I’ve been riding around for months with a jacked up messenger bag (torn inner lining, busted main zipper), but couldn’t bring myself to rush out and replace it with just any old bag. I’d made several trips to REI and tried on countless bags, finding nothing that worked. I’m not picky. I just want a comfortable bag that’s not enormous. Lots of compartments is a bonus. In my poking around, I discovered Seattle-based TOM BIHN. More than just Seattle-based, the bags are actually made here in Seattle. The factory showroom/retail store recently moved buildings and didn’t have regular hours when my love affair with the company first started, but now you can visit every Wednesday 11am-2pm, certain Saturdays, or by appointment at 4750A Ohio Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98134.

There are several messenger bags choices, but perfect for me is the $90 Imago. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. I’ve been in five times now and ask every time and simply can’t remember. It’s nice and little and prevents me from carrying too heavy a load. If fits perfectly in my bike basket, but is also comfortable to wear while riding. TOM BIHN says: “The main compartment can carry a spiral-bound notebook, a medium-sized book, a light wind/rain shell, and your lunch.” In my world it holds: four cloth diapers, a wet bag, four Calico Critters, two wooden train toys, two aircraft toys (seaplane and helicopter), two bananas, an avocado, two cereal bars, and a package of honey grahams. And a to-go coffee mug or water bottle in a pinch, but then it’s not as comfortable to wear.

TOM BIHN Imago and Super Ego, shown next to bike-friendly Biologic Vacuum Flask coffee to-go'ser for scale

I had to wait six weeks for the cocoa/cocoa/wasabi Imago (so cute!) to be ready so I got the much bigger $170 Super Ego for my recent trip to Chicago. Here’s a proper review of the bag that just came out on Gear Patrol. I got it to use as my underseat airplane carryon in place of the wheelie bag I never bother to access from the overhead compartment. It worked great and was even fine as my every day bag while I waited for my Imago to arrive. But the thing really should have a warning label. Something to the effect of: Even though you can fit a week’s supply of cloth diapers, snacks, toys, two changes of kid outfits, a book, and a laptop computer in this bag, you don’t need to do so!” It barely fit under the seat in front of me stuffed to the brim, but the real problem was in the lav. It’s already a tight squeeze for me with a four-year old and almost-two-year old, but the Super Ego literally filled the room. I hung it from the hook on the door and had to duck down under it. Next time I stow a small bag in my big bag.

I love the water bottle holders on the sides and the size of the two main compartments. I haven’t figured out the perfect use for the small non-zippered compartments on the front, but it will probably involve small rocks or trains. When I bought the Super Ego, I also got an extra strip. $5 for regular or $10 for the seat belt and you have to get the seat belt. I’m not sure if I’ll ever take the seat belt off and use the shiny yellow one. For my laptop, I got a $30 Cache laptop sleeve. It’s very trim and the fit guide on the website led me easily to the right size (actually, Tom himself ran the fit guide for me because I forgot to make note of my size at home).

For both bags I invested in the Absolute Shoulder Strap for $20 extra (or $30 if you order it not as part of a bag order). It’s really nice. It has a little bit of stretch that really lightens the load. It makes my shoulder a little sweaty, but here in Seattle that’s only an issue a few weeks of the year (har, har).

The forums provide a lot of great information from the company’s loyal fans. A lot of the posters own multiple bags–and the pricier ones, too!–so I don’t feel excessive with my two messengers. Plus I’m convinced my husband will commandeer the Super Ego at some point. Oh, and check out the treason tag they used to have!

It’s a long ride to get down to the SODO showroom so hopefully I won’t feel the need to buy another bag too soon. I haven’t yet figured out the easy route to Magnolia so we started our morning with a bike-on-bus ride to swim class and then biked south along the waterfront and 1st Avenue South (Google Map). I had trouble finding a nice quiet spot along the way to stop for lunch, but we did OK pulling over at Safeco Field for a quick, if loud, bite.

The best part about coming down here is the 1st Avenue South bridge over the train tracks. We also ran into Seattle’s scariest pedicab on the way home. The baby loves owls and was drawn to the owl on the back of the rig. The driver said it was from the Owl N’ Thistle (stolen? borrowed? retired?). Fortunately, the baby thinks skulls and crossbones are also owls.

After our run-in with the gothmobile, we cleansed our palates with more trains by visiting the King Street Station. It was also nice to cheat away one hill by catching the elevator up to look at the train tracks from the walkway.

And since the day had turned really nice, our last stop was South Lake Union Park for our first frolic in the new spray park. Good thing we started out our day at the pool so I had swim suits with me. I don’t normally tote swim wear around, but a TOM BIHN packing cube sure would come in handy to hold two kid swim suits and a towel and fit perfectly at the bottom of my bike basket…

We skipped morning swim class to help with the Starbucks 5th of July Lake Union Cleanup. I told myself it was because we were up too late last night to make it to the pool by 9am, but it was really because I’d rather ride my bike to a place and get free stuff than drive the car and not get free stuff. Just like last year, the gung ho early birds got all the good trash, but we found a couple hidden glass bottles and cans to add to our measly collection of bottle caps, cigarette butts, and firework remains. The blue bags are recyclables and the black trash. And that’s not including the Gas Works Park trash, which the city took responsibility for. Note: I didn’t move my bike next to the trash heap for this picture; I parked on an empty tree and the heap formed next to me. Does make for a nice shot, though.

