.. well - or not. At least that was the plan. So yes, we went to bed way to late and got up... not as early as we should have. Of coruse we had to go for breakfast (hey come ON, it's Sunday and there is always time to go for breakfast - you know what I mean! Right? So there...)

Well, we finally hit the road at around noon, on the 99 south towards the Blaine border crossing, which went smooth and with barely any wait.

 

Bellingham

Nothin too exciting here. We both dislike highway driving but it would be unreasonable to skip the Highway 99 in Canada or the I5 in the States for this small section of the trip. So we suck it up and zip down over the iterstate.

West coast weather at it's finest: Yesterday it was warm, sunny, blue sky in Vancouver. Beautiful weather. Today it's dry, but rather.. "nippy". In anticipation of anotehr nice day, I unzipped most of the layers in my jacket and pants. At the toll booth, it turns out that the source of the ratteling noise I noticed over the last few km were my very own teeth. So I add a sweatter, assemble my jacket again and flip on the heated grips For the rest of the way to Bellingham. West coast weather: Never boring!

We make it to Bellingham in one piece after dodging huge trucks and wind gusts. After leaving the interstate we thoroughly get lost!!! Great. A few hours into the trip and already lost. My own personal navigator, who used to be a field surveyor, loves maps and own a GPS unit, finally succumbs to peer pressure (that's me!) and asks a huge black lady for help, who in turn consults her (only slightly smaller) daughter, who gives us very animate directions that sort of lead us into the correct "general direction" according to GPS...

Well... Lets leave it at that. We got to know the outskirts of Bellingham very well - it's very beautiful and teaches you that everything is a matter of attitude :-)

Time for coffee. We stop in the midst of historic brick buildings and reward us for the first 250 km (or so) with a mean americano at Tony's coffee.




Deception Pass Bridge, Whidbey Island and Port Townsend

The Chuckanut Drive to Deception Pass is an amazing piece of motorcycling with constantly changing sceneries and a nice curvy road hugging the coastline. One can't help noticing that people here pull over almost instantly to let you pass when they see you closing up. Very nice and a huge difference to the rather aggressive driving one faces in the Vancouver area.

Deception Pass Bridge offers amazing sceneries and - very important - a bathroom on the other side. Geez, that coffee!!! Another 45min along the stunning coast line to the south point of Whidbey Island where we catch the ferry over to Port Townsend, where we set camp in a motel to end day one. A historic, sleepy town with very nice folks living here. Try the Pale Ale from the "Port Townsend Breqing Co" with a slice of pizza from the towns pizza shack close to the ferry terminal. But beware: The whole town shuts the lights off at 10pm, except a lonely Safeway, which is open 24h.