Day 2: Bellingham - Anacortes, 40+ miles

At about 8am we woke from a deep slumber and tried to raise ourselves out of bed... I could barely move my back was so sore. I tried to pick my shoes up off the floor but the floor was so far away that I improvised by flicking them up onto the bed with a kick of my leg! Both of us felt like we had been on a saddle for too long the day before and the thought of getting on a bike again so soon after was a little daunting.

That said we got out of bed and limped 10 minutes down the road - carcasses of our former selves - to the Old Town Cafe. In a fit of self indulgence i ordered hotcakes. When they arrived they were the size of big plates - all good for cycling I guess.

On the way down we had been cornered by another local outside the bike shop, telling us about his amazing wireless speedo! He was very impressed by his bike from Hawaii and wanted to tell us all about it. We were beginning to think Bellingham locals were a little on the eccentric side. On the way out of Bellingham we stopped to pick up a bar bag and once again we got stopped by the guy who once again wanted to tell us about his speedo and the great expense of his bike. We kept trying to walk off but to no avail until a girl working in the shop came out and kindly interrupted him. I guess we should have been a little kinder to him...

Once again we got lost cycling out of Bellingham - you would think that with two degrees and a certain level of common sense between the two of us, that we could follow directions on the painfully simple gridiron road system of America. Not true. Luckily we only had to reclimb one steep descent. The next few hours took us up winding hills, through woodland, past Larabee State Park and alongside Samish bay until we reached Bow, after 15 minutes of cycling along the flat into yet more head wind. We stopped for lunch in Rhododendron cafe where we had chicken curry soup (curry, rice and all, with stock added!) and blueberry cobbler.

Again we started to pedal, through Edison, over Samish River and along Padilla Bay Shore Trail just after Bay View. This was pretty flat terrain but it has to be said that the hill climbing was generally more enjoyable! It gave a good excuse to part company with the saddle and was generally along secluded roads protected from the howling wind. With a few stints along State Road 20 we came to Fidalgo Bay and the outskirts of Anacortes. We took a gamble and followed a path which crossed the bay, taking us straight into town centre. Stopping along the bridge, one side was beautiful woodland:

The other side was a lovely industrial plant:

Bizarrely it was still peaceful.

Once into Anacortes we cycled out to a road which our lonely planets guide told us had a lovely Victorian B&B. Blatantly it is wise to check when reading from a book published in 2002 that it's contents are still current and up to date. Needless to say we had to pedal back into town and checked ourselves into Cap Sante motel, complete with a marina behind it. I think Tim had planned this wisely, although I am not sure what the appeal was of the leash free dog pen across the road...

Anacortes itself again felt like Ghost Town. We walked out along the main road and there was no-one to be seen. I was waiting for the spaghetti western music to play as tumble weed rolled down the street. It appears there is a strong quilting community here as every other shop was stacked high with them, or books about them, or material to make them. As we sat in a great Italian we looked out onto the street. All you could see were big 4x4s, people getting out of them and stepping into restaurants. During the day we have only seen a few people out on the streets and very randomly they all seem to have been mowing the lawn.

Where is everyone?