We dropped our houseguest off at the airport this morning (by car) and then biked over to Matthews Beach. I learned a valuable lesson along the way. I saw a poster for the Orange Bike Parade and wanted to take a picture and tweet it, but while I was digging around in my bag, not finding my iPhone (left it at home, turns out), the bike (and kids) tipped over. This has happened before a couple times and it’s heavy to pick up. The other times people have run over and helped me, but I had a brainstorm that if it happened again, I should remove the kids before righting the bike and save my back. Worked like a charm! And I only had to take the 35-pound rear kid out.

NOTE: I’m a huge klutz. The millions of mothers who bike with kids in the Netherlands don’t drop their bikes and you won’t, either. Today’s fall was about being stopped on the slopey gravelly shoulder of the bike path and being an idiot. Here’s the poster I went through all the trouble to take a picture of:

3rd Annual Orange Bike Parade
Sunday, October 2nd, 2012
Seward Park, Seattle
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Registration $15 individual | $45 family

We had a great time last year and plan to attend again. However, I haven’t been on the lookout for orange pants, plus I sacrificed one of my orange socks to Totcycle for the 9 to 5 overnight scavenger hunt. Time to orange up! There will be t-shirts, decorating, and face painting at the event so it’s not imperative to show up ready to roll.

Another fun ride is happening the same day: the Tour de Flannel. We also did this ride last year and loved it (though we didn’t go all the way to Woodinville like the read riders).

Back to today: the beach was big fun and I’d like to point out that the bloody nose was a result of a head-on brothers collision in the playground and not from the bike mishap.