Bicycles – Riveted

Sun! We’ve got sun!!

Laura Domela — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 01:22:27 +0000

Woke up this morning to a clear blue sky and this hot bright thing poking through the blinds! Such a nice surprise. Similar to yesterday, we did a bunch of work in the morning, and then headed out for a late breakfast and a little exploring.

Today’s destination was the town of Seaside.

It’s been ages since we’ve been to Seaside. We grabbed some food at the Firehouse Grill (where “late breakfast” didn’t turn into lunch because they serve breakfast until 3!) and then walked down to the beach.

We decided to check out the Seaside Aquarium today. The Seaside Aquarium has been open (in this same spot) since 1937.

The building was constructed in 1924, and was originally a saltwater bath house and swimming pool called the “Seaside Baths Natatorium”. The natatorium closed in the early 1930s, underwent major renovations, and in 1937 opened as the Seaside Aquarium. Here’s an early pic of the building:

The aquarium experience was better than we’d expected. As you enter the building, there’s a pool off to your left where maybe a dozen harbor seals hang out waiting to splash water onto the guests be fed by the guests from small trays of herring pieces. For two bucks you can get your own tray of herring (comes in a red/white checked take-out dish, very similar to what you get fish & chips in, for example, so pay attention). Anyway, I thought the whole “seal feeding” gimmick was going to be obnoxious, and it was…a little bit. But it was also kinda fun. The seals work hard to get your attention and are pretty good at clapping, barking, splashing, and looking cute so that you’ll throw some fish their way.

One seal got an eensy bit impatient, however, and could pull some pretty big water with those flippers…throwing it directly at the guests, right through the fence (no glass). Kinda makes you NOT want to give that particular seal a treat, but hey, it apparently works for him.

Anyway, there are a bunch of tanks with cool fish and anemones and eels and other neat things in ’em. Here’s a closeup of grumpy wolf eel:

This octopus was my favorite though:

Its eyes were closed and you could watch (close up in this open, no-touch tank) its breathing. We could look straight down into its gills as they opened and closed, and as water pushed out of the funnel/siphon (the tube on the left, near the “neck” of the octopus in the photo). It was super cool. (Would have been cooler had the octopus been awake and climbing around the tank, but we’ll take what we can get!)

Still sunny outside!

Walking back through town:

From the bridge that crosses over the river at Broadway Street, we could see a bunch of pedal boats shaped like giant swans…which was quite a fantastic image (just google it, you’ll see what I mean). They were all clumped together at the dock, but I had only my wide wide lens with me, we were too far away, and I apparently didn’t want the photo badly enough (but now I wish I’d made the effort).

On our drive back down to Nehalem, we pulled over and got a couple of nice shots back toward town.

Our campground is down there somewhere, hidden behind the dunes:

We got back to camp and took off on our bikes for a nice ride out to the boat launch and beach…a little over 5 miles. And guess what? It’s still sunny!!!

All of the Bridges

Laura Domela — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 19:00:22 +0000

This morning we got up at 5am and headed down to the Fremont Bridge for the start of the 2014 Providence Bridge Pedal. This is a super fun ride (we've done it once before, on the tandem). There are several options for this ride. There's a 10 bridge option (33 miles), an 8 bridge option (24 miles), a 6 bridge option (13 miles), a kids pedal (3 miles over two bridges), and "Stride" which is a 5.5 mile walk over two bridges).

There's also the Fremont Express option, which is 36 miles, does 10 bridges, but gets to start just after sunrise from the middle of the Fremont Bridge. This is pretty cool because the Fremont Bridge is normally closed to pedestrians and cyclists — only cars allowed. So having a half an hour or so up at the top of the bridge was really neat!

They had water stations and a bunch of food laid out on tables for the riders (bananas, donuts, bagels, etc.), along with a string ensemble playing music for us as we waited for the start time (6:45am).

And we're off:

It's super fun to ride through the city on bikes with the freewyas and bridges all (or mostly) to yourselves.

