Vancouver to Seattle via Lopez Island

Vancouver Airport is located on a small island called Sea Island just South of Vancouver. It is a nice airport with some impressive Native American art and a good information desk that has maps of the bike route out of the airport. Unfortunately, there are no showers here though, like there is at Sydney Airport. Canadian customs was a breeze, I didn't even realise we had gone through it. A guy in a uniform said, "Welcome to Canada, eh. How long are you staying?" I told him about 6 months, and he stamped Jody's passport with a visitor's visa with no expiration date (I didn't need a visa as I'm American). Not to worry, we would have our visa dramas later trying to cross into America, and then again later trying to cross into Mexico.

Vancouver Airport is a breeze to cycle out of as there is a marked bike route well out of town. There is a bridge connecting Sea Island with Lulu Island and then a tunnel that goes under the Fraser River and connects Lulu Island to mainland Canada. The tunnel is called the George Massey tunnel and it is not open to bicycles. However, there is a free shuttle service for cyclists that operates every 1/2 hour and doesn't require unloading your gear. There are also regular busses with bike racks that go through the tunnel. We met a few other Canadian cyclists while waiting for the shuttle driver to wake up (he sleeps in the van between jobs) and they showed us a nice backroad route starting on the other end of the tunnel.

We continued on backroads for a while, then got on Hwy 99 towards the Canada/USA border. Hwy 99 has nice wide shoulders but after a few K's, we were pulled over by a Canadian Mountie who told us bicycles weren't allowed on the highway here, and that we would have to get back on the backroads. This was fine with us as we prefer the backroads anyways. She gave us directions and off we went.

We were pretty excited about being back in North America, and crossing back into the USA after being overseas for 2 years was a bit of an eye-opener for me. We crossed at Blaine, Washington and were immediately presented with our first "challenge" - the immigration officers would only issue Jody a 3 month visa, and we wanted to travel for at least 6 months. I explained the situation to the immigration officer but he said, "There's nothing I can do". The friendliness of Australia and Canada went missing fast, I kept expecting him to say, "She'll be right mate, no worries...". We found out later he was lying to us and that it is possible to get a longer visa or extend the 3 month visa, which is what we did 2 months later when we crossed from Alberta into Montana. It is up to the discretion of the individual officer.

As we rode into Blaine, we were looking for some kind of "official" office were we could get some maps of the backroads to Anacortes, where we would catch the ferry to Lopez Island. We went to investigate a building with some big American flags flying out front, but it turned out to be an American "bar" with neon Budweiser Beer signs and rock music playing. We stayed and had a few pints of a micro-brew (boutique beer as the Aussies call it) from Montana called Moose Drool, from the Big Sky Brewing Company. It was quite a nice beer and it went down nicely (and frequently). I was surprised to note that while this was a border town, there was no Canadian beer available. There was mostly Canadians in the bar though and they didn't seem to mind.

While we were at the bar, we put the word out that we were looking for a place close by to pitch our tent. After a while, a Canadian guy named Erik came over and introduced himself and asked us about our trip. He had done a long bicycle tour across Europe a few years earlier so was keen to hear our plans and give us advice on routes and things to see along the way. He also introduced us to his friend Marlene, and later her partner Jim, who lived in Blaine and had a daughter living on the East Coast of Australia. Marlene had been to Australia for a visit and really enjoyed it. She invited us to stay in her huge Victorian-style home which was being done up as a Bed & Breakfast and was the best nights sleep we had had in a while. The theme of the house was rock and roll music from the 50's and 60's so there was photos of famous muscicians, books, and just about every type of memorobilia you could imagine from that period. The perfect place for our first night in America! In the morning, Marlene left the coffee-maker ready with some beautiful fresh-brewed Starbucks coffee. What a nice change from the instant coffee that is popular down under!

