Author Archives: mtminds

Riding the Rails

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Well, no planes today, but there were trains and automobiles (and a bus).

The alarm went off and we were up before dawn to be sure we made it downtown in time to catch the train to Kansas City. We made it to the combined Greyhound/Amtrak station with plenty of time to spare and had time to watch the parade of people. While we sat, a bus to Phoenix and another to Alabama were announced, loaded, and sent on their way. Listening to the list of stops on each route sparked more wanderlust except for the thought of riding a bus for multiple days. Riding the rails sounded much better.

The train left on time and we settled in to watch the state of Missouri pass by the window. The train was a local that ended in KC so it stopped in quite a few smaller towns on the way, including several that we will overnight in while riding the Katy. They all looked quite interesting and made us even more anxious to start cycling and have the chance to really see these places.

Most of the other passengers were very quiet and enjoying the scenery. We had a group of cyclists (those annoying cyclists!) behind us who were crossing on the train in order to ride the Katy in the other direction. We certainly did not mind listening to their chatter that included talk of cycling, but then one member of the group who was sitting behind us by several rows decided that his back felt better when he stood. So he stood in the aisle next to his friends for the rest of the trip, about 4 hours, and talked incessantly until we finally got to KC. Even his friends behind us sounded weary and worn out by it all for the last part of the ride. At least we were able to walk away from them all when we got off the train. His friends will be riding with him for many days!

It was a pleasure to walk into the beautiful classic Union Station in Kansas City, which has been beautifully restored and also includes a museum and theaters. Our brief view of the city was more favorable than St Louis, but we just saw a small part.

Union station

After a long day on the train, we decided to scrap our original plan to get out to our hotel via streetcar and bus, around a 90 minute trip. Uber again to the rescue and we were at our hotel in less than 30 minutes instead.

For dinner we set out to walk to a local BBQ restaurant a few blocks away, but were turned back by artificial rain. Instead we ducked into the chain BBQ next to our hotel (Famous Dave’s) and had some very good Kansas City BBQ anyway. “Burnt ends” seems to be a particular Kansas City favorite, so we ordered some up. Burnt ends are the pieces from the very end of the cut on a brisket. Since the meat is thinner there, and on the end, it get exposed to more heat and smoke than the rest of the brisket. Very good!

This turned us back (whimps!)

We are concerned about our trip back to St. Louis on Sunday. As you have probably heard, there was another not guilty verdict on a police shooting of a black man here. Keep in mind that Ferguson is close by. There are numerous protests going on now. We hope they don’t turn violent, but would not be surprised if they do. We have been warned to avoid downtown St. Louis, but that is where the train station is. We will continue to follow the news closely in case it gets to the point that we need to make other arrangements to get back to St. Charles.

Gateway To The West

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That’s our hotel!

Today was time to check out St. Louis. We are far enough out that we had to catch a bus to get to the light rail line, and then take that into the city. A couple signs that we are not in Seattle anymore: first, the sign at our hotel proudly announcing that this IS a smoking facility, and then the sign on the light rail that they JUST banned smoking on the trains as of 9 days ago.

And the light rail

Everyone had been telling us we should check out the Arch (memorial to St. Louis’s role as the gateway to the west — not only did Lewis and Clark leave from here, but so did many of the pioneer wagon trains, etc.) so we headed over there first.We went to the Old Courthouse to buy our tickets. The courthouse itself was quite interesting. Not only was it the location of the original Dred Scott case, but also had some good exhibits on early St. Louis history.

Old Courthouse and Arch

Old Courthouse – another view

Looking up in the rotunda

The Arch was interesting, but I have to say underwhelming. Getting to the top was a matter of buying a timed ticket in advance, then queuing at the designated time, then climbing aboard an amusing small little pod for the trip up. Because of the unusual shape of the arch, they can’t use a traditional elevator, so instead there is this train of little pods that climb up a curving track. Anyway, you get up to the top and exit into a very small room with tiny windows looking out in two directions. You kind of have to lean over and lay the upper half of your body on a shelf to see out the little windows. After about 5 minutes you have seen everything there is to be seen, so you queue up again for the ride back down. Yes, you can see for 30 miles in each direction, but there just isn’t much to see!

