Once a month we turn a trip to the orthodontist into a big adventure by taking bikes. Our orthodontist is 20 miles away, in Issaquah (hometown of Modest Mouse if you’re not from here and think Issaquah sounds familiar) so we do a bike/bus combo trip. We usually take the Sound Transit 554 from downtown, but our appointment was later than normal and we were able to take the much closer-to-school/home Sound Transit 556 bus. It was our first time on this line and the route is completely different so that was exciting.

We take my Bianchi Milano city bike (“the old mamabike”) when we use the bus since my Big Dummy is too long and too heavy to go on the bike rack. It was easiest when it had two kid seats and we all fit on the bike, but now it just has a rear seat and one kid has to ride his own bike. Actually, today it had two rear seats because I brought it’s original rear seat, a Bobike Maxi, along to give to a friend. The new rear seat is the Bobike Junior, suitable for my now bigger kids.

I didn’t strap the extra seat on very well at the beginning, but my six-year old helped by holding it on. The extra seat also meant I couldn’t drape my eight-year old’s bike over the seat(s) and ride the bikes two blocks to school and had to walk them side by side–such a pain! I’m not very good at ghost riding (riding one bike while dragging another with one hand).

Issaquah is a great town. When the kids were littler, they loved the train-themed playground and adjacent train museum (they still like the playground, but don’t care so much that it’s train-themed). They also love Maurice, the barber in the Cut Loose Caboose next to our orthodontist, and happily get their hair cut there while Daisy, the Pomeranian, looks on from the cupola. There’s also a salmon hatchery and we can’t leave without lunching (or dinnering in this case) at the Issaquah Brewhouse (crayons and kid menus, Duplo table, board games including Battleship).

One more thing: My friend who now has the Bobike Maxi recently wrote an excellent blog post: If you’re not biking, you’re part of the problem.

30 Days of Biking stats:
April 6 miles: 18.1
April cumulative miles: 118.8