I love bike corrals–though there aren’t many to get excited about here in Seattle. Strikingly different from Portland two weeks ago, where I saw several areas of town with corrals every block and the city cannot put them in fast enough.

Despite living adjacent to the U-District, I don’t spend a lot of time there, so I had no idea there was a bike corral just a mile and a half from home. I saw it Sunday on my way to a Seattle Neighborhood Greenways meeting…and then again on my way home while dodging jaywalking drunken college students because that’s part of the adventure of biking on The Ave.

Because I needed to do some grocery shopping, wanted to check out R+E Cycles inside, and see the bike corral in daylight outside, Forrest and I conducted a tiny Tour de North Seattle Bike Corrals.

We met at PCC where I got my shopping done while utilizing the plain, but very useful bike corral. My front rack is too wide to fit in a slot, but there’s a lot of blocked off space on the side so I generally take an end spot.

We biked to The Essential Baking Company to park at the fish bike corral. I’ve parked here momentarily to take pictures before, but this was my first time inside. Yum! Though I realized my longtail is a bit long for the corral and the way the road slants down by the curb rendered my centerstand useless so I leaned it on a fish rib and hoped for the best. I was sure I’d find it on its side after our snack break, but it was still standing half an hour later.

We headed up The Ave and spied a banner for the Up Your Ave Ave-venture this Friday, in which 40,000 UW students will explore their community. Probably not a good day to bike the length of The Ave like we did today.

We got sidetracked on our way to the bike corral at Bob’s Bike & Board–Forrest by the tandem and electric bikes out front, me by the adorable little dog named Ollie. Forrest currently uses a trail-a-bike with his son and I’m not sure he’s into tandems for himself or to pass info along to the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group because there are a lot of families interested in obtaining affordable ones (including me! But in a few years). The shop recently moved here from Laurelhurst and in this smaller spot isn’t carrying a lot of bikes, but does a lot of repair work. And, of course, cute dogs.

And finally: the car-shaped bike corral in front of R+E:

Interesting assortment of bikes in the corral–polo bike with two mallets, scary bike with red skull on the headset, zebra handlebar tape. Again, I fronted in and had trouble parking. Now I notice all the other bikes were backed in so I’ll do that next time and probably not grumble and not have to lift my heavy bike to maneuver it out.

There are many gorgeous bikes in R+E, lots of them tandems. I like the idea of a tandem plus trailer bike so I can carry both kids when they’re bigger and get some pedaling help. R+E does a lot with S&S couplings, primarily for travel, but this page has a photo of a triple-to-double bicycle they made utilizing S&S couplings. Brilliant!

The Pedal-a-Latte cafe within the bike shop wasn’t open. The guy up front said a barista would show up later, but that it was mainly for the employees to make themselves coffee drinks. So that’s a bit of a bummer. But it’s got a sweet sign:

And the coolest swinging bar door ever:

Accessory-wise, they’ve got the usual stuff as well as an Abus wheel lock and a bike-rack-sized cargo net. I love wheel locks. They’re so convenient on Dutch bikes, but I like them even more since I heard someone call one a “cafe lock.” I wouldn’t use it in place of my U-lock, but there are times the bike is unlocked right next to us at a playground and I have to rush a kid to the potty, leaving my unlocked bike out of sight for a short time.

While we were browsing, Tarik of T’s Leatherworkz came in to check on a bike he’s getting worked on. He also popped into Bob’s Bike & Board while we were there–it pays to have a showy bike, friends notice is on their way by and stop to find you. His bike is plenty showy, too. I tried to get him to move it out to the bike corral so it could be part of my picture, but apparently this snazzy number doesn’t do bike corrals. Whatever.

I had to head back down for preschool pickup, but Forrest continued along to Kaffeeklatsch. Last time I was there the bike rack was still on the sidewalk, but it’s since been moved to an on-street spot.