Your pod awaits

View from the top of the arch

Next to the arch is the embarkation point for the river cruise tour, so we headed over to do that as well. Again, just a bit underwhelming. Yes, it is a cruise on the Mississippi, but St. Louis just doesn’t seem to present its face to the river. Bit of empty bank, bit of old industrial buildings, lots of bridges across the river, and the rest hidden behind a wall they built to keep the floods out.

Going under a bridge

Something about this struck us

There was one interesting bit on the river, however, as we noted a ‘party boat’. It consisted of a barge pushed by a tug that had one of those tent canopies along with folding chairs and a table set up underneath. Oh, and there were a couple of honey buckets. And many people mingling around. Yup, that’s how to party on the Mississippi!

Party!

We did stop at a bike shop to pick up a couple extra water bottles for our ride, and then headed up to the big city park (site of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair). We originally thought we might go see the zoo — supposed to be one of the best in the country – but it was too hot and our feet were too tired, so we made the very good decision to instead visit the Missouri history museum. Best thing we did all day! There was a good exhibit on the 1904 World’s Fair, and then a wonderful exhibit showing St. Louis history through panorama photographs, blown up to wall size and accompanied with explanatory notes.

We just missed the bus back to the hotel at the end of the light rail line, so we gave in and Ubered back (is that a word now?) For dinner we headed back to the BBQ place from the first night. Some brisket, shrimp and grits, and a couple beers, and we were feeling much better!

Stairs back to our hotel from the lower level

On The Trail!

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The Katy!

We started the day on the Katy Trail, but not by bike. We can access it right by the hotel, but it was a rather strange access. Our hotel is at a large casino, spa, and hotel complex with a rather excessively grand and gaudy entrance across a bridge from the Main Street of St Charles. We could see the trail below us as we stood on the bridge and could also see another, lower bridge that led into a level below the main parking level of the hotel. So we found a staircase that led to the lower level and discovered a strange underworld to the hotel!

Newer upstairs entrance

Deserted area below new entrance

This level appeared to be an old previous parking lot and it had clearly been flooded in the past. We learned later that there was a large flood last May. There were large piles of dirt around the vast parking area that had obviously been cleared from the flood. This area is where deliveries are still made, but otherwise it was quite deserted and eerie.

Emerging from the creepy parking lot, we crossed the old low bridge and found the trail in front of us. It was exciting to just walk the trail into town and anticipate our future departure via bicycles in a few days.

Our first stop was at the Lewis and Clark Boat House. St. Charles is where the Corps of Discovery made their final departure on May 20, 1804 after Lewis met up with the expedition. The museum has a replica of the keelboat they used and also an excellent movie on the expedition. It was fascinating to think that the Corps left from the river right near our hotel and then ended at Fort Clatsop, which we have visited several times.

Missouri River from our window, just about where Lewis and Clark left from

Replica of Lewis and Clark keelboat

Looking forward

After learning about the strenuous trials of the expedition we needed to find nourishment ourselves. The Trailhead Brewing Company fit the bill perfectly and we were soon able to continue on down the Main Street of St Charles, checking out shops, restaurants, and the old buildings. St. Charles was founded by the French and most of the architecture is French Colonial in red brick or limestone. It’s quite an attractive town.

Mike getting distracted heading into lunch

The brewery where we had lunch used to be a gristmill

We had to make a stop at Little O’s old Time Soda Fountain, an original soda fountain that still makes “phosphates”. How could we leave without ice cream? Not possible, obviously. The shock came when we saw how big our two scoops amounted to! But oh so good. Like any good small town, there was also an independent book store, so we had to do our civic duty and find a good book to buy.

And those are NOT small cups!

St Charles was a charming town with a very interesting history. Tomorrow we will see what St Louis has to show us here in the Show Me state.

Street scene

Bar that Kevin and Melinda might like – very dog themed

Meet Me In St. Louey

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Now there is a theme for a trip!

Tami and Mike had an adventure this morning – our first use of the Uber app. We have ridden in cars arranged by others a few times, but have never tried it out ourselves. Despite assuming we would screw it up somehow, we managed a successful trip to the airport. It made for an overall easy transit to Missouri, but flying over the Cascades gave us an up close view of some of the continuing fires and smoky mountains.

Smokey Mountains

The reason we took Uber instead of our usual bus and light rail to the airport is that we have the BIG Bike Friday suitcases with us. Just a bit much to try and lug around the streets. It is so much nicer to have our own bikes here, though, rather than spending the week on rental bikes. We will leave them packed for now, and get them built up after we get back into town on Sunday. We have a group meeting with Bubba Sunday evening, to get us all organized for starting the ride Monday morning. I understand there are 42 riders signed up for this tour!

