Worth it to bike uphill to Crown Hill for free aquarium passes? Heck yeah! And the money I saved was a bit more than we dropped along the way at Top Ten Toys to replace the wooden puppy lost in Discovery Park the other day. I was chagrined to realize that the free passes were a block deeper into Crown Hill than the dreaded Soundview Park I just said I wouldn’t bike to again.

The aquarium was great, but the cool red octopus bike rack was blocked off by construction. The guy at the ticket desk hadn’t noticed the fencing (so new today?) and checked into it. Turns out it’s tunnel-related and the strength of the seawall is being tested chunk by chunk. The octopus should be back in business next week if not sooner. But in the meantime, I had a great excuse to lock up to a pole right by the entrance; the octopus is kind of far away.

After the aquarium we paid a visit to Pike Place Market and took the elevator at Lenora to save a bit of hill climbing. It’s a nice elevator, but we still had to climb one steep block of Lenora so I’ll look for an alternate route next time. I’ve taken the elevator by pier 66 before and seem to recall that one was easy enough for getting to higher ground.

19.3 miles today. I pointed out to Mr. Familyride that I was less aerodynamic than normal due to toting the stroller along. He laughed and said there was nothing aerodynamic about me to begin with and it was more about the added weight of the stroller. Oh well. My carbon fiber side-entry water bottle holder still makes me feel fast and light every time I look at it.