From Blaine, there are some beautiful and little-known backroads that follow the coast past Birch Bay and to the booming college town of Bellingham. We arrived in town just as the local gas company exploded (Victorians can relate to this), so the main street was littered with broken glass and police officers. We stopped at the local bank to setup a bank account for Jody, which turned out to be a lesson in American efficiency. Because of the explosion, the bank was short-handed and we had to wait about 10 minutes to be served. During this time the managers came around a few times apologizing for the delay, and receiving dirty looks and grumbling from the people in line about the "5 minute or $5 guarantee" which guarantees $5 to anyone that waits more than 5 minutes for service (yes they paid it). I was used to waiting in line 20-30 minutes at the banks in Australia so was quite happy...

From Bellingham we got on the famous Chuckanut Drive and continued South. Chuckanut Drive is an old stage line that follows the coast and is now a well-known and scenic cycling route. The route passes Larrabee State Park, a good stop for lunch, and then continues down to Bayview State Park where we camped for the night. Bayview State Park is just a few miles North of Highway 20, which is also known to cyclists as the Northern Tier Cycling Route that goes from Anacortes, Washington State to Bar Harbor, Maine. We picked up the route the next morning and headed West towards Anacortes, which is known as "The Gateway to the San Juans" because this is where the ferries leave from. The area around Anacortes is also quite a haven for cyclists and I used to make regular visits up here when I lived in Seattle. There is good road biking, heaps of trails for mountain bikers, and of course it is the starting point for long distance touring cyclists crossing the Northern Tier. Anacortes is also home to the Anacortes Cyclery, which is occassionally mentioned in various cycling magazines. The head mechanic is an Aussie who we met on a mountain bike ride a few years earlier. We were trying to get to Lopez in time for the 4th of July though, so no sidetracking this time...

My Dad had sent me an e-mail stating I was welcome to visit, but that I should bring my own beer and food (things are different in America, I explained to Jody, who thought I was joking) so our first stop in Anacortes was the local Safeway store. Attaching a couple slabs (cases of beer) to the bikes didn't look too likely to be succesful with all our other gear so we picked up a flask of red wine each and off we went...

Catching the ferry to Lopez Island was another drama. The ferry stops at Lopez Island, then goes to Friday Harbour and the rest of the islands, unloading cars at each stop. Our bikes were loaded at the very back of the ferry (behind the Friday Harbour cars) which meant we couldn't actually get off on Lopez Island and had to continue to Friday Harbour, then catch a return ferry to Lopez a few hours later.

From the Lopez Island ferry terminal, it is just a short easy ride to the Lopez township, where we had arranged to meet my Dad and his wife Beth. Beth's family has traditionally gathered at Lopez Island for the 4th of July celebrations so quite a few of her family where there, most of whom we hadn't met before. Luckily my Dad had a cooler of local micro-brews which went down nicely in the hot summer sun. Beth's daughters, Jamie and Ericka were also there, and my brother's, Corby and Bernie, turned up the next day.

The 4th of July celebrations were good fun. Jody and I did a bike tour to the other side of the harbour where they were setting up the fireworks. We watched the parade and later that night the firworks show. My Dad made margaritas and we listened to the Yanks brag about how much they could drink. While they were talking, we drank all the beer. The next day, we loaded our bikes onto my Dad's sailboat and sailed back to Everett. Sailing in the San Juans is a great way to spend an afternoon. We had views of the Cascade Mountains to the East of us, and good views of the Olympic Mountains straight ahead. There is a Naval Station in Everett, and we sailed past the big warships and into the familiar marina where I used to live. From there, we drove to Selah (in central Washington State) to visit my grandfather, who was sick with cancer. While we were there, my Aunt Nora took Jody and I on a tour of Toppenish, which is where the headquarters of the Yakama Indian Nation is. The Yakama Nation is a large group of Native American Indian tribes that is really a "country within a country". After a few days we returned to Seattle and my brother Bernie drove us back up to Vancouver, where we caught the ferry to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island...