Chelsea Margaret

I’ve finally returned from my adventure!

I wish I could honestly say I was ready to come back to reality, but that’s just really not the case at all.

I’d really prefer to remain on Lopez Island, drinking the best espresso I’ve ever tasted, meeting eccentric new people, and riding my bike around in the woods. Maybe get a job at the local bakery and never leave. Sigh. School gets in the way of everything.

Returning to my apartment doesn’t really help. The floors are covered in fabric and paint, and I can’t seem to escape getting my ankles tangled in loose thread. I have three days until my sister ( and roommate) comes back, so it’s go time to get this place livable for two people again.

But oh, do I have stories!! I’m going to have to divide the days into different entries. All together, the whole trip would probably begin to sound fabricated.

And so it begins….

The original plan, was to do the RSVP ( a bike ride from Seattle to Vancouver B.C. ) on Friday and Saturday, drive back then do Seafair in a canoe on Sunday, then get up bright and early monday and drive to Anacortes and hop on a ferry to the islands. As fun as this all may have been, in retrospect, I am oh so thankful that things worked out as they did. If all had gone according to plan, I would have been either a) unable to walk by Tuesday and/ or b) been so tired, sore and wanting a shower that I would probably be left at a campground.

So.

With the RSVP and Seafair falling through to various circumstances, I had lots of time to hang with my family before the trip.

If any of you have met my youngest brother Blake, you would realize how insanely funny it is that he is now playing football. The kid is a three foot tall stick of dynamite, with no fear whatsoever, no front teeth, and a voice that sounds like he’s constantly sucking helium. Plus, he laughs a lot, and it’s the funniest thing ever. The kid took me out by running across the living room and hooking his arm behind my knees. Needlesss to say, didn’t see it coming, and the kid is smart.  My point of all this being that he’s actually too young to be playing, and too small, but the coach saw him obliterate a defense dummy, and suddenly the requirements didn’t matter. So, Blake, six years old, was running around the house in his new gear for the majority of the time I was at my Dad’s place. Hilarious to see a three foot tall armored kid running around the house, eating a sandwhich while playing Donkey Kong.  I can’t wait to see what happens at his first game.

Saturday night rolls around, and Andy and I are talking on the phone, trying to figure out how we’ll get to Anacortes. ( Hoping someone would drop us off, but the chances were slim to none) Decided on a whim, around 11:30, that we might as well just leave Sunday instead of Monday. Seemed logical.

So I frantically packed my bike bags, with what I thought to be the essentials. I immediately realized that I have never been on more than a one night backpacking trip, and all the things I would need for an entire week, including lodging, food, soap, lights, etc. All needed to fit in the panniers I got, that seemed to be getting smaller by the minute.

I was in charge of the tent.

Since I would be the one carrying it, this backpacker’s tent that my dad aquired seemed to be the perfect solution.

It said it was a one person ‘ not a tent’, but it looked big enough to fit two people in, and it also looked like a tent to me, and the fact that it was only about two pounds made it my final decision.

If you would believe it, I actually felt kinda smart for having done this.

Eventually, we got on the road to Anacortes in the Aerostar. The most bad ass van around, not gonna lie.

Hopped on the 3:10 ferry ( we actually ran on, we were the last ones to board, and it was running late- a lucky break for us).

Didn’t have an official map, or an idea of where we were going to stay, or any kind of topographic information of the area really. None of this worried me, though, because the weather was beautiful, we actually caught the ferry, and San Juan Island isn’t that big, is it?

We arrived in Friday Harbor, fully packed and ready for the unexpected.

After exploring the town, getting some food for dinner, and getting our bearings, we pedaled out to San Juan County Park.

 

 

to be continued…..