Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Pacific Northwest Trek!!

Hello from Victoria, BC! Since we last wrote, we have traveled from Vancouver, BC to the San Juan islands in Washington State, and back to BC where we are now, in a cozy, fun hostel in Victoria.

We've been sprucing up our bike riding with some other modes of transportation, including lots of ferries and a tunnel van! Yesterday we biked out of Vancouver, and were transported through a tunnel by a van that is used solely to transport bikers from one end of an un-bike-able tunnel to the other. The nine of us squeezed into the van with all our gear after loading our bikes onto the trailer. Then we cycled to Tsawassen Bay, where we jumped on a ferry that took us to Swarz Bay, BC. From there, we biked a few miles to Sidney and grabbed a ferry to San Juan Island.

San Juan Island was gorgeous! We did some luxury camping at a lakeside resort, but unfortunately, our streak of perfect weather was broken this morning with a steady rain. We pushed through the rain and biked around the island for a bit, stopping at a really neat sculpture garden (pictures to follow). We treated ourselves to pizza for lunch, and hopped on an afternoon ferry back to Sidney. From there, we took a really nice bike path down to Victoria, where we'll be for the next two nights!

One of our trippers, Hannah, has her eighteenth birthday today, and as I write, a delicious chocolate cake is baking in the oven... Happy birthday, Hannah!

Apologies about the lack of pictures, but it's hard to find a computer with a working USB port! We will do our best to post pictures in the next few days.

-Mariel and Jon