The 25th Annual Anacortes Oyster Run

What a perfect weather day to spend riding all over the Puget Sound yesterday!

After getting up at 4:30 and having my usual morning coffee, I loaded my stuff and went to Kent (the next town over) to meet up with Steve and some others that would be accompanying us on the ride. We met at Gators, a bar and grill that's open for breakfast at 6am. They dish out quite a big breakfast, and nobody left hungry. We ended up running a little later than other years, but it was okay because there were more of us. It's just a little more fun when there are more people sometimes, you know? At one point, we detoured off the freeway in Lynnwood to pick up another rider and continued on our way.

We got to Anacortes at about 10:00, which is only one hour later than usual, but we had to park almost all the way at the end of town! Maybe it was the 75+ degree sunny day or whatever, that place was seriously packing them in when we got there.

We did all the obligatory stuff we were supposed to do... Ogle the ladies, hit the beer gardens, buy a t-shirt of the event. I ended up having a bowl of clam chowder (one of my weaknesses) at one booth, and a salmon burger at another. Both were good, but lacked seasoning to me. I like my salt & pepper you know... We wandered around quite a bit up and down the street--Taking pictures and absorbing it all.

I don't know exactly when we left because I never wear a watch when I'm off work. From Anacortes we turned onto the road leading South to Whidbey Island, opting to go by ferries instead of a boring freeway ride home via Interstate 5. We made a couple picture stops at Deception Pass, and continued South. We ended up taking the ferry over to Port Townsend. In case you didn't know it, it's the home of Fort Worden--The place they filmed An Officer and a Gentleman. We didn't care anything about that... We were just riding. Continuing onward, we rode across the Hood Canal Bridge onto Bainbridge Island, and worked our way to another of Washington State's ferries--This one taking us to downtown Seattle. By this time we had already lost two of our riders, them having opted to go different directions for whatever reasons. As we worked our way down toward our starting point, more and more left. By the time I got off my freeway exit, only Steve was continuing farther South.

I got home at about 7pm, and was pretty tired. I wasn't sore or hurting or anything--Just weary. It felt good to park my ass. I ended up getting a shower and hitting the sack an hour earlier than usual.

I posted the few pictures that I took on Picasa, which is another fine Google product (free endorsement). It works pretty good, and especially considering the fact that it's free image hosting. Here's the link to the picture album:

The 25th Annual Anacortes Oyster Run Pictures

When I get together with Steve and exchange pictures, I'll add to them and announce it here. For the mean time, however, enjoy what little there is!