We met a family who said they do this ride every year together and have done the last 10 in a row. There are friends, couples on tandems, parents with kids on tandem trailer-cycles, kids in Burley trailers, dogs in baskets…as well as quite a few of the "serious cyclists wearing logo jerseys" Geico!!!!! (Okay so what about the jerseys that have written on the back: www.cyclingjerseysdirect.com? That's it. The name of the online store where you buy this logo cycling jersey? I don't get the whole logo jersey thing for regular people who aren't sponsored. I don't. I'll admit it. But the logo for the store where you got it? It's one level removed from Nike, even. Weird.)

Anyway. This is a very well-managed ride. There are several different routes, several starting times and places, with routes merging and peeling off from each other like diagrams of DNA strands, and there are so many helpful volunteers and policemen working the traffic and the cyclists…it's pretty fantastic how smooth it flows.

At the start of the ride, the administrators reminded everyone (several times) to remember, "It's a ride, not a race." For some people though, those are just words. There are "those guys" in every ride like this (all levels, all ages), who just can't help themselves.

At one point when it got a little congested downtown and cycling traffic slowed, two guys in red jerseys (matching) came up on the left and I heard one say "Really? REALLY??" as if he couldn't believe there was congestion during a ride with OVER 10,000 RIDERS. Then his red jersey twin yelled out "On your LEFT PEOPLE! On your LEFT!" What a dick.

Beautiful morning view of downtown from the Marquam Bridge:

View from the Sellwood Bridge (back toward downtown, far in the distance):

On the Hawthorne Bridge:

View of the Marquam Bridge from the Hawthorne Bridge:

Riders on the Hawthorne Bridge:

Next up: the Ross Island Bridge, then the Marquam Bridge (again!), and then Burnside. The new (not yet finished) Tilikum Crossing, taken from the Burnside Bridge:

(Next year's bridge pedal will get to ride across the Tilikum Crossing before it's open to the public.)

Steel Bridge from the Burnside Bridge:

Ooooh, arty:

Burnside Bridge heading west:

After the Burnside Bridge, we crossed the Broadway Bridge, then the Fremont Bridge again, and headed out Highway 30 to conquer the St. Johns Bridge:

View back toward downtown from the St. Johns Bridge:

Details, looking down:

Steel Bridge:

The finish line was after the Steel Bridge, down at the Portland waterfront:

The Bite of Oregon is going on down at the waterfront this weekend (see below, food booths, music), and though we did get free admission tickets with our ride registration, we opted to ride back to our car (a few miles away at the base of the Fremont Bridge) and go home for a bite instead (crossing the Morrison Bridge on the way, since it was the only one we didn't do as part of our official ride).

Oh yeah, here's our route:

Ten bridges (two of them crossed twice!), 42.9 miles. Finished and home by noon. Nap time!

Sauvie Island Bike Ride

Laura Domela — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:22:58 +0000

This morning we did our usual hike in the Arboretum (about 4 miles), but we figured we should really get a bike ride in too, since we're doing the 36 mile Bridge Pedal route next Sunday (one week from today) and we really haven't been riding that much lately. So this afternoon we loaded the tandem into the back of the truck and headed for Sauvie Island.

We've had our tandem for about 9-10 years and it's a great bike. (Notice, it's ALSO aluminum!!) It's a Santana Sovereign.

There's a really nice 12 mile loop around the south end of the island that looks like this:

Sauvie Island is the largest island along the Columbia River at 26,000 acres, and is predominantly farms and wildlife refuge. It's flat and has fairly low traffic so it's a great place to cycle.

Here are some photos of our ride, and oh yeah, it was 90 degrees out. Hot!!

There are several farm markets out here where you can get fresh produce and/or pick your own berries and flowers.

Corn maze and pumpkin patch opens on Labor Day:

I saw these cows. They were eating grass, just like it says.

Newcastle Island, British Columbia

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 22:36:48 +0000

This afternoon after finishing up most of a work day, we headed by bike back into downtown Nanaimo and took the little ferry over to Newcastle Island. That's Newcastle on the left, and Protection Island on the right.

