Today we trekked to Issaquah (20 miles away) by bike and bus for a toddler dentist appointment. Sometimes we drive there and sometimes we use two buses, but we generally ride downtown to catch the 554.

We headed over a bit early to hang out at the train museum and meet up with Issaquah bike personality extraordinaire, Kent Peterson, who is not content to simply do 30 Days of Biking like the rest of us and is “kicking” it up a notch with 30 Days of Scootering on a KickPed scooter.

I tried it–it’s fun! I’ve never been on a scooter before, but I used to skateboard so it didn’t feel too unfamiliar.

Photo courtesy Kent Peterson

And Kent took a spin on my bike. I’ll have to have him try the Big Dummy once I get the drivetrain fixed so he can better experience modern family biking. His experience is with bike trailers. The old mamabike is a bit of a wobbly beast…though he was too polite to say so :)

Then Kent took off for Seattle for a meeting (by scooter and bus) while we headed for the dentist and then the salmon hatchery. We’ve never come to Issaquah for a reason other than the dentist, but I think we’ll make an exception for Salmon Days in October.

One bad thing about long bus trips, especially when back-to-back with long bike rides, is that it’s hard for the kids to eat. We ate lunch before catching the bus, but the kids wanted a snack before the 45 minute ride home. This won’t be such an issue when it warms up and their hands aren’t encased in mittens preventing snacking, but for today we hid from the rain in front of Cinerama for a quick bite.

When we said goodbye to Kent I said, “Maybe we’ll see you on the other side” but of course I didn’t think it would happen. We bumped into one another in Issaquah once, but that’s not the same as in big bad Seattle. But lo and behold we saw him on the Burke-Gilman Trail! I have to admit that in Issaquah I thought the scooter’s bell and headlight were just for fun, but seeing him in action in the falling light on the busy trail, I got it. I should have gotten it to begin with, but I’m slow to change. Maybe he can give me a little advance warning what he’s going to pull next round.

Today’s miles: 11.7
April miles: 228.8