Wednesday morning, leaving Victoria — Riding ferries makes for great mandatory time to relax and write. We're just pulling out of Victoria, BC now, heading by ferry to Port Angeles in Washington State. At that point we ride across the Olympic Peninsula to the coast and start on trek along Route 101 to California.
Our day 1 ride yesterday was gorgeous. We starting with a 25km hop from Vancouver to pick up the ferry, then a 150km meandering (read: couple wrong turns) pull from Nanaimo to Victoria. This drive is dominated by the Trans Canada Highway, a wide express to get to Victoria as quickly as possible. Thanks to some last minute route prepping online using Google, we (read: I) set up a route jumping back and forth across it and avoiding the freeway as much as possible. This including riding through Cedar, a town of pungent cedar smell of course, Chamainus on the sea for lunch, around Shawnigan Lake, climb to Malahat, and descent to Victoria. We met Adam and Caleb, Jesse's and my old college buddies, for Japanese dinner, listened to stories about their businesses, art installations, and Ironman triathlon training. We made a quick trip to see Caleb's fascinating GI Joe show at a local coffeehouse and restaurant. Yes GI Joe. It's amazing in that it has a great sense of humor yet it still is meaningful. Then to the hotel and asleep before we hit the pillow.
Now we're lying on the deck on the ferry, with Mt Rainier in the background, and enjoying the only cool breeze we will probably enjoy on this record-breaking, forecasted 37 degree Celsius day. Viva la VT!