RSVP II (Ride Seattle to Vancouver and Party) Aug 16-20, 2013

Friday August 16, 2013 - Leslie dropped Bruce, Teri and me off at the Amtrak station in Portland with our bikes.  After a relaxing train ride to Seattle we grabbed our bikes and rode about 7 miles to the Hotel Deca near the WSU campus.  Riding with our packs wasn't too bad but downtown traffic was heavy because it was Friday afternoon and because we had to go right past the Hempfest.  Luckily, most of the drivers had just had their gluacoma medication and were seeing perfectly and we didn't get ran into.  A good portion of the ride was on the Burke-Gilman trail which was busy by nice.

Saturday August 17, 2013 - We dropped off our luggage at the start line in the WSU parking lot and hit the road about 8 am.  We met up with Robert and Misty at the start and rode most of the day with them.  A lot of the morning ride was on the Burke-Gilam, Washington Lake and Centential bike trails.  Beautiful trails and perfect weather.  Had a primo coffee in Snohomish and lunch in Arlington.  There are some posts on the bike paths and we saw at least two semi-serious crashes into the posts.  The route is pastoral most of the way with a mix of forest and pasture lands.  Towards the end of the day you are riding nearer the coast and it's very scenic but also a bit more hilly.

At about 110 miles we rolled into Bellingham and the Boundary Brew Pub.  Great venue, good beer and good food...so we stayed there for dinner and more beers.  The hotel was up the road a mile or two and we were ready for bed.

Sunday August 18, 2013 - After a hearty blueberry waffle breakfast we hit the road again.  More farm country...nice and flat.  The border crossing was easy as they had extra border patrol folks out to accommodate us.  The rest of day was a nice pleasant cruise until we started to run into the suburbs of Vancouver.  It got a bit tedious as we wound our way on bike paths through suburban bike paths.   The route took us through historic Gastown (or was it Watertown) which was interesting but you had to be careful of the pedestrians and car traffic.  The finish line was at a downtown hotel at about 90 miles.  We had a free Molson, grabbed our luggage and rode about 2 miles to our hotel.  Meat protein was the first order of business so we had a nice dinner at the Keg.

Monday August 19, 2013 - Today we walked and took the water taxis around to see the sights of Vancouver.  Visited a nice maritime museum and typical tourist trap shopping attraction.  Had a beer at a nice pub in Gastown and later dinner down the street from the hotel.

Tuesday August 20, 2013 - We had to get up early to shlep our luggage down to the train station and get checked through customs.  The train ride was relaxing again and we rolled in to Portland a little after 3 pm.  Leslie was there to pick us up.