I’m not sure if there’s any money for bike corrals, but from the SDOT Bike Parking page: “SDOT will consider installing on-street bike parking upon the request of the adjacent business owner.” Even in Portland, the businesses initially balked at giving up a car parking spot, so maybe we’ll see bike corrals everywhere soon someday, too.

I hesitate to call Engine-Engine-Engine a good solution for carrying two kids with a regular bike, but it’s certainly a versatile solution and I made great use of its versatility today. I’m not the inventor of bike + trailer bike + trailer–I first saw one at Moving Planet a year ago and most recently saw a mom taking her kids to preschool with one last week. I initially got the Trail-a-Bike for my five-year old to practice his pedaling and hoped the trailer would help keep it stable (trailer bikes that connect to the seat post are notoriously wobbly). I find it very heavy and personally wouldn’t choose it as an everyday rig, but my kindergartener loves it and it’s come in handy when friends are visiting since I can carry a third kid with it.

I’m surprised by the attention Engine-Engine-Engine gets. Sure, it’s longer than my Big Dummy, but it’s just a regular ol’ bike! When Hum of the City was visiting last month I put her on my Big Dummy one day and used EEE. We were spotted by Barb Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, who described seeing me on EEE “…and there was another bike involved, too.” Another bike?! That other bike was a gorgeous pink cargo bike! But it only had one kid on the back at that point (I was using Hum’s big kid to help me pedal) and was dwarfed by EEE.

I took eight trips today, using four different versions of Engine-Engine-Engine–or five versions if I count the extra kid in the trailer as a unique use, and six if I count putting the big Engine on the Big Dummy.

Leg one. Engine-Engine-Engine: road bike + five-year old on Trail-a-Bike + three-year old in trailer. I consider Engine-Engine-Engine a recreational rig, best suited to wide bike paths and gentle turns. The bike/ped sidewalk of the Fremont Bridge was thankfully empty when I boarded, but a bike approached before I go over it. We both fit! But I wouldn’t want to dance this dance every day. My success was short-lived because I was taken out by this pedestrian island two blocks later:

when I caught a trailer wheel while turning right. Easy enough to correct, but it kept our ride to school from being error free. But here’s where the beauty of the modular system starts: I disconnected the trailer and locked it up outside preschool.

Leg two. Engine-Engine: road bike + five-year old on Trail-a-Bike. What a light ride! My son is a little short for this Trail-a-Bike so I prefer it when he’s not pedaling–the ride is much smoother with him sitting still than when he jerks around trying to help, but like any bike, the more I ride Engine-Engine or Engine-Engine-Engine, the easier it gets. So we zoomed back up the hill to kindergarten where I unhitched the Trail-a-Bike and left it at the school bike rack. I’d like to get a lock for it eventually (cheapie combination lock so I don’t have to worry about another key or nicer, colorful Knog Party Frank that comes with three keys to gradually lose?), but I only own two locks at the moment and half the bikes on the rack aren’t locked so I figure it’s safe enough.

Here’s the point I discovered my first big problem: I left the kindergartener’s backpack in the trailer. Last time we Trail-a-Biked he said the backpack was too heavy so I’d planned to wear it myself after preschool dropoff.

I had just resigned myself to race down to the trailer and back when our school’s other cargo biking mom found me to ask for a loaner bike since she’d locked herself out of her house and garage. She was willing to take the old mamabike, but since the Big Dummy was conveniently taking the day off, I gave her my winter helmet, my lock, and the longtail. And while heading to my house I realized I could just make a second kindergartener lunch rather than ride the extra five miles. I have to say the best part was opening my garage and hearing Julie say, “It looks just like our garage.” I usually hear, “Wow, you have a lot of bikes in there.”

Speaking of helping out a friend, yesterday Julie was on her mountain bike while her Madsen is getting BionX-ized and was contemplating skipping farmers market since her first grader didn’t have his bike at school. No problem! I just stuck him between my two kids to haul the three kids and our two kid bikes to the park. The hills were very slow, but what a fun favor!

