And so it begins...

We first arrived in Seattle on Friday, June 27.  We had some time to explore the sites- so we drove by the Space Needle, camped out in lovely Dash Point State Park, and saw where Dave used to be docked when he was with NOAA for a summer job doing bathometric surveys.  Then the next morning we went to the largest, most grand and awesome REI.  It was amazing.

Larry (Dave's dad and fellow cyclist- woohoo) was busy trying to tie up some business, but we were able to drag him out of his hotel "office" to catch some bites to eat now and then.

And then...we drove to the University of Washington on Saturday to register for the SEA TO SEA TOUR!  Ack!  Here's a photo of all of us Meyer cyclists- you can kind of see the tops of our bags- 100 pounds worth just between Dave and I.  You should have seen us lugging these puppies around the airport...

So, here we are in Seattle.  It's so beautiful here at the University of Washington that we're picking out degrees to pursue our Masters in.  We hear from fellow cyclists though that we shouldn't get too settled in right here yet because there are amazing places to still to see this summer.

Everyone's a little jittery about our first day out cycling (tomorrow, gulp), but it's just a gentle 50 mile day starting with a tire dipping ceremony- so it should, relatively speaking, be an easier day.  We've gone through cyclist training, posed for group shots with the other 125 folks who are doing the entire coast-to-coast journey, had an awesome commencement ceremony courtesy of some local churches, and done a load of laundry.  So, here we go I guess.  It's all feeling very surreal.  I doubt sleep is going to come too quickly or easily tonight.

Here's a shot of some of the group in front of the semi truck that will be functioning as our mobile kitchen for the summer.  Very impressive.  ->

(and yes, that is the back of Dave's head in the front right)