People tend to look at us a little funny when we say we are flying to Missouri for vacation, but there is actually a reason. We are taking a week bike trip with Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers on the Katy trail that crosses most of the state from St. Louis to Clinton. The bike trip starts next Monday, but we flew down early to do a little touristing (and to catch a soccer game). We will be here in the St. Louis area for a couple days, then take a train to Kansas City where we will attend a Sporting KC game, then take the train back. One more notch on Tami’s list of MLS stadiums visited.

We are staying in St. Charles, named after Saint Kevin Charles, an early Columbia, Missouri journalist. After we checked into our hotel, we caught a local trolley bus for a short tour of the area. There is a very cool historic main street that we will go back to check out more closely tomorrow. We also fulfilled the first item on our trip checklist, having some St. Louis BBQ. We were impressed with Hendricks BBQ just down the road from our hotel and located in the old St. Charles Waterworks building. Besides the wonderful dry rubbed ribs, we had fried green tomatoes, southern greens, creamed spinach, and some great biscuits. Oh yeah, the moonshine sangria was pretty good too. And locally brewed pecan brown ale.

Hendricks BBQ

Just liked the detail work

No Pedals

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Along the shore

At last! We gave our poor legs a break today. Mike and Tami did compare their various cuts, scrapes, bruises, and gouges from five days of running pedals and shifters into their legs. Keenan’s legs seemed to be unmarred.

After a good lazy start to the morning we walked down to catch one of the foot ferries that run up and down False Creek. With a day pass in hand, we first stopped at Granville Island and checked out the public market and various art galleries. The last time Keenan was there he was pretty little. We remembered how hard it was to pry him out of the toy store. Now he actually enjoys going to art galleries as much as we do. Who’d a thunk it?

We hopped aboard another ferry to check out the Vancouver Maritime Museum which features a retired RCMP arctic exploration and support ship, the St. Roch. It was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in a west to east direction (1940-1942) and the first ship to circumnavigate North America. Very fun to climb around the ship and see how the crew had to live for months and years at a time.

St. Roch

More Roch

The museum also had an excellent exhibit on the history of Japanese-Canadian fishermen in BC, including their treatment during WWII. Interesting to see the parallels between the US and Canada in how the Japanese were treated.

After all that walking we needed more boat time so we took another ferry all the way to the end of False Creek, checked out the beer, calamari, and fried pickles (all excellent), and caught another ferry back. This ferry was being run by a skipper-in-training. She seemed to be taking the wheel for the first time and she was actually doing pretty well, but after hearing her being coached through the process for several stops, I think we all felt ready to give it a try ourselves. They didn’t offer, though.

While taking the foot ferry we got to see some members of the local paddling club in various types of boats

We had to hoof it back along the shore again to return to our hotel so of course we worked up another appetite. Tonight’s dining selection was a small Chinese noodle house with fresh hand pulled noodles, Legendary Noodle. We each had a different preparation and variant of the noodles, including black bean pork and mushroom, chicken with peanut, and pork garlic chili sauce noodles. Yum yum yum. Since we head home tomorrow, we also felt we had to finish with some ice cream so we found a slab ice creamery and now we have the sustenance needed to face packing tonight so we are ready for a 5 am departure tomorrow.

A Bridge Too High

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No, we did not take THAT route out of town!

White Rock is a town that sits at the bottom of many hills. The only way out of there is uphill and the only variables are how steep and how high. We chose the route that climbed a fair bit, but at a steady gradual slope. When you ride bikes you learn that it is slope that really counts. You can climb the Rockies if you have a mild gradient, but you can be off and pushing if a one block climb is too steep!

We were also looking for a quick breakfast on the way out of town. Mike had promised a McDonald’s (egg McMuffins are good road food), but everyone was starting to wonder when we were near the edge of town and still had not found it. Finally it appeared, well past the rest of the business areas.

