Chuckanut to Anacortes

Casa Valentina was our Bed and Breakfast in Fairhaven. The owner was a little scattered but the place was fine. No wireless, a little warm being upstairs, but she offered us tea on arrival and made a delicious omelette filled with olives, cheese, bacon, spinach and peppers. Unfortunately she started the breakfast with sliced strawberries -- and bananas! Norm was polite and ate some, not me!
We started out on our bike ride to Anacortes with a few misses. We had trouble finding the real interurban trail leading out of Fairhaven, along the 1920s route of electric streetcars, received incorrect directions from at least four people and got on the wrong road. Never to give up, we finally found the Chuckanut Drive and then the trail! Beautiful pathway through the woods, like the Galloping Goose. Eventually it ends and we have to do the road. Fortunately the road was not very busy, probably only a dozen cars passed us. It is a narrow and steep road but felt more comfortable than last time we biked it.






Here we are at a lookout on the Chuckanut. You can almost see Victoria from here, at least the snow-covered Olympics across the strait. Now down the hill to Edison. A really small town but we managed to hit three stores! First a delicious lunch at Slough Foods of fresh salad, grilled ham and cheese baguette, a Bellingham Bay IPA for Norm and orangeade for Mary. Next to the Edison bakery, Bread Farm, for a carrot cake muffin with grand masala spice and a rhubarb lemon bundt cake. We finished off with tea and coffee and a pear almond tart at another bakery cafe. Now it seems like with all this biking I should be losing weight. But you may notice that food is one of the highlights everyday (beside the actual biking) and weight loss may be only in my dreams!



A little art work from Edison. Edward R. Murrow was born nearby in Blanchard, where the Chuckanut Drive comes down to flat land. Who knew? (Norm did.) Did you know Ed had brothers named Dewey and Lacey? Now you know why he was the famous brother.
The rest of the bike ride was a little harder with my full tummy and the warm weather. We arrived in Anacortes by 2:30 feeling pretty good. We had biked about 37 miles today. Our total so far is over 200 miles, which had us feeling like pretty good touring cyclists -- until we rode into town with a young man on a bike pulling a single-wheeled BOB trailer. He had been riding for 57 days from NEW YORK! And he was planning to head south to LA and then ride back to New York, probably 7,000 miles in total. Our 200 didn't seem such a big deal. But we're having fun.
We walked about Anacortes, took 20 minutes and planned our next day. Tomorrow the local farm market and a little ferry ride to Guemes Island plus some local sites that you almost need to see to believe. Pictures tomorrow.


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Location:Anacortes