The day started out bright and early with a ten mile ride from where I live to the Southworth ferry dock. I took back roads to not deal with traffic and see areas of where I live I've not before.
I met the co-worker at the dock. We had some minutes before the ferry was due in.
There was a nice view of the Olympic Mountains from the dock.
Our aim, to start out, was Vashon Island. Vashon Island was a short ten minute ferry ride from the Southworth dock. Vashon is a bit different from Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge has more of the upper crush, rich people who work in Seattle, types. Though they are very nice and it's a bike friendly place to ride, it is quite expensive to live there and it is more hoity toity. Vashon, on the other hand, attracts a different crowd. The people are also very nice but a more, for lack of a better term, like hippies. They are very earthy. It is also quite expensive to live on Vashon. But it has more of an artists hangout feel to it.
Vashon Island locals?
If you are like me, there is nothing you'd rather do on Mother's Day than to take Mom on a tour of chicken coops.
Not too far into the Vashon Island portion of the day's ride we came upon Vashon Island Coffee. It is a coffee shop, a store of sorts, and also a coffee roaster.
After some of Vashon Island coffee's finest, we back-tracked to the Farmer's Market. Though I didn't upload the pictures to this post, there was a portable wood fired pizza oven there and also live music. Now that's my kind of Farmer's Market!
We departed the Farmer's Market in search of the bike grown into a tree. The tree was quite old and the bike about eight feet above the ground. We did not gather any local knowledge regarding the who, what, when, or why. I'm guessing it was a bike placed a bit off the ground in a tree or leaned up against and then forgotten. Either way, or even some other way, it's grown in there now.
This is a typical Vashon Island road. There were quite smooth. There's one main road that runs north and south that had quite a bit of traffic on it. As soon as we left that road, we had the road we choose pretty much to ourselves.
When we reach the southern end of the island we hopped a separate ferry to Point Defiance Park. Again, about a ten minute ferry ride. We spotted this handmade kayak. This is one pretty much like the one I'll likely build over the winter monsoon season.
We left Point Defiance and made our way through Tacoma and to the Tacoma Narrows. We needed to ride the bridge to get to Gig Harbor and the beer festival. On the left hand side of the bridge on the left below, there's a very wide pedestrian/bike path.
Once we rolled into Gig Harbor, we opted to food up. Wood fired pizza was the choice. After leaving no crumb uneaten, we made our way to the Beer Festival. The place was packed and they were turning away those who didn't buy tickets beforehand online. Co-worker learned this the hard way. There were 18 different brewers with a total of 41 beers to choose from, and with the lone exception from Oregon, all were from Washington. And, all are small that don't ship nationally, breweries. Upon check in I was issued my 5.5 ounce capacity, genuine plastic, cup and eight tokens.
Knowing we still had twenty miles to bike, I limited my samples to seven. Still, I was pretty buzzed on the high-test beer and opted to sit and the shade a long while before we started for home.
Following the water we happened upon the place below. Though I've never seen Deadliest Catch TV show, I've heard of it. Supposedly, and according to the co-worker, the Lisa Marie is one of the boats that's been included on the show.
From there is was a tour of back roads to Port Orchard. There were a few roller hills but nothing too difficult for my alcohol addled self to handle. I acquired a very slight sunburn but had a great time exploring Vashon Island and attending the beer festival. Supposedly, we're getting into festival season - beer and otherwise. I'm looking forward to discovering them and turning them into bike events, too. Riding to a festival is the way to go.
All the pictures from the day are HERE. Check 'em out. There's 97, I think.
I'm not sure what's up next. Family is visiting from Thee Olde Country starting Wednesday and departing Sunday. I'm sure we'll be touring the area but not on bikes.
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