Our bikes pretty much took up the whole bike rack our front, so when another biker rode up, he took one look at the rack and just leaned his bike against the window. It happened that we were sitting on the other side of that window, so when he saw us, he raised his bike in greeting. Soon he appeared at our table side to talk bikes. And talk he did! He was an older gentleman (older meaning older than Mike and Tami) with a French accent, though we never got his name. He was very entertaining and launched right into a series of stories, first about his collection of bikes (he has one bike that is good for uphills and another that is good for downhills, but the problem is neither is great for both). Then he told us the times his wife got frustrated with his keeping his bike in the front entry and he came home to find it in a heap at the bottom of the basement stairs. He also told us about one friend who used to be a professional bike racer decades ago, and still does some amateur racing. He was visiting this friend one day and the friend took him down to see his bikes. He had a number of VERY high end bikes, but he had some complaint about each one. When asked which one he rides given the various complaints, he said, oh, I ride my wife’s bike.

After a while we realized the stories could go on all day, so we reluctantly excused ourselves as we had to get back on the road. Our friend did follow us outside to look over our bikes and offer a few last comments. McDonalds has never before been nearly so entertaining!

We then headed across the flatlands south of Vancouver, following a route carefully calculated to stay flat as long as possible. We had to ride on the side of a busy highway for a few miles, but that ended mercifully quickly. That led us to some nearly deserted farm roads and then several miles of well packed dirt trail. Mike had actually discovered that trail from seeing it out the window of the train on several previous trips. The trail was definitely one of the highlights of the day. We only wished it had been longer.

Given we were on less familiar ground, there were lots of map checks today

On the trail

After we finished the trail, we came to the first bridge of the day. It had a nice bikeway separated from the cars, but it was HIGH over the Fraser River. It was quite the grind up to the top, where we stopped for pictures because it was a lovely view, and then zoomed down the other side. Almost immediately, however, we were on to another bridge, as the first one had brought us to an island in the middle of the river, so we had to get off the island as well.

Resting at the top of the bridge

View from the bridge

The bike lane

By this time we were getting pooped, so when Mike spotted a couple picnic tables in a field, we pulled right in. Turned out it was a dog park. Since there was no one else around, it was the perfect place for the boys to water a little grass.

Tired dogs in the dog park

Leaving there, we got on the second wonderful section of the day’s ride, River Road along the south bank of the north arm of the Fraser (previously we had been crossing the south arm). Again it was a very quiet road with some great views, until it wasn’t (near the end it turned industrial with trucks).

River Road

A third bridge – this time the bikeway was slung off the side of a skytrain bridge – finally brought us into Vancouver proper. So far it had taken three bridges just to cross the Fraser! We still had to get up and over the ridge that is South Vancouver. Funny, it always seemed relatively flat driving into Vancouver, but on a bike you discover otherwise. It did take us, however, through a neighborhood of beautiful old homes, which actually made it the third great section of the ride. Except for Tami, though, as she was getting tired and hungry, which in turn makes her grumpy. Mike therefore started looking for food. This was difficult as we were riding on a residential street, but finally we came to a business street and Mike spotted a pub. Funny, but Tami’s grumpies went away as soon as she saw the menu, even before the food had actually arrived. It is all about anticipation!

From there we just had one more bridge to cross and then ride along the shore for a few minutes down to English Bay right by the south entrance to Stanley Park. We got checked into our hotel and then went out for cocktails to celebrate the end of our ride.

Near Stanley Park

That area of town, Denman Street, is full of small ethnic restaurants. We only had to go about a block to find a wonderful Malaysian place for dinner. After dinner we pretty much collapsed. What a day.

Malaysian dinner nearly done – we can never remember to take a picture BEFORE we eat, only after we start to slow down

O Canada!

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Mike rockin the jersey

Today was the big day, we were cycling into another country! Out of Bellingham and heading north through more farm country, we had some nice miles of quiet back roads and a few miles of busy highway. Once again it was Tami who said it MUST be about time for a break, but the planned stop at a park was unfortunately not accessible from the road we were on, so that chocolate muffin had to be consumed  while sitting on the edge of a ditch by the side of the road.

Mike’s plotted route next took us to a “bike path” which turned out to be an old section of road owned by BP that is now gated off and open to pedestrians and bicyclists only. To get to it, you head down a road that says Dead End, but you keep going until you reach the gate. Through the gate, the two lane paved road continues for several miles through beautiful fields of tall grass surrounded by trees and hills. We saw one other cyclist and a couple walking a dog and child. So peaceful.

Abandoned road – what a wonderful place to ride

Tami taking another break

At the end of the road it drops right down to Birch Bay State Park so we got ANOTHER snack stop with a gorgeous view out to the Salish Sea and a real picnic bench to sit at. Leaving the park we had more beautiful waterside riding until we didn’t.

