First up, the obligatory bike-loaded-with-groceries shot:

I still have trouble reaching my middle FreeLoader buckle because of the child seat, but that didn’t stop me from shoving four very full bags of groceries in my bags. There’s a half-full fifth bag back there, too, which I had to tie to the top of one of the securely stowed bags. I should always travel with bungee cords.

Today’s real excitement came after school when for the first time this year, another mom did pickup by bike. I don’t want to imply I’m at all responsible for her first two-wheeled trip to school, but I was still incredibly giddy about it. She lives even farther uphill than I and rides a Madsen bucket bike. Her preschooler recently upgraded from a 12-inch pedal bike to a 16-incher and can now make it up the hill, so that combined with the nice weather precipitated the big day. She biked her toddler and the kid bike down to school and we rode together to Wallingford Playfield–all the way uphill for me, and most of the way uphill for them.

It was eye-opening to ride separately from a little guy and I admit I’m in no hurry to worry about a separate biker on these busy streets. We altered our route slightly–turning west after crossing the Fremont Bridge to more easily use sidewalks to connect with the Burke-Gilman Trail. Once again, I am so grateful that it is legal to ride bikes on the sidewalk in Seattle because they used the sidewalk when we weren’t on the bike path.

Getting dropped block by block by a single speed 16-incher made me think about electric assist. I haven’t needed a boost yet, but I am awfully slow and in two years (I know, a long way off) I’ll probably need to coordinate a preschool and elementary school drop off and that makes me a bit nervous, timing-wise.

A third preschool friend met us at the park. She’ll be ferried around by bike soon, too, I expect, but today they came by car with kid bike in trunk. We moms talked about various kid seats and two-bike coupling systems while the kids zoomed around on bikes and balance bikes.

Truly an excellent day!

Today’s miles: 11.4 miles
April cumulative: 244 miles

Today was glorious! I remember what summer is like now. So did everyone else–everyone was out on bikes and smiling uncontrollably. We loaded up the bike with beach toys and gear rather than balance bikes today (although I’m sure one of these days I’ll figure out squeezing on both–more bungees!) and headed towards Ballard. We ran into Flower Pedal Powered Family heading the other direction on their Big Dummy on the way. Seattle’s a big place, but I love when it feels small. It certainly helps matters to get around by bike–so much more to see this way.

We started out at the Pedaler’s Fair again, this time taking time to look around. We saw everything, though briefly. And I accomplished my two to-do items: I met Ann DeOtte of Iva Jean and creator of the Rain Cape. I’ve been meaning to submit some Seattle Rides to her site. Now that it’s sunny I hope to get my act in gear. And I talked with Tarik of T’s Leatherworks about his pink leather mud flap. In the four months I’ve had the Big Dummy, the cross bar at the back has picked up earthworms three times. Eww! No more of that. He still needs to add the metal rivets to the flap, but soon it’ll be mine!

I saw a cool light idea in the bike parking area. Of course it only works well if you have skinny tires that won’t obstruct the glow. It wasn’t her main rear light, it’s just for added pop. Plus it’s blue!

And parked outside was this homegrown recumbent:

Then we headed over to the Ballard farmers market where we found ourselves riding alongside the organizer of Messmann’s Messquerade Halloween Bicycle Scavenger Hunt & Costume Contest. He was riding with his toddler so I told him about the Seattle Kidical Mass rides in case he wants to balance his freaky riding with family riding. At the market I spotted an Xtracycle sporting a Madsen seat. Mix and match cargo bike parts! Love it.

On the way to the beach we met the owner of BoatHouse Cycles motorcycle shop. Turns out he does bikes, too. Yesterday we saw a loud motorized bicycle that sped by as fast as a car. I have a feeling that may have been his work. I showed him my motorcycle clock since it’s one of my favorite feature on my bike (but of course every feature is my favorite feature on the Big Dummy). I mentioned that several people have seen the baby seat fairing on my old bike and asked if I knew where one could get an adult-sized one. Good news: BoatHouse Cycles has built these before.

