Day 1 Everrett to Sedro Valley, WA

So the blog is BACK!!!   2010 was the year of Vikki and my 40th present was riding my bike across the USA.  (i know hard to believe right!!??)  Well, this year it's Craig's turn - to celebrate his 50th, he wanted to ride his bike 1,509 miles following the Pacific Crest Trail.  And, well......I couldn't let him celebrate alone! I have the first few days to catch you up.  I can't guarantee that I will be blogging every day due to fatigue, massage, laundry oh and of course eating!!!   I've also been asked to post more pictures of people, less food and "scenery" types.  I know, picky picky eh?  Pictures may or may not be labeled if I can figure out my blog on my iPad.   Well, after a lengthy search on line there are only 2 ways to upload pics using my ipad wordpress or blogspy and they both suck and will give me hours of exaggeration - so sorry no pics till i figure out a website to load them in and then give you permission to see them - WTH!!?? Laugh with me folks! Oh and apparently no matter the amount of editing and formatting it seems to just plunk everything in one continuous paragraph. Again, throwing my head back and laughing!!! We arrived on Thursday, with an Orca whale watching in the San Juan Islands scheduled for Friday.  It was awesome!  We saw about 14 Orcas, an eagle, harbor seals and several waterfowl.  The orcas were from 3 different pods and we got to see them doing all kinds of stuff - breaching, playing and  on their sides slapping the water with their fins and feeding. Our fabulous topper to the day and an incredible treat was our dinner plans.  Tom Napa invited some of us to his home in Edmund, over looking the bay- stunning folks just stunning!  He and his fabulous wife, Laurie had Michael(WA), Jerry (MN), Jonathan (Australia) and us over for a truly scrumptious meal!  I swear Laurie worked her tail off!  Steaks, roasted rosemary potatoes, a killer broccoli, feta, hazelnut salad they discovered in Ireland, salad, salami and aged cheddar, olives of all kinds, cheese stuffed figs wrapped in bacon yeah!  Strawberries, blueberries, chocolate cake, muskat, wine -- oh my! (don't worry no pics of it though). We had a blast catching up and kibitzing! Saturday we got our bikes put together and went for a quick spin to test everything, including our legs - with about 1,000 feet of climbing in 14 miles! Sunday - Day 1, Everret, WA-Sedro Valley, WA, 95 miles, ~4,800' climbing As usual, we woke with nervous anticipation, how will the ride go, will my legs cooperate, will my heart explode out of my chest?  These questions and more assaulted my mind as I chewed my eggs and potatoes trying to eat enough but not too much.  I prepped my water bottle with my favorite Perpetuem designed to give you fuel for sustained outputs of energy, plus a little caffeine as a kicker vroom vroom!! From Everett, Washington we rode the Mukilteo Ferry across to explore the coastal region of Puget Sound. We disembarked on Whidbey island and Fidalgo Islands.  We went through gorgeous forests of towering pines and a dewy mist that made me decide to put on my arm warmers!  The ride was gorgeous as we made our way along we met new riders, Chuck from CA who is the second owner of a 1965 Ford Mustang as we swapped stories of those splendid machines and made me miss the 420hp of mine ( given up for the two legged human power type!!), Dean from South Carolina who had also done the Assualt on Mt. Mitchell and sadly saw folks carted off with hyperthermia on that ride. We had a yummy lunch in PAC style along the water with the ever present breezes blowing.   We Crossed Deception Pass Bridge along with several riders for spectacular views of the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges and the water below of Puget Sound to the West and Similk Bay to the East.  Stunning.....that is how I would describe the views today.  If you ever get a chance to ride in this area you really should!  We ended the ride in Sedro Valley at Three Rivers Inn. We decided to sign up for massages and to have dinner early.  There weren't very many choices, so I robbed Craig of his Mac and Jack's (beer) at the pizza joint to have teriyaki where there was more of a chance to get veggies - score broccoli!!  My fav!  On the way back we were to full for the beer. Barb is the massage therapist - I gotta tell ya she worked the heck out of my neck!  I'll sleep well tonight for sure.  Craig also enjoyed his and came back with that sleepy eyed look! Now my friends I'm sitting here trying to get my blog rolling.  After I hopefully - successfully, up load my words and pics!  The Garmin data, well....we'll see.