Yesterday for the first time ever, we made it out to one of the upper San Juan Islands, just off the north coast of Washington State.  The Tour de Lopez , was one of the best organized and certainly is up there for the amazing lunch put on by the owner of the Bay Cafe. They limit the numbers of riders on this ride, which is sold out every year.  It came two weeks after the Tulip Pedal which was an outstanding ride.

This particular ride was new to us, but we'd heard the islands were fun to bicycle around. And the scenery proved to be incredible. We stayed the night in Anacortes at the fantastic Majestic Inn, the ferries which service the San Juan Islands is located in Anacortes. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it was going to be a nice day.

There were plenty of cyclists waiting for the 8:30 ferry with us. We took up the back end of the Evergreen State and of course it did not begin as a sunny day, but people were ready to ride anyway and people seemed to be in a great mood, it was quite crowded. I wondered if it would seem crowded while we were riding. There were tons of bicycles on the boat and the Galley was getting ton's of business. The crew was in rare form, they were fun, talkative and as usual Washington State Ferry Workers made the rest of us feel more than at home on their ferry.

Waiting to Dock at Lopez Island.

This particular boat has two levels of parking.

We began our ride, picked up our wrist band for the lunch and Jazz Festival at the end of the ride.

So we continued the ride. It was finally warming up and the sky was beginning to open up and turn blue. A relief too, there it was, that yellow orb in the sky, it did feel good.

Yes those clouds didn't look good, but they finally went away, and it never did rain, so it didn't really matter too much.

It almost looks like a painting doesn't it. I was taken by the beauty of the Island, even though it's terrain isn't much different than where I live now, it was much more peaceful, we rarely saw a car on the road, it was quiet and still.

We saw this on the ride too. It was pretty.

We ate some great grilled chicken, a fantastic spinach pasta salad, there was fruit and desserts that include all kinds of cookies and treats. And the snacks along the way were equally good and filled us with enough energy to complete the entire ride. Lopez Island is quite terrific and I would definitely go back there and maybe even stay on the island next time.

So we got back to the ferry terminal after eating and cooling down, which didn't feel all that great, I felt a bit slow actually. We were only three miles from the dock. We got there before lots of people began to show up.

There was tons of fun had by all who attended! If you ever plan to come to the northwest and you are a cyclist, try to plan to do this ride, and stay on the Island, you won't regret it one bit.

Stay tuned, the next ride is the Chafe 150, June 4th, yes it is a 150 mile ride in Sandpoint Idaho around Lake Pend Orielle. I hope to hell I make it! And then on June 18th, the Petal Pedal in Silverton Oregon, this one is a century.