Photo courtesy The Main Tank

I rode the five blocks back to school with my messenger bag on my back and my old backpack on my front. It wasn’t very comfortable, and wouldn’t enjoy riding two miles this way between the two schools. Kinks to work out. I think his more adjustable backpack will fit on my back, either over or under my messenger bag until he’s ready to wear and ride.

Leg three. Road bike. With both supporting Engines left at their respective schools, I was solo on a one-person bike! And even with the extra stop at home and back at kindergarten to deliver the replacement lunch, I was only 3 minutes late for my 10am hair cut (where I brought my bike inside due to no lock now). I’m particularly excited about this new set up for being able to accurately time returning for preschool pickup with the road bike–I’m never sure how much time to add to Google maps’ bike directions estimate on the Big Dummy. I ended up having extra time today and was able to stop by Floating Farmers Market for Six Strawberries bike-based ice pops and Hart Coffee.

Leg four. Engine-Kitty Caboose: road bike + three-year old in trailer. Behold the versatility–reattaching the pieces in reverse order! After preschool we hit the playground with friends where I had to find a tree to lean my kickstand-less road bike on while The Main Tank just parked on the grass like I’m used to doing. Thank goodness for this morning’s forgotten kindergartener lunch because all this racing around on various bike setups is hungry work. Heading back downhill for kindergarten pickup, I felt myself bonking–that’s a technical term for feeling dizzy from not eating and drinking enough. Or in toddler terms, Me have no more ener-ghee!.

Leg five. Engine-Engine-Engine: road bike + five-year old on Trail-a-Bike + three-year old in trailer. I returned to school a little early to hook back up in our original configuration. I’ve got a line on a used Burley Piccolo which will be much stabler and come off and on more easily, but for the cheapie Trail-a-Bike I need to give myself extra time and get things lined up just so to make the pin go in. I gave up last week when I was first going to try this system and ended up having to drag the [empty] Big Dummy up Capitol Hill.

Leg six. Engine-Kitty Caboose: road bike + both kids in trailer. I dropped the Trail-a-Bike at home and conveyed both kids in the double trailer. This is the first time I’ve done so since Hum of the City’s visit last month. The bite marks the three-year old made on his brother have finally faded away from that day. Today went better, thank goodness. I dropped the kids and the trailer off at The Main Tank’s house for a playdate (her garage looks just like mine, by the way) and took off on…

Leg seven. Road bike. Solo again! I biked downtown for I Bike SEA Happy Hour:

Drinks are on us at the I Bike SEA Happy Hour from 5:30 – 7:30 at the offices of Cascadia Consulting Group located at 1109 1st Ave, Suite 400. Participate in a group discussion with with City of Seattle Councilmember Sally Bagshaw and other I Bike SEA participants from 5:30 – 6:30 about ways the City of Seattle can help make biking a more accessible form of transportation for all. Learn from Aldan Shank, co-founder of cycle boutique Hub and Bespoke, about how to “bike in comfort and arrive in style” from 6:30 to 7:30.

Sally Bagshaw gave a great talk with lots of promising news for the future of Seattle bicycle infrastruture. And Aldan answered all our questions about riding in bad weather.

Meanwhile, Mr. Family Ride picked up the kids with the car. My dream is to get him on a Big Dummy, too, at some point, but today this was the easiest way, unfortunately.

Leg eight. Big Dummy hauling road bike. I swung by Julie’s house on my way home to retrieve the Big Dummy. She offered to bring it to me, but her house was on my way home and this was much more exciting since it meant putting the road bike’s front tire in the Big Dummy’s FreeLoader bag to drag it.

The net effect is down one trailer in The Main Tank’s garage so the day wasn’t seamless, but talk about action packed! I hope to utilize the system again and make better use of my kid-free time with a long and/or hilly errand on the road bike.

The September round of 30 Days of Biking isn’t as big as the April one–there are fewer organized activities (both offline and on-), but the rules are the same: just ride a bike every day of the month. I love 30 Days of Biking and truly attribute it with growing me from a fair-weather bicyclist into an everyday woman-on-a-bike.

