The boys and I donned rain gear and swam our way to the Kidical Mass meeting point this morning. We found ten brave participants–distributed on two Madsens, one Bakfiets, and one road bike–sheltered under the overhang of the Ballard Library. On the way over, I discovered my jacket is not waterproof. Nor were my gloves. The kids fared pretty well, but the baby kicked off one of his rain boots at the library so I removed his damp sock and tucked his bare foot into his Newt Suit and hoped for the best.

The rest of the ride was just as wet, but given the fun company it wasn’t too bad. The bakfiets and road bike family made it to the locks before heading home. The blue Madsen pulled off a bit later so in the end it was just the Totcycle crew and us. I’m so happy I finally did the locks with them again because now I’ll remember (perhaps) to take 27th up from Commodore.

It was a relief to arrive at the covered Bikeworks bike parking corral. I met a very nice woman from Whidbey Island who admired my front bike seat and invited me into their group to share their $2 off coupon. We must have looked more bedraggled than I realized because one of the other women in the group spotted my entrance fee before I had a chance to dig out my wallet. Once inside we shed our wet outer layers and mixed with the dry Expo goers. I don’t know how other people managed schlepping their rain gear around, but I was lucky to spot Fritz at the Dutch Bike Co booth and he let me stow my two bags of wet crap under their table.

The boys loved watching the German artistic cyclists last year, but they were not interested in sitting still this year. We also missed Ryan Leech (too crowded), but I was able to sit us down for most of the fashion show. We lasted just long enough to cheer for Totcycle before needing to go in search of more stickers. I was able to spend a little time at some cool booths: the S.U.Velo Boxie cargo bike looks nice in person as do Bike Wrappers reflectors. I noticed them beforehand when browsing the exhibitors list, but hadn’t realized one needs to reverse them to change from the pretty pattern to the reflective side. I can barely remember to lock my bike so I don’t think I’ve got it in me to change a wrapper around. However, they would be a great way to pretty- (and safety-) up my mountain bike if I opt to take that out in icy weather next winter. The Family & Cargo Bike booth was wonderful, of course, and the boys hung out in another S.U.Velo there and I noticed on its label that it will be carried by Dutch Bike Co. The Classic Bike Show was very cool, but not kid-proof so we ran through quickly on our way out.

I did have one mission, to buy a dry top for the ride home because even though the rain had stopped, I wasn’t keen to ride home in just a t-shirt. I was having trouble deciding between a hideous $15 very visible yellow shell at the HUGE BLOWOUT booth and a $99-marked-down-from-$220 grey Trek rain jacket. It wasn’t the jacket I’d buy if I had time to shop around so I decided to look around for something long sleeved and not necessarily water resistant. At the Recycled Cycles sale rack I admired a Canari Sub Zero Jersey Jacket. It was too big, but it seemed worth it at $65 because my little buddies were getting restless and the label said it was from San Diego. If only Recycled Cycles had a sister store called Recycled Jerseys and I could swap it for a size smaller. But it did the trick for the sunny nine-mile ride home. Didn’t make it to Commodore via 27th, by the way, but next time I’ll get it right.