until 1:40pm, but would have lots of space.  Adding to our dilemma was the fact that the Lions were hosting a pancake breakfast at the Lopez School at 9:00am.  We decided to forgo the pancake breakfast, stop by Holly Bs for treats, and try to make the 11:00am.  If we couldn’t make it, then we’d go wander around for a bit.

As we drove near the dock, our unfortunate fate became clear.  The line was already stretching back up the main road, so we pulled into line.  Mar hopped out to investigate the situation and didn’t return with good news:  we were currently car #60 and the 11:00am boat would be taking 25 cars.  The 1:40pm boat would take about 100 cars, but to ensure we got on we would need to stay put.  So there we sat for three hours, awaiting our turn to escape the island.  We walked down to the dock hoping there might be some beach access or a trail to hike, but there was not.  So we just sat for a bit, looking for Seahawks Draft info on our blackberries (as this was one of the few spots on the island with reception) and using the Wizards of Ooze porta-potties.  Back in the car, Mar continued to devour her “Gardening for Dummies” book and Holly B treats (here’s my quick review: Holly B’s bakery is high on charm and warmth and freshness.  Many of their pastries feature the same dough for example, they have quite a few savory croissants – ham and cheese, andouille sausage, gruyere, egg with pesto, green chili and gruyere obviously share the same dough as the chocolate, almond and plain croissants.  The Danish may have the same dough but brushed with sugar.  The filling for the Danish was similar to the filling for the marionberry crumble, the brioche dough seemed similar to the orange pinwheel.  The only one that seemed a bit different was the cinnamon roll dough was a whole wheat dough.  The fresh focaccia was delicious, sprinkled with parmesan and rosemary.  The Danish was tasty, a bit too gooey for me as it left the bottom a bit undercooked – like pie dough, then the cinnamon roll was nicely not overly messy and didn’t feature an icing which I appreciated, could have used more raisins, and the almonds were a nice touch….still have to try is the green chili croissiant and the pesto brioche, this may be a day when I in fact only eat pastries…that might be a first if you can believe it. –MC), as I also munched on my Ham & Cheddar biscuit then caught a quick nap.  Raindrops started to pelt the car as the minutes ticked slowly towards 1:40pm.

Eventually we were able to board and nabbed ourselves a window booth, while Kelli & Kevin played Speed at a neighboring table. (OK, before I was going to make a snarky comment, but couldn’t until I actually played one of them, but Kendra and I commented that our very cute couple were so mellow and well, slow when playing SPEED, so before I trash talked them on the blog, I had to back it up.  I played Kel and near the beginning she commented that I was aggressive and then near the end she commented she didn’t want to play me anymore….I realized my many years of ferry boat riding with my brother, my friends’ brothers made me into savvy, opporutnistic Speed player. Kevin and Kelli have similar playing styles, mellow and non-urgent, but will get crushed by players like Kendra and me….—MC)

Landing back in Anacortes, we made a beeline for the outlets where I bought a couple dresses and shoes.  That place is just mayhem though - wow! Where do all those people come from?  And so many kids!  That must be a boring day for them except when they get to ride around in the strollers shaped like fire trucks.  The final stretch home was pretty rainy which meant Mar couldn’t mow her lawn tonight. 

Tour de Lopez - Day 2

The ride was on Saturday and we awoke to a glorious day:  Clear and sunny, still a bit chilly but overall a pretty great day for a bike ride.  We zoomed into town to get treats at Holly B’s bakery (a variety of croissants for me and Andrea & Ian), then drove into Odlin State Park to park & register before all of the ferry folks arrived.  While driving I tried to flash the two-finger “Island Wave” to other drivers I had learned form my buddy Chip long ago, but it was met with mixed results:  some drivers didn’t do anything (clearly not local), and then I got several full finger  or one finger acknowledgments (not that finger!).  I’ll have to confer with Chip when I get back if I was doing it right.  Anyway, while waiting to register, I bit into my Egg, Parmesan and pesto croissant – to my surprise the egg portion was not scrambled, but a giant hard boiled egg.  Eww!  I squeezed the egg out into the garbage, and then enjoyed a Parmesan Pesto croissant, followed by a gooey chocolate one.  Mmmm.  (I had a delicious, albeit extremely buttery ham and gruyere croissant which Holly herself gave me the slightly crusty cheese that had oozed out…..it seems weird that I’m commenting on the amount of butter, but really, it seemed a bit like too much.–MC)  Once registered, Kelli & I had to put our pedals back on our bikes, and Mar meanwhile looked for her gym buddies who were arriving from the ferry.   Once parts and groups were all assembled, we headed off onto the Tour de Lopez. 