It’s fun to kick off a 30 Days of Biking month with something epic, but today was just two little trips, starting with a three-mile roundtrip with kids to the store. Obligatory 30DoB panda shot:

In the afternoon I ditched the kids to do the first part of the monthly Spokespeople ride. Kids are welcome on the rides and I’ve always brought them in the past, but it was certainly nice today to pay attention to every aspect of the urban farm and garden ride.

I was only able to stay for the first three farms (conveniently all on the same Wallingford block) and saw tons of produce, chickens, and bees! Not a bad biking day for just five miles pedaled.

Today’s cargo bike roll call (Seattle’s first!) was a huge success. I think we had over 60 attendees. A cargo bike roll call is just like a social bike ride, but without the bike ride part. We met at Gas Works park and stayed at Gas Works Park. Both family and utility bicyclers attended and we test rode one another’s bikes. If you attended, I owe you a spoke card. I’ll get to Kinko’s soon, but in the meantime, here’s your virtual version:

I’ve put my photos in a Seattle Cargo Bike Roll Call Flickr set which will hopefully attract more photos of the day.

Morgan of Bike Works is out of town (in Portland with many of our Greenway organizers collecting exciting ideas), but Davey Oil used her awesome recumbent cargo trike to bring his daughter and folding cycle truck to the event. I think this may be the smallest load it’s ever carried. Morgan tends to pile it with cargo bikes and tow three behind. It was test ridden by many and Davey gave lovely tours of the park. I enjoyed life as a passenger for a change as Davey pedaled me and a couple kids around.

Davey also provided Bike Works stickers and temporary tattoos for the piñata. I had visions of dangling a car-shaped piñata it from one of the cement arches while we rode bike and attacked it joust style with a seat post, but by the time we got to it, Davey and the seat post had pedaled off and it turned into a more kid-friendly affair. Fortunately, one of the kids had a very firm sparkly wand that worked great and Julian of Totcycle facilitated the destruction of the cheerful Cars movie happy birthday piñata. Oh, and there were lollipops in there, too, so the kids didn’t just go home hot and dirty–they were sugared-up, too.

I love kid-toting cargo bikes, but am also intrigued by utility-only cargo bikes. Check out this awesome ANT basket bike with canine passenger.

I wish I’d taken a picture of my bike on the way to the party. I put on my WideLoader to carry the two balance bikes on one side and on the other wide put my road bike (front wheel in the bag, back wheel towed behind), snacks, bike decorating supplies, and toys. But that was the easy part–in my front basket I put a large insulated back filled with ice packs and drink boxes. Some day I hope to have a bike with a frame-mounted front basket and carry heavy loads with ease. I rode that down and Hum of the City, who is visiting from San Francisco, took Leya’s Kona MinUte down. Leya is out of town, but generously let me borrow her new MinUte because everyone who rides one falls in love so we had to have one on hand! The road bike was so I could rush back home solo to grab The Main Tank’s Madsen bucket bike from my garage where we borrowed it for Hum of the City to use on Thursday.

Hum of the City left part-way through the party via Uber car service (brilliant!) to get to the train station and head to Portland for a week of cargo bike test riding (…and Kidical Mass…and another cargo bike roll call…) so I had the exciting task of getting three cargo bikes back home. The kids stayed and partied while I took the MinUte home first and headed back to the park on my road bike. I was planning to take Big Dummy with kids, road bike, and as much stuff as I could squeeze on next and then chase them back down to the park on foot while they balance biked and wedge it all into the Madsen (“wedge” because of the big cooler). But luckily, Forrest didn’t realize how heavy the Madsen would feel going 10 blocks up Meridian Avenue and suggested he ride it home and then walk back down to fetch his regular bike. I hope he’s still cargo-curious!

