The monsoon welcomes us to the West Coast

By last night we had our 2 panniers and 1 backpack all packed up so we opened a bottle of wine and watched the final episode of Broadchurch and a bit of the Sox/Baltimore game. We were both surprisingly perky when the alarm went off at 4AM, especially considering that we had polished off that whole bottle of wine. Uneventful trip to the airport and the flight departed right on time at 8AM. We bought a couple of snack boxes on the plane and Tom left what I thought was all trash on his seat when he went back to the bathroom. I dutifully handed the trash to the flight attendant when she came by. Tom returned and inquired after his glasses which I guess were perched in the empty snack box. Oops! He did manage to retrieve them from the airline trash so all was well.

We landed at Seatac about an hour early; must have been one heck of a tailwind. Descent was quite bumpy and it was just pouring rain as we taxied in to the terminal. We had a 1PM reservation on the bus to Anacortes but got that changed to a noon bus since we were so early.

Jeannie walked down to the location where they indicated we would get the shuttle bus (near luggage carousel #1) to see if there was someone there to be able to change the reservation. I went to get the luggage from the flight – which showed up promptly, unfortunately at luggage carousel #15 which was literally several football field lengths from the shuttle loading area.  Jeannie made that trip down to fetch me and then back to wait for the shuttle. We stopped and got a couple of coffees and sandwiches for lunch.  Here’s Jeannie in the terminal waiting for the shuttle.

Wind is blowing hard, rain is coming down and looks like more of the same for tomorrow. Seemed silly to try and pick up the bike today in the  monsoon as the B&B is only .5 mile from the ferry and we are pretty significantly loaded down. I called Island Bicycles and they are open tomorrow so we will go over then. Here’s Tom on his way to the bus

and here’s the view from the bus window as we head out

Bus was quite nice but a bit slow as it stopped in a bunch of different places and we had to switch buses in Burlington when the routes diverged. What’s up with the traffic around here? Multiple traffic jams on a Saturday – where are all these people going? Scenery was mostly strip malls and casinos viewed through pouring rain so we chatted, Tom dozed and I got the blog started.

Love the Anacortes Ferry terminal! Awesome little cafe window with home made baked goodies and epresso drinks. Ferry has switched to winter schedule so we had plenty of time to enjoy it

 I called Kirk House from the terminal since next ferry wasn’t until 4:30 so we would be getting in later than expected, She was so nice and even said that she would pick us up at the ferry because of the rain

The islands are beautiful! Great ride on the ferry and only wish that visibility had been better than this

Kirk House is amazing! Beautifully maintained Arts and Crafts style house and the owners, Doug and Roxie, are so nice. The lived in Portsmouth NH for a few years so we swapped stories of favorite places and they gave us a great tour of the B&Bs amenities which are many. Check out what we have in the Trellis room

We cleaned up a bit and walked down to Friday Harbor for dinner at the Cask & Schooner. Excellent food!

Picked up a few supplies in the market (that tub was crying out for a bottle of wine) and managed to stay up til 9:30!