Day 2 - Optimism

Birch Bay, WA to Bellingham, WA - 30 miles

Maybe we were a little optimistic that the boys could make it 30 miles in one day, but they did awesome!  Even with stops we made it to Larrabee state park by 3:30pm.

Today we had our first big hills.  The boys knew that the uphill would be difficult, but they were motivated by the downhill coast they knew would be on the other side.  It was also motivational when they passed Dad going up the hill.  My favorite quote of the day came from Bins.  "That hill looks sweeeeet."  One of the reasons we got them each a bike computer was so that they could see their statistics and be motivated by them.  It worked!  They loved knowing how fast they were going and comparing with each other.

Speaking of motivation, we decided to reward the boys for today's long ride.  We bought Haribo gummy frogs at the store and planned to give them each one after every 5 miles.  Soon, they started referring to our distance in frogs.  "How many more frogs till we get to camp?"
After arriving in camp, Stephen and I were lying on lawn while Tan played on the play ground.  Bins walked up and I told him he could either get out some energy out on the play groud with his brother or sit down and do nothing like his parents.  His response: "Can't we ride around a little or something?"  Me: "Are you kidding?  30 miles wasn't enough for you?''  Where do they get all this energy?

The evening was warm and we turned in early. It would have been a perfectly peaceful night if not for the train that rumbled through camp... 200 yards from our tent..horn blasting...6 different times.

Day 1 - "O Canada"

White Rock, British Columbia Canada to Birch Bay, WA - 18 miles

If you look on a map, it may not be 18 miles from White Rock to Birch Bay.  Considering the route we took plus a visit to the grocery store and biking around the camp ground, that's how many miles Stephen and I logged on our bike computers.  Our boys, on the other hand, logged 22.  While we were packing the trailers, they just couldn't sit still and wait.  They biked circles around the storage facility where we are leaving our car for the next... who knows how long.

We started our ride in Blaine, WA, but to make it officially border-to-border, we first rode north into Canada.  We even got stamps in our passports to prove it.  After a short ride to Peace Arch for a family photo, we proceeded south across the border again.

We anticipate this trip will take 2-3 months, but in order to get a taste of accomplishment on day one, we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant for lunch.  Canada to Mexico only took us about 30 minutes.

I have the camera, but I realized soon into the trip that I had to reign in my desire to photograph every point of interest.  If I pulled out the camera every time I wanted to, this trip would easily take 6-12 months.  With fall on its way, we don't have that kind of time.  We saw murals, rusted iron sculptures and some of the biggest sheep in the world!

We got to our camp site in Birch Bay State Park at 3pm.  Bins was willing to go 20 more miles to the next camp site, but Tan wanted to be done.  We've said all along, that we're not in a rush, so we set up camp and spent a leisurely afternoon.

After dark, I stepped out of the tent to retreive our bike computers and noticed something rustling in the bushes.  I called Stephen out to investigate with me and we found racoons trying to get at our breakfast.  We were able to scare them away and luckily learned early in our trip that a clothes line doubles as an effective food suspension mechanism.

Canada to Mexico, why not?

A word of explanation:

Our family is planning to spend the next 2 - 3 months biking the Pacific Coast.  This is something my husband has wanted to do for a while, so we have thought much about the how's and when's of the journey.  The original plan was that I would drive along in a support vehicle with our children, taking side trips and homeschooling along the way, then meet up with him in the evening for dinner and camping.  When the opportunity presented itself recently, I decided that I didn't want to miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime, so I invited the rest of us a long with him on our own bikes.

We left Houston, TX on Tuesday, August 26th and took our time getting up to Canada.  After visiting family along the way and a bit of car trouble, we began biking on Thursday, September 4.  This blog will chronicle our trip and all the adventures we encounter along the way.  Feel free to join us.