My visit to the PNW

[Crankin]

I wasn't sure where to put this, since it's not quite in the categories of Adventure Stories or Touring, sort of in-between.
Just got back from 8 days in the San Juan Islands/Seattle. Did about 95 miles of riding on San Juan and Lopez Islands, as well as some hiking. Yes, I wimped out on doing some of the more difficult terrain on Orcas, but it was plenty hilly, even without that. The weather was perfect, restaurants superb, and we spent some time with an older couple that DH did some consulting work with, back in AZ, in the 80s.
On Friday, DH and I had lunch with Bicciclista and Salsa, overlooking the sound in downtown Seattle. It is always so nice to finally meet the "real" people behind all of the writing here. In the last month, I also met Veronica and Thom, who had breakfast with us, on the way to Maine, as well as having lunch with SheFly, who lives in the next town. My "regular" friends are always amazed that I actually meet and develop friendships with people I meet on-line. They don't get how the bond of cycling makes it different than meeting some creepy person on-line. I guess there could be a cycling weirdo out there, but so far, none of the TE people I have met (about 10) have turned out to be that way!