The beach was packed with no car parking spots, but still some room at the bike rack.

Golden Gardens is our favorite beach because it offers a view of the train tracks. Yesterday we only saw two trains (a freight train and the Amtrak Coast Starlight) so three trains today (Amtrak Coast Starlight, freight train, Sounder) was an improvement, but the best was yet to come–on the way home we saw a freight train engine pushing old hopper cars around. The bike path is right next to (and crosses) the old train tracks so we had an excellent view.

Then we noticed the old red engine missing from its usual parking spot along the missing link and soon saw it chugging along, too. I wonder if I’m the only biker to have waved at the Ballard Terminal Railroad (Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel owns the railroad and runs it just often enough to keep the rail line in working order and prevent the missing link from becoming part of the Burke-Gilman Trail).

The last bit of excitement came when I lost a flip flop on the ride up Stone Way. A kind pedestrian retrieved it before I had a chance to engage my center stand. I love my blinky pedals and that they’re grippy, but the grippiness doesn’t work well with flip flops. (Of course it’s the pedal’s fault and not the operator).

Today’s miles: 14.4 miles
April cumulative: 232.6 miles

I snapped this picture as we set out today because I was worried it might be the last we saw of Chinook Salmon. Fortunately, he came to his senses after a block of riding behind the bike and happily rode in the front basket.

And his rear perch gave me a great idea of where to put our final Pedaler’s Fair poster:

While hanging our second-to-last poster at Stone and 45th, we ran into Victor on his Xtracycle. He’s just replaced his Xtracycle kit and WideLoaders and was using it to carry two heavy potting soil bags. I mentioned I want the narrower Xtracycle RunningBoards at some point and he pointed out he’s been saved from being doored a couple times by them. It pays to be wide.

Our destination today was Phinney Market Pub & Eatery for lunch and the double-decker train table. I was touched that the five-year old set up the BIKE ROUTE sign because last night he declared that he wants “everything to be cars and trains only!” He meant decor, not actual transportation, so I’ve got a decade before I really need to worry.

The weather was nicer than I’d expected so we went across the street to Woodland Park where I discovered a bakfiets! We parked next to it, creating a cargo bike parking area. Later I saw two more family bikes–a road bike with trailer and road bike with rear kid seat–but they didn’t have kickstands and therefore couldn’t join us on the grass. Both bikes leaned against trees at the periphery.

I thought we were done for the day, but the kids weren’t quite playgrounded out, so we stopped at Wallingford Playfield on our way home.

This allowed me to see the temporary markings for the Greenway at 43rd, crossing Wallingford Avenue.

Today’s miles: 4.4 miles
April cumulative: 203.1 miles

Very boring biking day today. One of the kids puked throughout the night so we bagged our plans for the day. I had hoped to take them out for a bit of fresh air at some point, but we never made it out the door. I finally took the beach cruiser out for the two-block (each way) ride to Rancho Bravo. I realize I should put a drink holder back on this bike. I also realize I shouldn’t refer to 9pm as “late night.”

Here’s hoping the other kid doesn’t start puking tonight!

Today’s miles: 0.4 miles
April cumulative: 198.7 miles

There’s a very cool fair in Seattle this weekend:

Pedaler’s Fair
Saturday April 21 and Sunday April 22, 2012
11am – 5pm
The Building: 1415 NW 49th Street, Seattle, WA

And there’s a Kidical Mass ride heading over on Saturday: meet at the Gas Works Park (2101 N Northlake Way, Seattle, WA) play barn at 11am and ride at 11:15ish.

Everything sounds great, but I’m particularly looking forward to getting a $5 bicycle portrait by Russ Roca of Path Less Pedaled.

The kids and I rode over to The Building today to meet up with Jesse of A Rebalanced Life and collect some flyers and posters for distributing and hanging. I have to admit that I thought we’d find an abandoned building with Ryan of Go Means Go hanging out, cutting up flyers, but it’s the Swift Industries headquarters. I liked the plethora of cool bikes. One had a Sweet Heart Sprocket. Want! The kids were most intrigued by the dogs, Odin and Loki.

