A New Journey Begins
A New Journey Begins
Travel Day:1024 miles, 35,000 ft ascent, 9 hrs.Daily Drena: Seattle Beckons We started the morning with some last minute packing and welcoming our lovely housesitter, Brandon, who is going to fit in just fine around here as he pulled up…
The City
The City
Seattle Biking Day:39.55 miles, 1030 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 50 min.Daily Drena: Miles and Smiles with Miley After a restful evening, we awoke refreshed and began preparations for the bike ride around Lake Washington. This began with a finely prepared…
Cattle Point
Cattle Point
Cattle Point Biking Day:21.11 miles, 1338 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 2 min.Daily Drena: Room with a View Today had an unfortunate start of a call from Brandon. Panicking, I answered the phone thinking that Sophie had escaped and run off,…
Tour de San Juan
Tour de San Juan
Roche Harbor & Lime Kiln Biking Day:38.02 miles, 2417 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 15 min.Daily Drena: Balance Today started with an early wake-up call from the 8:00 ferry blowing it’s horn as it left the harbor, but we managed to…
Deserted Isle
Deserted Isle
Shaw Island Biking Day:15.96 miles, 1332 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 21 min.Daily Drena: Quiet Roads We were up early this morning, but didn’t have plans to catch the ferry to Shaw until later, so meandered into the downtown to grab…
Old Pottery Road
Old Pottery Road
Orcas Island Biking Day 1:25.87 miles, 2560 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 17 min.Daily Drena: You Don’t Mind This morning had a pretty fog on the water before dissipating shortly thereafter. We relaxed in the condo waiting until we saw the…
Enroute to Kangaroo
Enroute to Kangaroo
Orcas Island Biking Day 2:28.92 miles, 2759 ft ascent, 7 hrs. 25 min.Daily Drena: Scenic Stops We enjoyed our morning breakfast in the balcony, taking in the last of the sight before packing up and heading off to our first…
The Popsicle that Missed the Ferry
The Popsicle that Missed the Ferry
Orcas Island to Lopez Island Biking Day:30.46 miles, 2362 ft ascent, 9 hrs. 19 min.Daily Drena: The Seven Three Minute Stops Jill and Charles provided a gourmet breakfast this morning, of honey-glazed croissant with fresh jam, steelhead trout, egg frittata,…
Iceberg Point
Iceberg Point
Lopez Island Biking Day:34.00 miles, 1845 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 48 min.Daily Drena: Side by Side A dappled sunlit morning greeted us from within our tent. We wandered over to the outdoor kitchen to make our simple breakfasts of oatmeal…
Homeward Bound
Homeward Bound
Travel Day:1162 miles, 35,000 ft ascent, ~17.5 hrs.Daily Drena: Home Sweet Home Trip Stats:233.89 miles15643 ft. ascent51 hrs. 17 min. exploring The morning was spent wandering around La Conner (on foot, not bike…), popping around the various art galleries, book…

Cobblestone Makes for a Bumpy Ride

Biking Day 3
55k, 700m+, 15% off road
Daily Drena: Inquisitive Kittens
 
It’s a sunny day and the beaches are fab. We continue to travel through one little charming village after another, and each one is just as cute. We’ve improved upon our lunch strategy, with a quarter of last night’s sandwich each, and whatever we can smuggle from the breakfasts. We meet a German couple at breakfast who seem to share the town with us, as no one else is around. We start the day with the trip’s first taste of an amazing little chocolate croissant. We almost turn around to go back for more, but there are too many hills we’ve already passed.
Today is tiring again, and I curse Antonio for always finding us fabulous places with a view at the top of a big hill. We debate how to get more cushion under our bums and decide we’ll take out anyone who comes by with a full-suspension bike, but alas, no one comes. I consider how we could work it to take a rest day and repair our bodies, but there are too many things already planned in the days ahead. If I were to do this again, I would choose shorter distances, but Drew is a happy camper. We stay at a wonderful farm guest house, and are greeted with two curious kittens, three dogs, goats, and a hammock. Love! Another lovely place, but I think it’s meant more for the summer as there is only heat in the bedroom and I miss the heated floors from yesterday. Our resident ‘mom’ is very friendly and drives us to a great restaurant on the point in Arrifana, which initiates our Chicken Piri Piri kick. It feels weird to ride in a car.
Lorena Fox Arrifana, Odeceixe, Portugal No Comments