Newcastle Island is a marine provincial park just across the harbor, and has 22km of hiking and biking trails, a pavillion with a snack bar, and a tent campground. You can bring your camping gear over on the ferry and use one of their wheeled carts to tow it over to the campground. Pretty sweet! Here's the ferry we took on the way over:

The ferry ride costs $9 Canadian per adult round trip, and the bikes are an extra buck.

Here are the bikes bungeed to the upper deck:

The Newcastle Island ferry landing:

Looking back across the harbor to Nanaimo:

From the Newcastle Island website, this'll give you a bit more info about the island:

A significant place utilized by the Snuneymuxw people for thousands of years and traditionally known as Saysutshun, Newcastle Island is a wondrous escape from the bustling urban center of Nanaimo just across the harbour. Alongside the strong First Nations presence and culture on the island, it is also home to many rich histories which include coal mining, a sandstone quarry, and herring salteries, all of which make Newcastle Island a must-see eco-tourism destination for those visiting Nanaimo.

There was a sailboat regatta happening out past the island:

The bike path is much more of a mountain bike style path than a road bike style path, but our bikes handled it just fine:

This is Mallard Lake, in the middle of the island:

Bike Fridays are such great travel bikes!!

Back to the ferry landing:

This is the cute little tiny ferry we took back across the harbor, with 5 bikes and 12 passengers!!

And here are some of the bikes strapped onto the port side and stern, for scale:

Here's a map of our route from the campground and back:

We're doing laundry now and grilling some tuna for fish tacos. I think we're going to do a little day trip up to Courtenay tomorrow. There's an annual (annual! not weekly!) (the 44th annual) Saturday market going on that sounds interesting. Then on Sunday we'll head over to Tofino! We're having a blast up here.

Downtown Nanaimo

Laura Domela — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:05:53 +0000

We rode our bikes into town late this morning and did a little sightseeing and picked up a couple Canada pins for our collection. Check out my bike bag now!

We rode all over the waterfront, and stopped and had some gelato and some fish & chips (in that order).

Great fish & chips at Troller's! We had halibut and salmon and both were great. (Not as good as the Bandon Fish House, but still quite good!)

Here's our route:

We rode just over 10 miles. Now we're headed down to Ladysmith to meet a guy about a boat.

Comically Bad Service at the Taproot Cafe

Laura Domela — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 15:01:49 +0000

The morning after our incredible meal at the Willows Inn we got up, showered, dressed, then headed downstairs to the Taproot Cafe for breakfast.

This is a cute little cafe with inside and outside seating. We walked inside to ask about breakfast and the gal at the counter told us they had two options: A fritatta, or the Willows Inn breakfast which included a soft boiled egg, a biscuit, a bowl of sauteed kale, blueberries, and a small charcuterie plate. We ordered two Willows Inn breakfasts. When she asked us if we wanted coffee, we ordered two cappuccinos. She got our room name (Sunrise) and told us to sit anywhere we liked and they'd bring out our coffee.

We chose an outside table for two, where we sat for about 20 minutes before anything happened. We could hear the milk frother going inside…over and over again, but not for us. After the first 20 minutes the same gal came out and asked us if we wanted coffee or anything. Um, yes, we still want coffee. I said "Yes, we ordered two cappuccinos when we first came in." She said she'd get right on that, sorry.

About 15 minutes later (still, no coffee), one breakfast arrived. She was explaining what each thing was on the plate, and I interrupted quietly and said "We ordered two of these…" She said "Yes" and continued with her explanation and then walked away.

We had no silverware or napkins still, and I wasn't sure she'd registered the second breakfast reminder, so when I went inside to get silverware, I clarified… "Just to make sure…we're waiting on one more Willows Inn breakfast, right?" She said, "Yes." Okay then.

About 10 minutes later (and after far more milk frothing sounds than two cappuccinos would ever need…where are all those containers of frothed milk going, anyway??) we got our cappuccinos. Still only one breakfast on the table.

I urged Kevin to start on this breakfast and I'd wait. We both picked a little at the sharable things while he had the egg and the kale, since they were warm. So the first breakfast was completely finished (even though we lagged a lot while we waited for the other one) and 15-20 minutes later, the second breakfast arrived. She said they were sorry for the wait, and that they would be sure to give us a 10% discount. Whoa. A whole two bucks off.