A month ago I decided what I wanted for my birthday was a cargo bike roll call so this was essentially a birthday party I threw for myself. It’s a wonderful way to get a bunch of awesome people to show up and hang out for the day! I didn’t alert the masses ahead of time about the birthday aspect, but I don’t think anyone minded my sneakiness. The Biking with Brad family brought cake and snacks and Brad played happy birthday on his accordion. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, let alone a better almost-my-birthday! Other exciting birthday stuff included my new mud flap from Tarik of T’s Leatherworks. Yippee!

I’m sorry I don’t have more specific details, but there was so much distracting awesomeness! My 38 pictures in the Flickr set have descriptive titles so check them out.

We’ll most definitely roll call again!

I love riding with Kidical Mass and Critical Lass so tonight I checked out the original gangster, Critical Mass. My only experience was Critical Mass has been seeing it create chaos while on foot in San Francisco, but I trusted Davey Oil when he said Seattle’s Critical Mass is mellow and even family friendly.

Davey met up with The Main Tank and me at the Seattle Center parking squid where I tried to get him to fix the tire I tried to check the pressure of and only succeeded in half un-inflating. Instead, he put on his teacher’s cap and fixed the loose part on my pump and had me do it myself. I don’t know what the vegan equivalent of “Teach a man to fish” is, but that’s just what he did :) And I swear I will take his Bike Works Adult Basics Class next time around!

Photo courtesy The Main Tank

The Main Tank crew didn’t come on the ride, but Davey and I found Totcycle in Westlake Park, leading Seattle Bike Blog to call the event KrIDical Mass.

Photo courtesy Seattle Bike Blog

I thought one of the riders had decided to leave on account of all the kids in attendence, but it turned out he was just starting the swarm. It’s probably really cool when there are more than 30 bikes, but this evening riders got on their bikes one by one and joined in with the swarming until we were all riding circles around Westlake Park. Eventually someone led us out of the park and the ride proper began.

Davey warned me ahead of time there would be no preset route and anyone could ride to the front of the group and lead the ride. I had assumed this meant one person would take over and lead the entire ride on a route of his or her choosing, but the ride saw multiple leaders and we peaceably meandered around downtown. We ended up on the Elliott Bay Trail, which didn’t seem very Critical Mass-y to me (take back the streets, don’t occupy a bike-friendly trail, right?), but it’s a lovely trail and the route I’d take home so I was game. Davey stopped to get a blanket out for Little Oil so I stopped to unpack snacks for the kids and then everyone else stopped as well. Totcycle and I decided to call it a day and head north up the trail and everyone else wandered off or got out their own snacks. It felt quite like a Kidical Mass ride by this point, but Davey assured me Critical Mass generally doesn’t end in a snack and blankey stop.

Verdict: it was weird, but worth going to. I’d do it again and be prepared for anything.

Seattle Critical Mass is the last friday of each month, rain or shine, 5:30 p.m. at Westlake Center.

Today’s miles: 34.3
July cumulative: 387.9 miles

I’ve finally joined the ranks of the tunes-blasting family bikers! I’ve wanted to get a portable speaker for my iPhone all year, but it took seeing how much fun my friends are having with them to finally get around to it. Lindsay of You Ain’t Got Jack led the charge with a very affordable iLuv speaker and now The Main Tank is rocking one locally. And Julian of Totcycle is sporting a super cool bicycle boombox. I just went for the cheapest one I could find at Target yesterday–the iHome iHM60. I wish it pulsated like the As Seen on TV Music Bullet, but quality is more important than flashiness. Or you can have both: it looks like the newer models change color.

A dad at the playground admired my bike today and mentioned his friend in Tucson makes a Bike Boom Box. Now that looks cool! He started out just making solar-powered ones, but now those of us not in sunny Tucson can get a battery-powered version.

Other newness is a new, different Brooks saddle. My former B17S has found a new home on a friend’s road bike and I’ve moved on to a B68S (although now that I’m looking at the site, it seems that I have the Imperial version–extra fancy). So now I’m back in the club. And I’m back down lower to the ground. I might raise my seat a bit higher because it was nice being up at normal height while sitting on the squishy Schwinn saddle, but it’s also nice to be able to get the ball of my foot on the ground, too. Ah, the decisions of the precious-cargo cargo biker.

