Today’s first: up up up to Discovery Park! I met up with Biking with Brad at the locks and followed his Xtracycle up the steepest route possible to the park. I’d previously been on the wooden bridge between 33rd Ave W and 32nd Ave W once, but in the other direction when I missed my turn and got more hill than I counted on. In the northerly direction, this is the route one ends up on following the “Ballard via Locks” bike signs, by the way. If I come back on my own, I might try my usual Fort St Bridge crossing and climb up W Government Way.

One of the moms at Brad’s kids’ nature school recognized me from the poster for Moving Planet [September 24 at South Lake Union Park, RSVP on Facebook] and I talked baby bike seats with another mom. But Brad stole the show because he took shifts of six kids at a time for spins on his Xtracycle while we waited for our blackberry paint craft projects to dry.

But Discovery Park wasn’t all fun and games. The bumpy paths caused a couple things to bounce out of my baskets: the little kid’s berry-picking basket and the big kid’s wooden puppy that comes along everywhere lately–doh! Note to self: lash down all cargo in future.

Who knew that yesterday’s Helix Bridge adventure would serve as a dry run for today. After everyone had their turn on the X and the paintings were all dry, we followed Brad and kids home for lunch. They supposedly live in Lower Queen Anne, but it was plenty uphill for me. Apparently “lower” is to bottom as “flattest” is to flat, as I tiredly discovered on San Juan Island last summer.

As we were getting to leave Mid Queen Anne, a friend texted me to say she was in my neighborhood of Wallingford and wanted to meet up. It felt odd to reply, “Sure! We’ll be home in an hour if you’re still there” when by car we were only 10 minutes away. I need to get over the feeling of having to apologize for being different and biking everywhere.