Toward the end of our second round of single breakfast plates, our waitress came over and asked if we wanted more coffee. Kevin said he would like another cappuccino (he was almost done with his first one), and she said she'd check back in about 5 minutes. I guess he needed to have an empty cup in order to get new coffee. At least she didn't completely forget about it, like the first time. About five minutes later she came back to see if he was ready. He said yes, but asked for the coffee to-go. (It still took ten minutes before said to-go coffee arrived.) Crazy.

Part of the deal was how incredible and perfect the service had been the night before for dinner (upstairs, different restaurant, same Willows Inn). It was spot on…friendly, fast, efficient. This was in SUCH stark contrast to that, and so spectacularly bad, that it became comical. (The food was actually quite good though!)

After breakfast we checked out and headed out to the courtyard to work for a bit. Here's a shot of our "office" from our room:

The smokehouse out behind the restaurant:

Down on the Sunset Beach in front of the Willows. Looking left:

Looking right:

After work and a quick walk on the beach, we took off on the bikes and did this ride:

As we were riding along the shore at Legoe Bay (or near it) there were some cute beach houses on the left, driftwood beach on the right, we were again laughing about how bad the service was for breakfast. We came around the corner as I was saying the words "spectacularly bad service" and two ladies on the porch of a beachhouse on the left yelled out "Are you talking about the Taproot Cafe??"

What the heck??? Yes! We slowed and stopped the bikes as they both gave us air "high 10s" and said "we hear ya sister!!" They'd apparently been there this morning too (inside at the counter) and had terrible service (even sitting right there at the counter!) and they'd been talking about their experience all morning, flabbergasted. However, they said the service was always that bad, and that perhaps it's even gotten worse over time. We told them about our experience, and they told us about theirs, and we laughed and shook heads and said "Nice commiserating with you" and headed back to the road. So funny!

We stopped at the Otto Preserve at the Lummi Island Heritage Trust for a short hike and a water refill, and continued on around the island. It was a lovely ride.

We returned to the Willows Inn and back to our patio spot to do some more work, and the concierge said if we wanted any lunch, we could order it from the Taproot and they'd bring it out to us in the courtyard.

And yet, for some reason, in we went. We ordered two dry sodas and two salmon paninis. They brought our food out to us promptly, and the service was lovely this time. The sandwiches (served with a side salad) were delicious.

I'd love to think the service fiasco at breakfast was just a fluke, but as we've heard from the locals — it was not.

Bellingham to Lummi Island

Laura Domela — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 18:34:05 +0000

We left our placeholder RV Park in Bellingham (aptly named Bellingham RV Park, nothing special at all to speak of here…full hookups, Wi-Fi, narrow spots, no scenery, near the airport…you get the idea) and rode our bikes over through the Lummi Nation reservation and down to the ferry terminal.

Totem pole art:

Look at all those crab traps!

A month or so ago, we made a reservation for dinner and a room at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island for the night and decided to bike it from Bellingham with our overnight stuff in the panniers, and we hopped on the Whatcom Chief ferry over to Lummi Island. Turns out the ferry had been down the day before for 26 hours due to an engine emergency something-or-other, so the traffic lineup to get to and from Lummi yesterday was more than usual.

There were a couple of ferry management types there at the entrance having a very funny conversation:

Her: Motorcycles get on before cars, which sometimes really bugs the cars. Bikes get on last, because they can put them in anywhere.
Him: What if there are 37 motorcycles?
Her: They still get on first and how ever many cars can fit after them…that's how many cars get on.
Him: What if the motorcycles take up the whole ferry?
Her: Same rules. If the entire Hell's Angeles showed up, they'd all get on and they could fill up the whole boat and no cars would get on. (Looking over at us) And bicycles still get on last. The boss makes the rules.
Him: Does the boss ride a motorcycle?
Her: No, he does not.

They were hilarious.

Bikes on the ferry:

Arriving on Lummi:

Off the ferry we turned right and took the route around the top of the island to get to the Willows Inn on the northwest side. Great ride with nice rolling hills and gorgeous scenery.