On the way to the bike shop and the park, the three-year old (as of yesterday! Big boy!) took to hitting his big brother. We were on Ravenna Boulevard, one of the rare instances of the bike lane being to the left of car traffic so I woman in an SUV slowed to my pace and tried to reason with my child for a couple blocks. Her heart was in the right place, but it felt a bit less safe having a driver leaning out her window, slowed to a crawl alongside us for what felt like quite a long time.

With Mr. Family Ride out of town, I had to bring the brawling brothers along on tonight’s Critical Lass ride. Please know that children connected by trailer, trailer bike, bike seats, etc are fully welcome along on Critical Lass rides…I just prefer the rare opportunity to ride solo with the lasses. And other than the little one shoving his brother off the picnic table during Robin’s fix-a-flat tutorial, the ride was without incident.

Today’s miles: 28.2
July cumulative: 324.9 miles

I’m very excited about the new family biking programs at Bike Works, including Kidical Mass rides the third Saturday of the month (the next one is August 18th…but I’ll be Bike camping and eating pie).

I’ve never biked all the way to Bike Works and wasn’t sure what the hill up from Lake Washington would be like. Plus I left the house 30 minutes later than intended (surprise, surprise). I thought I might have to give up when I got to Genesee Park if the hill looked too big and it was already after 11. But the ride wasn’t bad without the balance bikes and beach gear on board. The late start also motivated me to ride faster and I made it in 65 minutes–just 8 minutes longer than the Google maps estimate.

The jog around Harrison Street was a construction closure I’d been warned about–both that it exists and that there’s no detour signage. Fortunately, a cyclist passed me just before we got to that point and I was able to follow him back to the Lake Washington Loop. I had the impression he slowed down a bit so I could keep him in sight–thank goodness because I’m sure I would have gone some extra not-flat blocks otherwise.

A lot of riders showed up–33 people spread over 18 bikes. Here’s Bike Works’ Davey Oil just back from a long work trip to Portland.

True story: the ride ended at Full Tilt Ice Cream and one of the flavors was called CB’s Something-Or-Other. I figured the CB was for Caspar Babypants, local kindie rocker, but Davey guessed Carrie Brownstein. He’s obviously still mentally in Portlandia. The change in him is noticeable–he’s, like, cheerful. Now, I’ve never thought of Davey as particularly grumpy, but he likes to share stories (ask him about the Ride the Ducks tour and the meat cleaver) that paint him as a grumpy guy. I’m sure it’ll wear off after a while, but he’s all sugar and spice for now. Oh, and we were both wrong: the CB was for CB’s Nuts.

Here’s ride leader Morgan Scherer giving Bus Chick a lift. Meanwhile, Bus Nerd was test riding Bike Works’ Sun Atlas Cargo Bike. It’s available for rental and I think they might rent it!

And I met Drew, a mobile bike mechanic (website coming soon here: The Bike Ranger), who made these awesome running boards out of old skis. They’re so cool!

Julian of Totcycle was also representing the north side of Seattle and five-year old Drew wowed us with a moving FlightDeck mount.

The ride was beautiful, with a lake-side turtle-viewing stop and then a picnic and wade in Lake Washington.

And as previously stated, we ended with ice cream. Here’s a lovely shot of the parking lot: one parking spot = one minivan, one scooter, or five longtail bicycles.

Julian took his Xtracycle on the light rail this morning and told me longtails fit in the Westlake station. Wahoo! I’d been planning to get off after just a few stops, at the Stadium station so I could avoid any elevators. Much better being able to ride all the way to the end of the line.

We could even fit both our long bikes in the upper elevator. And to be clear: the bikes are horizontal, and with the little kids still in their seats.

Because Kidical Mass and ice cream was not excitement enough (Summer! Sun! Must do everything bikey!), we headed to Gregg’s Cycles’ 80th anniversary celebration. We timed our arrival perfectly: just in time to catch the face painter before her stint ended and then get balloons from Jami, the Balloon Biker.

