Upper Washington & Vancouver

I had gotten into Vancouver area later than expected.  Seattle wasn't that far of a ride, and someone had told me to be prepared for up to a four hour border crossing.  I guess I drove slow and left late, because the border line had only one car ahead of me.  I did take the ferry to Whidbey Island from Seattle and had a nice lunch in Coupesville with some students at an environmental school.  We all had fascinating stories to share.  After lunch about fifty other motorcycles rode into town on a local poker run.  Shortly after, upon recommendation, I headed up to Deception Point and then took Chukanut Road.  Both well worth staying along the coast and far from the highway.

I met up with a real nice family yesterday that offered to host a wary traveller having never met me. I was immediately bombarded with three cats and four children...and all of us got along wonderfully. Meghan drew a great picture of me on my motorcycle, which I hope to scan in when I get back. Logan showed me his computer game Spore. Finnegan (2) and I checked out bugs in the backyard. And Christopher (1) liked being held. I offered to take one of them back to Boston to "lighten the load" for Scott and Shannon.

After dinner, Scott took me up a cable car to the top of a Grouse Mountain overlooking Vancouver.  I actually threw a snowball!  They had "pet" grizzlies up top (caged in like Jurassic Park), but they must have been shy or sleeping.