Being called a dude by a homeless man was a high point of today’s ride.

I read Seattle Bike Blog’s piece about the new Wallingford bike boulevard with only mild interest back in January because that was before we had plans to move to the affected area. Now that I’ve travelled both directions on 45th, I see the need for it.

Today I put one more notch in my shopping-by-bike belt and rode to Whole Foods–first time from the new house. This was my first trip east on 45th and it wasn’t any better than going west. Maybe even worse, due to the freeway overpass. I might be slightly biased because waiting at the light to cross 7th a homeless dude said to Brandt, “What are you doing way back there, little guy? Helping your dad?” Apparently my two ponytails could not counteract my masculinity today.

Heading up 11th wasn’t bad; it’s not too busy and it has a bike lane. It probably gets crowded during rush hour, but my “work day” tends to happen during off-peak times. Our small shopping trip was a success. I padded a glass jar by wrapping it in my Ergo before stowing it in the basket and the baby held our bag of Tings so they wouldn’t get squished. Heh, actually it was all I could do to pry the bag out of his hands at checkout. I’m not sure I could routinely count on the kids to help tote groceries, though.

I considered detouring by the old house to avoid all the Roosevelt/U-District traffic, but if I ever want to be a real urban cyclist I need to HTFU so we stayed on Roosevelt. Roosevelt was fine and 45th was still somewhat sucky. I don’t think there’s any time of day that 45th isn’t busy so I rode on the sidewalk. I don’t like resorting to the sidewalk, but I’m grateful it’s legal to do so in the city of Seattle. That bike boulevard can’t come soon enough!