Today was THE BEST DAY! The gorgeous weather certainly had something to do with it–although it wasn’t clear enough to see Mount Rainier on the way to the grocery store this morning (our usual spot for seeing her), the skies were fairly clear and the day just got bluer and warmer. It was also nice to partake in a bike ride I wasn’t leading. While I love leading rides and enabling more families and women to get out on their bikes, it was nice to just coast along in the wake of today’s ride, responsible for only the three bodies on my bike. But today was really everything all together: the friends, the music, the weather, the laughter, the BIKES.

We started the day with a quick trip to the grocery store and made a great discovery: Hammered Man is back! He lives outside the Blue Moon Tavern and his arm brings his cup to his mouth when they’re open. His arm stopped working a while ago and then he disappeared. I hoped he was just out for repairs, but since I never go by without the kids I couldn’t exactly go inside to ask. I kind of love that the kids call Hammering Man at SAM “the big drinking man”.

After that we didn’t have to do any riding alone until the end of the day–and just by chance. Mr. Family Ride was heading out for a ride at the same time as us so he kindly slowed to a quarter of his normal speed and took my longer way down to the Burke-Gilman Trail. Note the Danish Mosquito bike in my FreeLoader. We carried it along to the ride to lend to a little friend whose bike was recently stolen. Just his luck I haven’t gotten around to selling it yet.

Just as we left Mr. Family Ride and the Burke-Gilman Trail we met up with this family of four on two tandems. I haven’t seen them since last year’s Labor Day Cargo Bike Ride, but today they were heading to the climbing wall and we just happened to cross paths. In the picture the passing roadie is probably asking a question about the cool bikes. I couldn’t hear him, but I saw him look admiringly at each tandem as he went by so I promise he’s not yelling or lecturing.

Then we all caught up to two families headed to today’s Cargo Bike Ride. I knew they were leaving my neighborhood at 11:15, but had assumed I’d be running to late…and indeed would have missed them had they not gotten caught up by the Fremont Sunday Market and had I not made the light and crossed on that side of the bridge.

Here’s most of the crowd for the ride, though a few more showed up after this picture:

Davey Oil led the ride this time (and will do so for future Easter Cargo Bike Rides, I believe) and just look at this fabulous fivesome at the front! Davey and Little Oil, Tom of Seattle Bike Blog, Haulin’ Colin, and Velotron with his amazing bicycle sound system.

Thanks to a draw bridge delay and the group splitting into two, we took third place! Ha ha, no, of course it’s not a race, but we were the third to arrive. Unfortunately that meant we caught Haulin’ Colin hiding Easter eggs. Now the kids think he’s the Easter bunny. Works for me.

And soon enough we were joined by everyone else:

I completely forgot to make egg-collecting baskets, but the kids’ helmets worked great! We’ve been coming on this ride for years, but this is the first time we’ve lasted for the egg hunt.

Other fun stuff: I brought Gerbera daisies, but they looked boring laying on the table so I created a snazzy centerpiece using my helmet.

And despite having told several families they can get a smaller toddler on a Skuut balance bike by turning the frame upside down, I hadn’t actually seen this in person until today:

The one-mile ride home was our only ride without company, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t festive. Bunnies! Chicks! Eggs! As the sign hanging on the Waiting for the Interurban statue said today, HOPPY SPRING!

Today’s miles: 17.5 miles
April cumulative: 297.8 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 7

Dogs: 0
April cumulative: 16