Yesterday’s afternoon grocery run didn’t really count as a snow ride, but today we were met with snowfall as soon as we left the house for the Children’s Museum. The roads, bike path, and sidewalks were all fine on the way over, but quite a bit of snow fell as we rode along. We saw the light green streetcar train off its tracks and a horde of fire engines at Denny and Vine so not everyone had as easy a morning of it as we did.

Heading home a few hours later, things were much snowier. A guy offered to take a picture of us in front of the Space Needle, but I didn’t want him to have to take off his warm gloves. Turns out they were smartphone-friendly Outdoor Research Sensor Gloves he got at REI. Very cool.

By 4pm, the sidewalks were awful around the Seattle Center and South Lake Union. I saw countless people slip and fall. The roads weren’t bad, though, so I took a lane and rode home without incident. The same didn’t go for the bike lanes–Dexter’s separated bike lane was a lovely white two-inch deep blanket of snow.

Things got much better as we started climbing the hill of Westlake to the Fremont Bridge. The sidewalk was clear so I was able to leave the road for my slow ascent and once we reached North Seattle, there was very little snow on the ground. We stopped off at Gas Works Park and were surprised to see so much green. My guys ran up and down the somewhat snowy hills while bigger kids sledded and rode truckless skateboards down the sludge, oblivious to the better conditions a bit to the south.

My two-year old got cold on the way over so I’ll force him into his ski mask and ski goggles tomorrow. I wrapped him in a scarf, but he didn’t want to burrow his face in it to stay warm. The four-year old was warm enough, though rolling down kite hill at the end of the day did him in. I did a bit of layering and was fine–rain pants over jeans paired with two sweaters and Mr. Family Ride’s Endura Luminite Jacket. It wasn’t too bulky and it kept me warm. I realize it was quite cold out because this was the first time I wasn’t tempted to remove gloves and jacket for the uphill ride home.