Our room at the Willows is rustic but nice and the grounds are beautiful. It's right on the water with lovely views:

Dinner last night was spectacular, and I'll tell you all about it in another post. I think it's our new No. 1.

More Port Townsend, Again

Laura Domela — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:37:44 +0000

I know you want to see more photos of Port Townsend, don't you?

After work we rode our bikes around some more, enjoying the gorgeous weather. Where we're staying (Point Hudson Marina and RV Park) is just beyond all those docks in the above photo, on the right.

Back at our campsite we grilled up some salmon for dinner with an arugula salad, and then headed back into town on the bikes to catch the movie Chef, playing at the Rose Theater. What a great theater…popcorn with real butter, and a little bar of seasonings to choose from. I put Parmesan, brewer's yeast, a little salt, and chili powder on mine. Kevin did Parmesan, yeast, and a hickory smoke seasoning. Yummy! The movie was super cute…we really enjoyed it!

After the movie (at 9:15pm) it was still light out, so we rode back to the Airstream to grab jackets and happened upon a couple from France taking a photo of the trailer. The man said they LOVE Airstreams in France and we invited them in to take a look. They were sweet. Also, just before we arrived there were apparently several otters right down on the dock! Dangit! We missed 'em! (The couple from France showed us photos though….they were right there!! So cute.)

We headed back into town and rode along the waterfront a bit…windy tonight, but beautiful.

Tomorrow we're off to Bellingham!

Sink Top Cutting Board

Laura Domela — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:29:05 +0000

The fine folks at Turnco Wood Goods made us this gorgeous sink-top cutting board a couple weeks ago and we love it!

Tiffani and Deke worked with Turnco Wood Goods (based on Whidbey Island) to come up with the perfect size and edge shape to fit the Airstream sink, which makes this item a "Weaselmouth Exclusive" (available via the Weaselmouth website, link below).

Both sides are the same so if you want to use one side and keep the other side pristine, you can do that. These fit nicely in the large round sink opening and we have yet to find it on the floor after travel.

Ours has a walnut base with cherry and maple stripes.

Tiffani and Deke have a lighter maple base with cherry and walnut stripes. Love 'em both!!

Here's a link to Tiff & Deke's page where you can see theirs, and order one for your very own.

Bicycling Around Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 22:02:03 +0000

This afternoon we took a break and rode our bikes over to Fort Worden State Park to check it out. It's nice…seems like a great place to stay…but I like our spot here at the marina way better. But that's just me. You might prefer Fort Worden. Full hookups, beach right there, a cute little laundromat, a lighthouse. In fact, you'd definitely like it better. Forget I told you about the marina campground at all.

The fog came in and hung around for a little bit this morning, but it's back to being sunny and clear and perfect now. Whew! Every single time we've been to Port Townsend it's been perfect, Chamber of Commerce weather. (It's not usually like this…you can tell by how excited the locals always are.)

More Fort Worden:

The lighthouse:

After checking out the Fort Worden campground, we headed over to the Safeway in town to gather some groceries. We used our Reclamation Department bags as panniers, and I put my Brooks basket on for carrying stuff back home.

Cutting back across the peninsula:

Riding through town along Water Street:

The Airstream and Point Hudson Marina RV Park taken from across the marina at the Northwest Maritime Center:

We put our groceries away and walked not very far at all over to Doc's Marina Grill for some lunch (we shared some fish & chips and a crab louie salad, both very good). We sat inside by a window, but they also have a nice big deck with lots of outside seating, and they'll give you a loaner straw hat to wear out there when it's really sunny (there are no shade umbrellas at the tables). It's pretty cute though…all these people wearing straw hats on the deck. Right outside our window I registered two middle-aged women wearing straw hats with pink and purple fabric on them, eating salads…but then, oh hang on, no…it's two 20-something guys with muscles eating salads! Pretty great.

Tomorrow night we're going to ride our bikes into town and check out the Rose Theater (on Leigh & Brian's recommendation).

And now, back to work!

Oh yeah, here's our route: