A couple exciting things happened on the way to Pike Place Market this morning: we saw that the model boat pond in Lake Union Park is refilled and we met the Easter Bunny.

We were headed down 9th when we saw the Easter Bunny wandering around luring kids into Umpqua Bank for free candy, dog cookies, and professional photos. The baby decided he’s not a fan of the big bunny, but he did enjoy a surreptitious dog cookie in the evening.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I bought into the hype and tried to park my bike vertically by the Pike Place Market balloon clown. Needless to say, the weight of the rear Bobike seat made it impossible. Fortunately, the clown was busy with some tourists and didn’t notice and laugh at me. I ended up locking up near the fence of elevated bikes. It was useful that I parked flat in the end, because a cool dude on a $30 vintage (read: old Craigslist) Schwinn came by to admire the Bianchi and ask a bunch of questions. I think I talked him into upgrading to a Dutch bike.

The market was a bit of a bust. It was crowded as always and our friends didn’t show up so I figured we’d relocate to REI and see if could find a new messenger bag to salvage the day. I’ve gone back to using my old bag with the broken zipper and torn inner lining because my husband’s old Timbuk2 was simply too huge to use…though not big enough to hold the kid’s balance bike, it turns out. I couldn’t find the perfect bag, but at least we found the bike racks this time and the boys had fun playing in the kiddie climbing tree…and I only had to climb up once to rescue a stuck baby.

The ride home was nice, too. We saw Maximus/Minimus pulling into a garage. I don’t know if its parking sty is a closely guarded secret, but I’m filing this as an exciting secret discovery. I made it up Densmore, but that was with a couple well-timed stops for snack distribution, dandelion picking, and then a long break at the top of the hill at Wallingford Playfield. It was cheating, but it was nice not having to walk the bike at all.

Daily distance: 10.8 miles
Cumulative: 198.6 miles