Road Trip 2019 Day 7: Seattle & Bellingham

Day 7 - 28 June 2019

We slept in a little bit this morning. The hotel bedding was super comfy! I thought about making a cup of coffee in the room to drink out of the pineapple mug, but I decided against it. I knew where we were headed shortly. Pike Place Market was a little bit of a walk, so we decided to take the pineapple themed beach cruiser bicycles for a ride to the market instead. I wasn’t used to pedaling backwards to stop, but it wasn’t too bad. The ride there was fine and we stayed mostly on the sidewalks. We found a spot to lock up the bikes right at the market and we started exploring. Our first stop was The First Starbucks. 
I promised Danielle I would pick up a mug for her and it was just one of those stops we had to make. Despite the line being quite long, we got through pretty quickly. They’ve got the system down. One employee is basically just in charge of corralling everyone into the right line. She handed us a placard with pictures of all the different mugs we could buy. I decided on that and Ross and I both made sure we knew what we wanted to drink before we got to the counter. We didn’t want to be those people with such a long line behind us. After ordering, we were funneled into the “I’m waiting for my order” line. This line was a little longer, but we got our white chocloate mocha and nitro cold brew drinks. Now it was time to explore the market. As I expected, it was very crowded. All the different vendors selling their wares. There were a lot of good smells and so many different things to see. There were plenty of fruit and vegetable stands and we wanted to pick up a few snacks. We found a big veggie stand and started scoping out the options. 
After some help from one of the employees we settled on some Washington Cherries, cherry tomatoes, and fresh sea beans. I wish we had sea beans at home! We continued to wander seeing all the things to see. We started to get hungry, so we began our search for a snack. I did take a quick detour into a spice shop and picked up two seasonings to add to my every growing collection: Harissa and Seafood. Just yards from the spice shop we spotted a small vendor that had vegan hot dogs wrapped in a puff pastry/croissant. They came with hummus and were very good! Once we were done with lunch, we wandered the market a little while longer. I saw, from a distance, the guys throwing fish. We got our selfie in front of the famous sign and wandered back to our bikes. 
We had already packed our bags and put them in the car, so we were checked out and ready to go. We stopped at the front desk to make sure we were all settled up and I decided to buy a pineapple coffee mug. We don’t really need anymore pineapple anything, but I had to have it. By 12:30 we were on the road to Bellingham. 

At dinner last night, it was recommended to us that we take Chuckanut Drive on our way up to Bellingham. So we did! It didn’t add too much time. It was about a 10-15 mile stretch along the western coast and was very scenic. We had to arrive at our Air BnB between 2 and 5pm. We pulled up at 3:10 and were greeted by two red curly-haired dogs and our host, Bill. Bill was probably in his last 60s or early 70s and was super nice. He also looked like the guy from the Saw movies. So, either we were about to have a lovely time, or death was imminent. Bill showed us around our very neat Tiny House. It had a composting toilet, so each time you did your thing, there was no flushing, just put a scoop of peat moss blend into the toilet. Much to our surprise, it didn’t smell at all. The only downside to the Tiny House was the water heater. A whopping 4 gallon heater, so we’d have to take pretty short showers. After explaining everything about the tiny house, Bill told us we could check out the rest of their property including the Glamping site. They didn’t have anyone staying until tomorrow, so we could go see it today. After we unloaded we did a little exploration. 

They had a tree house on the way to the glamping site where Bill’s wife (I forgot her name) said she would do yoga or meditate. She called it her she-shed. It was cute. The glamping site was neat, but we were happy with the tiny house. Their property had all sorts of gardens, flowers, and some information about bats. The neighboring property had a handful of cows and we saw them from a distance as we walked around. Now that we had sufficiently explored the grounds, it was time to explore the city of Bellingham. Ross found a local beer garden. They had a great soft pretzel and some vegan sausages. They even had a pineapple cider for me to enjoy. While we were waiting for our food and drink, we played some giant connect four. We each won a game. 

We noticed they also had cornhole sitting there waiting to be played. Ross, wanting revenge from the other day at Tieton Cider we picked our bags and each went for victory. In a foolish move on my part, I should have let Ross bust, but we played out the round and I ended up losing the game for myself. Whoops. In the middle of our game, one of the employees was assembling new boards. We told him that we’d try them out for him. This time, I would not be so foolish! I was victorious in the second game, so overall for the trip I was up 2-1 on bags and 1-1 on connect four. 
Despite how nice the beer garden was, we called the night a little early. I had homework to do and Ross was tired, so he tucked in early while I did some homework. I sat outside for a little bit of it and the patrol cat came wandering over for a few scratches. And just like that, another day done! One whole week on the road complete!








Stats

Miles driven: About 120

Step Taken: 5,615

Miles Walked: 2.6

Bellingham or Seattle?: Bellingham all the way