Pannier recommendations?

Hi folks -- I'm new to this Forum, and am glad to see that there's a place for women to discuss bikes and bicycling. I'm a longtime road biker myself -- right now, though, I can't ride, because I stupidly broke my arm trying to get my bike onto my Yakima roof rack. But that's a whole other story.

My question: I'd like to get my girlfriend a set of panniers for her birthday, which is coming up very quickly. She and I have been talking about biking the San Juan Islands in Washington State, and she also wants us to do the Seattle-to-Portland ride at some point, so I'm assuming that she'll need panniers that will hold up through the rain. She's also a student, and will use the panniers to carry multiple large books to school.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good waterproof panniers? I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't remember what kind of bike she rides (I think it's a hybrid), much less what brand/model it is. And no, I don't know what kind of rack she has. (She lives some distance away, so I can't just go look at her bike.)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I use a large saddlebag to carry my gear back and forth to work. I teach 5th grade so I had to make sure I got a bag that was big enough to carry my largest textbook. I don't think I've ever filled the thing to capacity. I went the saddlebag route because I didn't have to worry about balancing the load. The material is pretty water resistant. I've only been poured on once (so far) and everything stayed dry. Follow the link and you can see my bike with its bag from a couple different angles.

http://www.tandemhearts.com/bike/ramb/index.html


Arkel also makes really nice bags. Very sturdy. We have one of their handlebar bags for our tandem. Everything in it stayed dry when we were caught in a tropical storm in Hawaii.

Happy shopping!

Veronica