Today after a great nights sleep, we went downstairs to have breakfast and get ready to do our first day of tandem riding with 400 of our closest friends.
Downstairs breakfast was an absolute zoo of tandem teams all grabbing breakfast at the same time! I felt sorry for the one overworked woman who was tasked with keeping breakfast items cooked and replaced and coffee pots full. They serve scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits as well as the normal grab and go and waffles.
We had decided to start the first day with the shorter 35 mile ride. It took us through beautiful flat to rolling farm land and through 2 old covered bridges. The day was just beautiful, we were on the bike by 8:00 and it was mid-50s with sunny skies.
This is the second covered bridge.
After the ride we rode back the hotel and got cleaned up.
We found a well reviewed place in downtown Albany called Brick and Mortar and decided to try them for lunch. It was great both service and food and the place was packed!
Downtown Albany is being restored and is just beautiful. As you can see in the photo of the Flint Bldg above they are restoring all the old downtown. We spent about 2 hours wandering around town.
We also made another visit to the Historic Carousel and Museum to watch the carvers as they worked on the carousel animals. It takes the painters a year or more to paint a carousel animal and can take 8 or more years to carve one.
When we left the Carousel we walked down the river path to enjoy the Willamette River.
