Seattle, in general, very much reminds me of San Francisco. Both cities are on steep hill sides that rise out of the harbor. Seattle is dense and compact, but nowhere near as dense as New York and not even as crowded as Boston, as far as I could tell. Riding was fairly easy, especially as Eric knew all the back routes, many of which were actually signed as bike routes.

Morning was spent catching up on all the prep we hadn't done. Matt and I borrowed Eric's car and drove to REI Coop's flagship store to buy a ton of things we needed. Just like yesterday, we got lost again, but this time in a car and only slightly.

In the afternoon, we went out riding (without luggage) with Eric through the bike routes of Seattle. Yesterday's rain and cloudiness had passed and according to Eric, this was the first nice day they'd had in Seattle this Spring/Summer. We skirted to the east of downtown on mildly hilly back roads marked as bike paths and separated bike paths. Then we took the pedestrian/bicycle path across the I-90 floating bridge to Mercer Island. (Neither Matt nor Eric would listen to me as I pleaded to ride the highway part of the bridge - to complement my bicycle excursions on the Boston end of I-90!). Mercer Island is a hilly, almost countrified, residential island within sight of the Seattle skyline. We rode the loop road that circles the island, lots of up and down. Eric and Matt decided to ride fast and I said I'd catch them later. Then at some point Eric dropped Matt also but eventually, towards the end of the trip round the island, Eric stopped and waited for both of us. Apparantly Eric had gained some time on Matt and they both had gained a lot on me. I guess that's when we found the second human relation theme of the trip - that Matt is a much faster rider than me. But, much to his credit, Matt never let it seem like he was annoyed at slowing down for me. For the rest of the 2 1/2 weeks we rode together, we almost never functioned in the mode of riding separately and waiting. We stayed at my pace for most of our travels. Matt was a real trooper for never making me feel like I was slowing him down.

From Mercer Island it was back across the floating bridge and back around Seattle on bicycle paths. At one point the bike path had us riding on what was really a sidewalk and led us down a wheelchair cut to a major street. On this street, bike paths were converging on this wheelchair cut from two directions. I didn't see a bicyclist heading for the ramp until it was too late and we hit head on. We both went down - I scraped my knee and flatted a tire. The other rider, in full racing gear, didn't seem hurt but he got up cursing at me, ignoring the fact that he was doing at least 20 miles an hour, a pace he had no business doing on a half-assed bicycle route. This crystallized theme number 3 for the trip - I hate bicycle paths.

At dinner I was starving and ate like a horse (that is, ate like Matt does. For those of you who don't know him, Matt is thin as a rail (a tall rail) and eats enough for two people.). Then I spent the evening repacking, including all the stuff we bought and Matt stayed up until the wee hours catching up with Eric.