Gregg’s is at the end of the newly redone Ravenna Boulevard buffered bike lane. The five-way intersection is still a hassle, but I love that there are two different bike lanes here.

Mr. Family Ride met us at Gregg’s and bought a rear rack for his bike. I think this is very funny because I asked him a few weeks ago if he wanted to think about a pannier and he got all bike messenger-y and snarled, “All I need is my courier bag!” No pannier(s) yet, but that’s his next step. I should probably get him a kick stand and a rear-view mirror now.

Today’s miles: 25.3
July cumulative: 296.7 miles

Calling all cargo bikes! Come to Seattle’s first cargo bike roll call next month:
Saturday, August 11th from 11am until at least 4pm.
Gas Works Park (2101 N Northlake Way, Seattle, WA)

RSVP on Facebook

So we didn’t make it out in a big group again, but our big day out has had a big impact! My friend claims they don’t bike much at home, but she bikes alongside the kids to school as well as to the grocery store. Connecting the kids to her could increase their range so we talked tandems and kid backs, but she likes the idea of the KidzTandem Triplet, with the kids in the front.

Thursday we took the bus to the Seattle Center and the only biking we did was on the Pacific Science Center’s High Rail Bicycle. It looks precarious, but it’s impossible to tip over.

The big kids were disappointed by the 100-pound weight minimum, but found plenty of other exhibits to enjoy. And outside the Pacific Science Center the kids had fun splashing around in the Fountain of Creation and on the parking squid. The bike wheel on the top of the parking squid appears to have fallen off, but that makes for more kid climbing room. It was nice to see bikes locked to it today; it’s usually only covered in kids. I’ll know it’s been completely accepted the day I see a dog tied to it.

Yesterday was thunderstormy so we waited out the rain at home and then split up for an us bike/them car visit to REI and its indoor play structure. We eventually migrated to a nearby playground and I made the mistake of not specifying “Who [of my kids] wants to sit on the mamabike while I wheel it to the playground?” and I ended up with all four kids on board. Heavy!

Today we were on the bus again–the 44 to Ballard for the climbing gym, the locks and salmon ladder, and the SeafoodFest. We stopped in at Dutch Bike Co for a drink and the kids played Ring Around the Rosie next to a bakfiets. Gezellig!

Today’s miles: 0
July cumulative: 154.8 miles

My friend and her kids are visiting! Last year we got around town with a combination of busing and bike/car–the boys and me on the old mamabike while she and her kids used my car. I’d thought of borrowing bikes for her kids (ages 7 and 5) since they pedal around Florida, but I didn’t want to subject them to our hills.

Thanks to the Big Dummy and Engine Engine Engine, I thought we’d add biking to the mix this year and had her bring the kids’ helmets. My original idea was to stick my two guys in the double trailer and utilize one of her strong pedalers while she carried just one kid on the Big Dummy’s FlightDeck. Unfortunately, my little engineer is a bit greedy and didn’t want to give up his new perch so we compromised on letting him do the downhill portions and letting the big kids split the uphill.

I was hoping to avoid a downhill start for an easier homecoming, but I couldn’t deny the visiting monkeys a visit to Gas Works Park. They dominated the play barn and schooled a parkouring college kid in a game of tag. My guys did some milder climbing…until my five-year old somehow followed the accomplished climbers up a stone archway. Climbing up to rescue him was the definitely the hardest thing I had to do all day…but it didn’t make the bicycle hill climbing seem any easier.

I wore out the seven-year old less than half-way up the hill so I swapped him for his sister and realized I need a little girl to pedal with! It may have just been that she fit the trail-a-bike better than the boys, but she was SO CUTE!

The boys and I came to Gas Works yesterday, too. We got to see Tall Bike Bobby in the middle of an infrastructure showcase ride as he passes through Seattle on his west coast tour. Tall bikes are impressive to begin with, but even more so parked next to Kinderbike minis!

Today’s miles: 12.3
July cumulative: 147.7 miles