Mar dumped us to ride with the speedy bikers from her gym, so the rest of us enjoyed the leisurely ride around the island, past farms, cows, sheep, barns, schools and churches.  The first rest stop featured more treats from Holly B’s:  raspberry almond shortbread and cappuccino bars.  We would later figure out that all rest stop had these treats – bonus!  Farther south we biked along the coast and water, beaches and bays.  It was really beautiful out.  At the second rest stop, Andrea & Ian decided to do the 17-mile instead, so we separated and continued on our 31-mile trek.  The ride had been pretty easy to this point, with only one evil hill.  The extended version featured many more hills – in the end they weren’t that bad, fairly short and some gradual, but man did my gears get a work-out.  Back & forth as I slowly cranked my way up an incline, barely moving as I inched up a hill, to then crest and fly down the backside.  As each new hill materialized in front of me, I just kept thinking about Machu Piccu – this is good training for the Inca Trail, this is good training for the Inca Trail….  As we neared the finish line, Andrea & Ian drove past on their way to the house, honking at us as we made our way to the village.

Around 1:30pm we “crossed” the finish line in Lopez Village, parked our bikes and grabbed our plates for lunch provided by the race organizers. It was actually quite good:  grilled chicken, corn salad, pasta & spinach salad, lots of cookies (to be specific: oatmeal raisin cranberry, ginger molasses – excellent flavor!, chocolate chocolate chip, and for those who finished earlier, pecan bars –MC).  We sat on the grass soaking up more sun and comparing ride notes with Mar, who we had only seen briefly along the route. Once fed and refreshed we then had to get back on our bikes and ride another 4 miles back to the state park where we had begun – that was a tough four miles, especially a small hill in the middle.  Whew! 

Back at the park we loaded our bikes onto the cars to drive home, but first we stopped at the Lopez Island Winery, recommended by my friend Zoey who had been camping on Lopez last weekend.  There were lots of wines to try and I was surprised to see they had a Malbec, my current favorite red.  Zoey had recommended the Raspberry Dessert wine which was in fact quite yummy.  After the tasting we sat outside near the vineyard for a bit, soaking up some more nice weather.

Back at the house Andrea & Ian’s car was gone and it turned out they headed home early, so it was sad not to see them post race.  Our group of ten now down to the final four.   Mar & I sat outside on the deck for a bit, while Kelli napped on a couch and Kevin grabbed the other couch.  One by one, we showered and changed, then drove into town for dinner at Bucky’s Island Grill.  Mar & I each got fish & chips (touted on the menu as the San Juan’s best) (nicely breaded with panko crumbs! –MC), while Kelli got a cheeseburger and Kevin the ribs.  Dinner was then polished off with ice creams of course, courtesy of the Lopez Island Creamery  - chocolate truffle and strawberry blast.  Mmmm…. (Dang, that was good ice cream, but maybe it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve had full fat ice cream…..nothing like fried food followed by artery clogging ice cream…I can feel my arteries solidifying right……now! –MC)

Back home we gathered around the coffee table for “The Game of Real Life” which we hadn’t played in a long time.  It was a rough start – Kelli & I were each aborted and had to start over, and Kelli, Mar & Kevin were all orphans.  I however met the grim reaper first, OD’ing on cocaine.  Kelli was next, hit by a landmine when Canada invaded the US.  Mar then took out both herself and Kevin (aka Burtha) in a nuclear war – game over.

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.