Heading back to the Burke-Gilman Trail, we spied the Bicycle Doctor van and admired the stickers blanketing the back. The kids liked the WHO RESCUED WHO? dog paw sticker best.

Our first poster-hanging stop was Theo Chocolate where we put a poster outside and some flyers inside. I also bought a $5 Bicycle Benefits sticker which will net me tons of savings around town (and other towns). I didn’t buy the Single Malt Scotch Ganache in my photo, but wow it sounds good!

Heading home I got to use the new sharrows at 43rd and Stone Way. I didn’t think I’d ever need them since I ride the bike lane on the right side of Stone all the way up, but half-way up the hill today the two-year old said he needed a bathroom so we quickly crossed over to Big Tree Bikes. Bike stores are often very convenient for mid-bike-ride potty breaks–they usually let you bring your bike in so you don’t have to lock up and this one even has a very clean bathroom (not what I expected, I have to admit). And then we rode a couple blocks up the sidewalk to the bike-and-ped-friendly crossing.

I wanted to staple posters along 45th to let my fellow Wallingfordians know about the fun event, but all the phone poles are metal! We even struck out at Molly Moon’s Ice Cream who wouldn’t take flyers because they are paperless. I can appreciate that, but it feels like we didn’t earn the sorbet we consumed. We put one up outside Mosaic Coffee House and will go back out with tape and alert the masses tomorrow.

Today’s miles: 7.7 miles
April cumulative: 198.3 miles

A film crew came to the house to interview us for part of a video to be shown at the Cascade Bicycle Club Bike to Work Breakfast next month. I have no idea how they’ll do it, but they seem to think they can edit together useful stuff around my stumbling, sweating (interviews are scary!), and a loud two-year old. I will say that while I love my Cascade Cyclist of the Month December 2011 interview and feel it paints an accurate picture, I focused more on what the bike does for our family and the community and not so much how it feeds into my laziness and cheapness.

The biking part was fun. It was grey and cold and we didn’t hit any especially scenic spots (such as South Lake Union Park, the Elliott Bay Trail, or the Ship Canal), but we filmed on the Burke-Gilman Trail and a lot of the Dexter separated bike lane. I thought it was most exciting chasing the van up the hill (don’t worry, only one bike overtook us and they were able to move into the car lane and stay out of the way). They also put a GoPro camera on my handlebars aimed at me, on my helmet aimed at the kids, and on the stoker bars aimed at the kids.

We took a couple laps around the Seattle Center’s International Fountain where, despite the cold temperature, teenagers ran around in the spray. Two even slunk up to the camera, trying to get discovered.

Our final destination was Easy Street Records to pick up the new Caspar Babypants album. It’s preschool Spring Break so our day wasn’t as bike-to-schoolish as it could have been, but I think our segment will still appeal to potential riders with school-going kids.

Today’s miles: 9.9 miles
April cumulative: 190.6 miles

Our big weekend left me worn out so today’s ride for 30 Days of Biking was a short one–just to the doctor for the newly five-year old’s annual checkup. I love that the building has a bike rack right by the door, but even a normal-sized bike would block the walkway from one of the two small parking lots if inserted straight in a slot so I parked sideways at one end.

On our way home we saw four new sharrows where 43rd crosses Stone Way, part of the new Neighborhood Greenways network. Yippee!

Today’s miles: 2.5 miles
April cumulative: 180.7 miles

Today’s bike excursions were several stops to get us ready for our big kid’s 5th birthday party with his preschool class. Thank goodness I did the bulk of the shopping last night because everything took a bit longer than expected today. We started off with a downhill trip to PCC Natural Market to pick up allergen-free chips I can’t find anywhere else. Then back uphill (and steeper than necessary since I chose the wrong route–extra points for that!) to Mighty-O Donuts for some mini donuts. Two boxes of a dozen minis each fit perfectly in my Linus Delano basket.