View from Birch Bay State Park

Tami stacking rocks – deep concentration!

Our next turn not only took us up a HILL but the hill had just been freshly covered with gravel and oil. Yuck! Okay, that was not fun but it did get better as we got away from too much traffic and no longer had cars spitting gravel at us. But at least it did lead us towards Blaine where we stopped for lunch. We did need to refuel for the grueling border crossing, after all. We had another delicious meal, including deep fried avocado. Yum!

Deep fried avocado

It was literally just a few blocks to the border crossing but finding the way for pedestrians and bicycles is challenging. After a few turn arounds and asking the park personnel, we found the skinny little path that took us down to the multi lane car entrance, which we had to cross to get to the bike path. Or at first the US grass that leads to the nice Canadian bike path that leads to the actual crossing. Mike can tell this story…. Mike: As I understand it, the Canadians could only build the path to the actual border point. They have tried to get the US to build a path to meet up with it, but so far no luck. It is very strange as the US has a path that comes to within about a 100 feet of the start of the Canadian path. Oh well.

We discovered that bikes get to jump the line! Our entrance was just one side of the nearest vehicle lane and the immigration officer just turns to his other window and beckons us forward, ahead of the next waiting car. They even let us in! Of course, then we had to find our way to the small road that led to the super secret path that Mike had discovered on Google Maps that allowed us to cross the river on a footbridge and voila! We were in White Rock! Our first night in Canada.

Once we got checked in, we went for a walk around White Rock. This is a very British style seaside resort town, complete with tons of Fish and Chip shops. We also popped into an ice cream shop that we discovered the last time we were here. Not only do they have some great flavors (like 7 Up Float with Skittles), but the very happy proprietor has a constant stream of Frank Sinatra songs playing, to which he sings along.

Waterfront walking path

Is this how White Rock got its name?

That’s a satisfied look!

After a bit more walking, we found a seafood restaurant for dinner. We all got stuffed.

Chuck That Nut

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Farm animal we saw

Keenan spent the night in the hall. No, he was not being shunned, just taking the opportunity to NOT sleep in the same room as his parents. The airbnb place turned out to be just a bedroom in a condo. Keenan got an air bed on the floor. However, the owner was not home, so Keenan dragged the air bed out into the hallway. That would have been a surprise if she had come early!

The day dawned on the much anticipated and much feared ride that would take us up Chuckanut drive to Bellingham. We left Mt Vernon on quiet farm roads and enjoyed the lack of traffic and the pastoral views. This part of the ride was flat as a pancake. We saw a lot more potato fields and Tami found many more cows to moo to. Made a lot of cows turn their heads! Keenan calls her the cow whisperer.

Another farm animal

It did not seem to take long at all before we were hitting the bottom of the hill on Chuckanut so away we went. Slowly. Steadily. With a number of stops to check out the beautiful views, oh, and to catch our breathe.

Nice place to stop and catch our breathe

Gooners

Mike had ridden up the route previously on RSVP, but Tami and Keenan had never done it before. Mike told of going up and down multiple hills, but the worst was the last hill and it was called Lemonade Hill because there was always a lemonade stand to replenish the liquids of the RSVP riders after that last horrendous hill. So we did a lot of up and down and could tell from the mileage that we were nearing the end. We climbed one long hill and Tami was thinking, oh no, we still have to do Lemonade Hill, but as she reached Mike and Keenan at the crest of the hill, Mike said, with surprise in his voice, “That was Lemonade Hill!”

We did it! He said it was not as bad as he remembered, but then, he did it before at the end of a 100 mile day. But we were shlepping panniers up the hill so we still felt pretty good about ourselves. It was an easy peasy finish to get into Fairhaven and find a good pub where we spent a very leisurely lunch relishing our great ride and conquering Chuckanut Drive.

Tami and Keenan also did a little shopping while Mike sat outside watching the bikes.

And a little ice cream!

Mike and Tami have offered to let Keenan write a guest post so he can get back at us, and he says he just might, so just putting a warning out there…

 

Legs of Lead

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Slimming down!

Ready for day two of our travels to Canada, we stopped at a favorite stop in Snohomish for breakfast, the Bakery at First and Union. Always a fun and popular stop on a bike. Must have seen at least a dozen other cyclists while we were there. They actually have bike racks in their courtyard, not just out on the street.

