Saturday morning and it looks overcast and grey outside but that isn’t going to keep us home. We packed the bag with raingear, put on our heated liners, and headed off to where else….Sehome Starbucks. What a surprise when we arrived. The parking lot was full and more cars coming. What was going on? Our group was parked in front of Robecks and we squeezed the front end of the trike in between two other bikes that were facing out. Seems that REI was having one of their big clearance sales and everyone from several counties, college kids, and Canadians were lined up, waiting for the doors to open at 10:00 AM. Bill said the line inside Starbucks was almost as long as the line for REI outside so we passed on a comfy chair and coffee this morning.
Six bikes with ten of us headed down Chuckanut for Anacortes at 10:00 AM, freeing up two more parking spaces for REI bargain hunters. It doesn’t matter how many times you travel down or up Chuckanut Drive, the scenery is constantly changing and it gives you something new to marvel at morning or night. The sun was burning off the fog and you could see across the bay all the way to Anacortes. Boats, large and small, power and sail were slowly filling the waters far below the roadway we traveled.
Through Edison, over to highway 20, across the bridge, and up to Cap Sante Park in Anacortes. The park is 27 acres on the eastern edge of Anacortes. Larry and I had never been to the top of the park and it was amazing. We could look east towards Chuckanut Mountain, north towards Vancouver Island, or south to the harbor down below in Anacortes. A remnant of an old amphitheater is located on the east bank of the park. Bill walked out on the rocky bluff and in a silhouette photo he looks like a sentinel keeping guard over the bay. The sky was clear blue and crisp as we watched a whaling boat leave the harbor and Dave L. heard them telling the passengers that the whales had been spotted on the west side of San Juan Island today.
We headed next to the 200 acre Washington Park in Anacortes and took the 2.3 mile park loop ride through the forest and meadows. The west side was close to the water and the views were peek-a-boo between the trees lining the shore. As we made several horseshoe turns and climbed higher we now could see the western side of peninsula overlooking Burrows Channel below us and Burrows Island across from us. To the right was the Tonjes Havekost monument honoring one of Fidalgo Island’s earliest pioneers. He stated, “Make my cemetery a park for everyone,” and today the monument stands near where he was buried.
Today was really a very informal ride, going to a few places that were new to some of us and we rode some less traveled routes coming and going. We stopped back in Anacortes for a quick lunch and traversed back across the Skagit Valley by way of Ershig Road to Colony Road to W. Lake Samish Drive and around the Lake. We split into two groups, one group staying on Samish Way heading for home and the other hitting the freeway for home. Sunshine, beautiful scenery, great friends, Dave and Brenda, Dave and Dawn, Bill and Marla, Rob and Kaye, Larry and me….What more could you want? (We missed you Dave and Lorie.)
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