What Goes Down, Must Go Up

Biking Day 2
47km, 400m+, 50% off road
Daily Drena: Wonderment
 
We have learned that one Portuguese law of biking physics is “what goes down, must go up”. Breakfast had the best fresh squeezed orange juice ever. It’s interesting that none of the OJ in Portugal has made my tummy hurt, most likely because it’s real. The nice ladies and gentleman send us on our way with a packed lunch, which is homemade chocolate cake and oranges. They just gained 25 extra stars in our book! Again we are amazed by the breathtaking coast, with sharp cliffs and rocks. We see storks on the cliffs, including a mama feeding her two babies. It only rains a tiny bit today, so the views are even that much more attractive. The terrain is sandy and puddly from the rains before, which makes for harder pedaling.
The place we stay in Odeceixe is very modern with heated floors, and we attempt to keep our eyes open long enough to do work in the cozy fire lodge. I absolutely love this place, but Drew doesn’t like it as much because it’s “modern”. And also because we both are still in love with our new family friends from yesterday. Again we are pretty much the only ones in the entire town, and are getting used to having Portugal to ourselves. However, this means that again most every place is closed, but we find a local’s bachelor hangout that serves three things – bean soup, tuna sandwiches, and ham/cheese sandwiches. Drew orders two ham/cheese sandwiches, which confuses the owner at first until we explain that Drew is very hungry. The bean soup is the best I’ve ever tasted, mostly because I’m starved too.
Lorena Fox Odeceixe, Portugal, Vila Nova de Milfontes No Comments

The Land Just Ends

Biking Day 1
51km, 400m+, 25% off road
Daily Drena: Sublime Hospitality
 
We are off on the bikes! We start to get a taste of the beautiful coast, but the rain starts soon thereafter. Luckily, it does clear up for a bit and the cows ring their cowbells and some of the sheep do too. Little lambs play in the field. Phillippe said that we’d fall in love with Portugal and he was right; we have fallen in love at first sight. However, the last leg it is not just raining hard, but raining sideways. It wasn’t cold the entire trip though, and because this is the first day, we still consider it ‘fun’. We end our day riding on the cobblestone streets of Vila Nova de Milfontes and show up on the doorstep of our B&B looking like drowned rats. They quickly usher us to the fireplace, hang up our clothes as we peel them off, feed us hot tea and homemade chocolate cake, and give us slippers. They are so welcoming even though we can’t speak a lick of their language. Drew is able to use some of his French with one gentleman. We really want to stay forever at this place; it reminds us of a typical grandma’s house.
Dinner tonight is better planned and we look at the photos on the restaurant’s website ahead of time and try to remember until the time comes to order. Drew matches his up correctly with beef kabobs, but I don’t see mine at first and end up ordering a shrimp paella(?) which isn’t my favorite. But at least I got the shrimp part right and didn’t get octopus! The two grandma’s and grandpa let us wear their jackets because ours are still wet. We are stylin’ now!
Slippers are mandatory – is this a Portuguese custom? I was too tired to open my slippers at first and I got in trouble with a “no, no, no”. Oops. As we try to do some work, we chat with a nice Holland couple who was staying there also. We run into them the next day and they take the awesome picture at the statue for us.
My favorite spot on the entire trip is a little beach cove in Porto Covo. If it were closer to home, we’d have our wedding here. Instead we renew our ‘engagement vows’ and reenact a proposal. 🙂
Breakfasts are an interesting mix of breads, jams, cheeses, thin deli meats, fruit, and sometimes scrambled eggs. Any place that provides eggs receives a bonus star from us.
Lorena Fox Portugal, Santiago do Cacem, Vila Nova de Milfontes No Comments