Island Hopping Our Way Back into the Lower 48: Friday Harbor to Seattle 23rd - 29th Sept

We celebrated N’s birthday by staying in some swankier-than-usual accommodation at the Harrison House Suites B&B, where we indulged in four-course gourmet breakfasts, a hot tub, very cushy furniture and an excellent (albeit cloudy) view of Friday Harbor. Festivities continued with some tasting of the local San Juan wines and a wee trip across the island to Roche Harbor on two mopeds and a ‘Scootcar’. The latter was so horrendously smelly to travel in, with petrol fumes engulfing the whole vehicle as it scuttled up the road, that Moira and Naomi were quite relieved when the ordeal was over and they could look forward to hopping back onto their normal bikes.

We left San Juan Island in thick fog and Anacortes on Fidalgo Island did not have much better weather to offer. However, we did have the opportunity to cross Deception Pass (a strait, not a mountain pass thankfully!) and its bridge connecting the three islands: Fidalgo, the tiny Pass Island and Whidbey Island. Our wise decision to walk bikes along the pavement instead of cycling the very narrow bridge (and therefore holding up all the impatient traffic) turned out to be rather a palaver when the pavement also became so narrow the panniers had to be squeezed through the post and the railing!

An easy cycle, clearer weather and a lovely sunset welcomed us into Coupeville. The pretty centre of town was clearly not happening so we headed off to the Tyee Motel and Pub where we met a variety of characters over the course of the evening. Our first encounter was with Mickey who seemed particularly interested in Moira’ conversation. He’d obviously been in the bar for a while, with his wife of course, and encouraged Paul and Tim to take on the local pool hustlers. Ryan was in Coupeville with his brother for a custody court hearing for his kids (he was 22!). On hearing that Naomi was English, he enquired if that was in France. Indeed he admitted to suffering from the deficiencies of the American education system. Paul and Tim remained on the pool table until the end of the night and retired reigning champions of Coupeville, more down to their competitors’ inebriation than anything else!

Whidbey Island is a very strange shape with lots of different geographical and weather features, as we discovered the next day.
With the sun shining down, a deserted straight road led to Fort Casey and Crockett Lake, a designated tsunami danger area with lots of houses built right on little more than a sandbar separating the sea and the lake (the mind boggles at insurance premiums!). We zigzagged our way back and forth across the island which became very hilly, and through the intermittent fog until we hit Greenbank Farm for yet another well-timed and delicious lunch. Most delightful was the Loganberry Pie. The main road finally took us to Clinton where we said goodbye to our final island and ferried over to the US mainland at Mukilteo, where we enjoyed Janet and John’s (our friend, Monika’s mother and step-father) kind hospitality and the excellent view from their wonderful house overlooking Puget Sound, Whidbey Island AND the Olympic Mountains!

Of course, the next morning we couldn’t see a thing out the window. The thick fog later subsided revealing a gunmetal grey sky as we made our way through Seattle’s suburbs to the much further than anticipated town of Woodinville, where, after a whopping hill into a very wooded neighbourhood, we were treated to more generous hospitality on the part of Tim and Paul’s cousin Sue and her husband Rick. The route into downtown Seattle was far leafier and more pleasant than expected following the Sammamish River Trail and the Burke-Gilman Trail around Lake Washington while trying to spot Bill Gates’ massive house on the opposite shores, unfortunately without success.

We managed to hit downtown Seattle without getting wet, and checked into the 1950s style Moore Hotel in the centre. After getting thoroughly distracted in REI (Recreational Equipment Inc), we found ourselves very hungry back on the streets. Desperation led us to a lively bar with loud music where an Asian type menu was an offer - bars and restaurants in the States seem to have merged into one thing these days. Any chance of conversation was totally quashed when Mr DJ hit the decks and we ate our food between two pumping throbbing speakers blaring house music. However, there was lots of eye candy and excellent people-watching to keep us all entertained.

The next day we met up with Leann (Monika’s sister, Janet and John’s daughter) and her fiancee JP for a good look round the sights and shops of Seattle. Highlights included a fantastic shop called Lucy where N bought a whole new set of clothes she only just managed to squeeze into her panniers, Tim bought a camera and Paul started thinking about buying an Ipod (a sin in N’s book, whose first and only experience with an Ipod was thoroughly disappointing) but decided at the time to stick to a couple of beers instead which served as good preparation for the Arctic Monkeys gig that evening. At which we heard more British accents in one place than we had since we’d left the UK! While Tim and Paul bopped to the beats, Naomi watched from the balcony (where she could actually see something) and Moira wisely went to see the Martha Graham Dance Group instead.

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