Friday, July 10, 2009

Bald Eagles and Banana Slugs

.... not just for breakfast anymore. Orcas Island is ridiculously beautiful. We are finding it easy to adjust to this so called Island Life. It was not so difficult to decide to take a rest day here. I followed the literal definition of "rest" while Christian awoke at 5:30 in the morning to pedal up 2400 ft. Mt. Constitution. Our friend Ignacio would be so proud of him. This little island is deceivingly hill blessed and we are getting quite a workout. We arrived at the ferry landing yesterday and had a nice conversation with the whale touring boat captain. He gave us lots of inside tips about back roads. We followed his advice and enjoyed every minute of it, especially the 4 bald eagles we saw en route. It is so green here that it is ridiculous. Green in the desert is subtle and only reveals itself to the patient voyuer. Some flowers only bloom one night a year. Here in the rain blessed northwest, green is rioutous, never subtle. It drips everwhere and is a moss covered carpet on which we walk. Flowers and berries are abundant. If you are into biosexuality this places oozes. With the sun making a grand appearance we eagerly jumped into Cascade Lake for a refreshing dip. In town we have enjoyed a gourmet lunch and visited the local bike shop. We keep stopping a bike shops hoping for a remedy for squeeky bike seat springs. We haven't been successful at solving the problem but we have met some cool folks with lots of insider tips. If the seat issue were not so annoying it would be a fun excuse to keep popping into these little shops. Does anyone have any advice for a squeeky Brooks springed saddle? Lauren, did you have this problem? After this quick internet stop we will take our freshly baked bread and local cheese and wind back up the big hill to the campground, stopping at the lake for another dip before continuing on. Tomorrow we will discover the joys of San Juan Island! Traveling further south may be problematic since we've discovered the Islands.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

San Juan Islands in the summer?? Glad you are enjoying your trek, I just love how you two take it all in! Looking forward to your next entry!
xoxo
Jodi

Vikers said...

Enjoying your blogs and photos a lot - we were on Orcas Island in the fall of 2005 - what a beautiful place and how nice you can see it up close from bikes. We thought the Washington State ferry system was great too.

Dorothy & Owen

Lar said...

i tried to look up the squeaking problem on some online forums and this advice seems to be repeated:
"You can solve the squeaking problem by putting a couple of drops of thick oil (like Phil’s Tenacious) on the nuts that hold the coil springs on both ends, and on the front where the frame pivots. That does it for me."

Chile said...

Visited San Juan Island a long time ago and loved it. Hope you guarded your food from the clever racoons!