Powered up, we headed off down the Centennial Trail, one of our frequent ride destinations. It was strange to ride past the Trails End Taphouse, our favorite post-ride stop in Snohomish, and realize that we would not be turning around to finish there. Instead we were riding through to Arlington and beyond to Conroy and Mt Vernon.

We will confess, our legs all felt a bit like lead. None of us had gotten a great night of sleep and heading out felt tiring. Perhaps it was knowing that this would be our longest day. It felt good to stop just before Arlington at our favorite burger and fish and chips stop and take a good break. Yet more fuel!

Love the Junk Yard

He’s such an arrogant bastard

Wondered about the combination of pirate hat and safety vest – later figured out they were working the art walk

We also stopped in Arlington for their summer art walk but did not see much art, actually, so we pressed on. As we left the art walk a gentleman kindly pointed out that there was a bike trail just a block away. We thanked him and headed back to the trail.

We were able to cover 30 of our 45 miles today on bike trails and it was so pleasant on such a gorgeous day. We had a short stretch of a few miles on highway 9, but then  took a very scenic ride over a pass into the Skagit Valley where we were able to follow  quiet farm roads into Mt Vernon. Cows, corn, potatoes, mountains, and blue skies. Mike and Keenan did about 46.5 miles and Tami did 48 miles. Tami seems to be riding in a parallel universe where she daily puts in more miles than those other two. (M – Need to adjust the settings on her bike computer.)

Going over the pass

Skagit Valley

Mike was quite surprised, but pleased, that the pass over to the Skagit valley was much easier than he remembered. Funny how memory can play those tricks. He is, however, now suffering from a condition known as “baboon butt”. Nuff said. (No picture.)

We had to wait to hear from our airbnb host so what else could we do but stop at Skagit River Brewing for some brews and dinner. Since we got there around 4, we initially thought we might just have a few appetizers and come back downtown for dinner later. Then we looked up the hill at our destination and said “Nah, let’s have dinner now too!” Such a great stop sitting out on their outdoor deck. We are finally now showered, fed, and once again oh so tired. Tomorrow we tackle Chuckanut Drive and explore the wonders of Bellingham.

BEER!!

Keep clam

SnoCones?

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The before shot – I am sure we’ll be svelte by the time we finish

We hit the road at the not so bright and early hour of 9:30 am, after powering up with Mike’s breakfast sandwiches. The first thing we discovered is that carrying extra weight on your bike makes the hills higher and your speed slower. We were struggling to get our average speed UP to 10 mph!

Hitting 9 mph – more power Scotty!

The trail we followed out of town

And speaking of weight, Keenan confessed over lunch that he had seriously considered throwing in the 20+ pound dumbbell he likes to work out with in the evening. He didn’t because he did not feel like carrying it to work with him the day before (he came straight to our house after work). He claims he did not initially make the connection that if carrying it to work would be too much bother, carrying it to Canada might be worse.

Having no deadlines and only about 37 miles to cover, we took our time, stopping whenever Tami got hungry. She was NOT happy to discover at our first snack break that some of our bike snacks from the bike snack bag at home were tasting a bit old. Rancid peanuts in particular are not a pleasant surprise. She swore to restock at the first store she could find.

Stopping for snacks, but not good snacks

We did make a nice discovery for lunch in Everett. We spotted a new Hawaiian restaurant, and a guy on the sidewalk told it was really good, so we decided to look no further. It was even better than expected. Incredible chicken wings, spam musubi, fried noodles with kimchi, and miso ramen with shitakes soup all went down quickly.

Keenan contemplating the extra weight he could have packed

Our steeds at the hitching post

At lunch

While the first 27 miles had been mostly on bike path, the last 10 were on quiet farm roads to Snohomish.

The farm roads ran through a flood plain. Tami liked this horse next to an old house.

Our biggest hill of the day was riding up to our airbnb rental once we got here. We caught some quick showers – those felt really good! – before walking back down into town to window shop a bit and scout out a dinner location. On the way Keenan spotted a sign for SnoCo Crossfit, which he took for a place selling snow cones (he claimed the sign got torn off). We finally ended up a pub we had been to before. Mike got an apricot sour beer so he wouldn’t have to share.

We were not sure what these were for. I guess just a warning that the sidewalks might be dangerously unflat.

Stuffed, we waddled on back to the house and collapsed on the couch, at the late hour of 6:00 pm. Now just taking it easy and wondering how soon we can go to bed.