Then we went to QFC for balloons. After two pages and patiently waiting (OK, maybe not so patiently) ten minutes, the floral/balloon person showed up and spent five minutes tinkering with the helium tanks before declaring them both empty. Grr. Two strikes against QFC. Last year I brought in two train balloons (ordered from TrainParty.com–awesome site!) and the lackadaisical balloon guy tied the ribbons so loosely that one escaped the moment we walked outside. It turns out Bartell Drugs right next door has balloons, too, so the day was saved.

The birthday boy suggested we tied the balloons to his handlebars and that sounded like a good idea to me. I attached them with three slipknots, alternating sides. It looked good and started out OK, but then the two-year old decided he really didn’t like balloons blowing in his face. In retrospect I should have secured them behind the bike without a lot of loose ribbon, but rather than risk loosing the lot of them by reattaching en route, I held them down by my hip and rode home one-handed…possible since it was all flat and downhill.

We dropped off our supplies and helped Mr. Family Ride set things up for ten minutes before heading back out to Cafe Allegro for a travel coffee kit. That fit nicely in the front basket, too.

I thought I’d have to take one last ride later in the day when we realized Bettie the dog had snuck out during the cupcake-induced-sugar-revolt-mass-exodus of preschoolers. I put on long-sleeved bike jersey over my shirt, figuring I’d scout around on bike and then wear her home. I’ve never biked with Bettie (poor Bettie!), but Lyle traveled all over UCSB and Isla Vista this way. My plan was thwarted when she showed up just as I dug my beach cruiser out of the pile of bikes. I tucked her under my jersey and was going to take her for a spin just for fun, but then I heard the screams of brothers fighting over balloons coming from inside the house and rushed in to help restore peace.

Today’s miles: 7.4 miles
April cumulative: 178.2 miles

We finally made it over to see The Quad’s famous cherry blossoms. It’s been a bit windy so we missed the peak blossominess by a few days, but it was still beautiful. A friend went last week and mentioned it was a good site for kid bikes so I brought the balance bikes along and we did some picnicking and some riding.

There were lots of people around, including four wedding parties being photographed, but still plenty of room for balance biking. And there are strips of small rocks alongside the buildings for those with rock enthusiasts.

We rode our three bikes separately to the edge of The Quad at the end of our visit (still a rare occurrence, riding separately, so lots of fun for me) where the boys discovered a flight of very shallow stairs they could ride their little bikes down. And it offers a nice view to give an idea of the size of the whole area.

We’ll be back for picnics in the summer, but I’d like to visit campus on a weekday during the school year because I want to see where people ride their bikes. I couldn’t tell if I should share the narrow roads or stick to the sidewalks.

I didn’t have much spare space on the bike, but we swung by Trader Joes for a few items that fit in the front basket. I wasn’t too excited about the Trader Joes stickers on my Brooks saddle. I actually said, “Mama’s bike seat is too fancy for stickers. Let’s take them off.” Fortunately, they didn’t leave any sticky gunk behind.

I didn’t plan for an additional stop, but Trader Joes had pulled pork at their sample station which left me needing a Scratch Deli food truck fix. In a stroke of brilliance, I shoved our water bottles into the FreeLoaders and put the sandwiches into the bottle cages. The cup of potato salad fit in my basket’s cup holder. I believe my frame has a fourth set of braze-ons. I should probably attach a cage to that set, too.

I left the kids home with Mr. Family Ride for a few hours in the afternoon and rode to Ballard for a hair cut. I took the Big Dummy, intending to go by Fred Meyer for a bunch of stuff on the way home, but when I called to check in, he sounded a bit overwhelmed. Not surprising, considering his back’s not much better yet. I was hoping the kids would want to come back out with me, but with early wakeups and no naps these days, our evenings end pretty early. In another stroke of genious (two in one day!), I headed out solo once everyone was asleep. This is only my second time shopping solo in five years. It’s so quiet! I was tempted to practice shopping with one of the hard-to-maneuver kiddie car carts (if you’ve also wondered when you have to show up to find a vacant one, it’s 9pm on a Saturday night), but I came to my senses and shopped like a normal kid-free person.

Today’s miles: 18 miles
April cumulative: 170.8 miles