Our afternoon ride was to the Green Lake wading pool. We were pretty loaded up with swim suits, towels, water toys (two tug boats, two buckets, two scoops), picnic blanket, picnic food, and messenger bag. A mom at the wading pool recognized me with, “Aren’t you the one with the bike?” We talked about baby bike seats a year ago and now she’s got her fourth baby on the way. I tried to talk her into an Xtracycle in case she wants to carry more than two kids at a time. Only one of them looked big enough to bike solo.

I haven’t decided the best route home from our old ‘hood yet, but today we wanted to visit some of our favorite potholes (the boys love potholes, don’t ask me why) so we swung through Roosevelt for the big holes on NE Ravenna Blvd and the orca-shaped divot on Roosevelt Way NE. We popped into Trader Joes for a few necessities, but I didn’t have anywhere to put the grocery bag. Fortunately the baby was game and held it on his lap for the short ride home.

It isn’t worth doing Seattle fireworks at Gas Works Park by any means other than bike. It’s a nightmare to drive in and out of the park on the fourth and both car and foot visitors have to endure a long, slow bag-check line. Bike riders get a separate entrance with separate bag check. We scored a prime end-of-the-rack parking spot, even arriving hours after the festival started. The racks were packed by the time we left, with tons of people still arriving.

2:30

7:30

It probably wouldn’t have made a difference which route we took home. I chose to ride east on the Burke-Gilman Trail and it was slow going against the incoming tide of mostly walking people. A pedicab cleared a path for us for a few blocks at least.

The only bad part (other than the baby getting lost in the Wacky World bounce house, that is) was the fight over the bike trailer. These kids don’t like riding together in the double trailer behind my road bike, but when Papa and the single trailer are in the picture, it’s a different story. The big kid hopped in first and wouldn’t budge and the little kid cried “Me Papa bike!” the whole way home.

A new chapter in our car-lite existence: houseguests! OK OK, I looked into renting a minivan (gulp, three times) because my friend always drives us around when we visit her, but after realizing a week of minivan is about a grand, I decided we’d try to do things car-free. They were set to fly in from Florida the same time as our flight from Chicago so I planned to take the light rail and bus home in a group. But when their flight was delayed a few hours, the minivan started sounding appealing again. I checked on a minivan at the airport, but even a few days was over $500 so we headed for the train.

The mile walk to the light rail was a pain, but I think one can take a Smarte Carte luggage cart. Hopefully I can convince myself it’s worth it to spend the $4 next time. The bus portion of the trip was awful. A Mariners baseball game let out as we were traversing SODO so the bus got packed and traffic came to a crawl. I didn’t want to put my friends through that so once we got home, I called the nearby car rental office and had them drive us over to yet again look into a minivan. It turned out to be a waste of an hour because even though they had six-seating cars on site, non-airport offices don’t carry rental car seats. This was finally enough for me to realize a minivan was not in the cards for me. My friend was a trouper and the traffic was cleared out by the time they arrived. Her six-year old was a trouper, too, and pulled an adult-size rollie bag the whole way.

The visiting kids (six- and four-years old) are used to biking around Weston, Florida with their mom and I considered borrowing bikes for them, but I thought our hills would kick their little butts. So we’ve been mostly taking public tranportation. Yesterday we bused to the Seattle Center and then hopped the monorail and street car (on which I still can’t figure out how to use my ORCA card) to South Lake Union Park. My car got a little action, though, because I sent my friend and her six-year old to Gas Works Park.

Today we bused to Pike Place Market for the morning and then spent the afternoon at Gas Works Park–the kids and me on bike and our friends in my car. This worked well for getting the balance bikes down there. I think my little one is finally getting the hang of it, even trudging up and down some small hills.

We visited J.C. Lind Bike Co. in Old Town Chicago to rent a cargo bike for the day. I figured I’d want to take out the Winther Wallaroo, a super-fancy Danish cargo bike, especially after reading the Let’s Go Ride A Bike review of its three-wheeled counterpart, the Kangaroo. I was a little intimidated by its adjustable seats (front facing, rear facing, fully reclining, oh my!)–were we dressed well enough to even be in the same room as this beauty queen? After test riding it in a parking lot near the shop, however, I was more intimidated by its handling. The Wallaroo is long! And therefore hard to manipulate. I’m sure I could get the hang of it given more practice, but I swallowed my two-wheel pride and it didn’t take much convincing on Jon Lind’s part for me to take out the J.C. Lind Triple Lindy.

The Triple Lindy is a really nice trike and I got a lot of shouts and smiles on the lakefront bike path. The frames are produced in the Netherlands, which I think is a selling point, but Jon was proud to report that at some point they’ll be made locally in Chicago. All other parts are made in Chicago and I’m pretty sure we rode by the mechanic who assembles them because I heard a guy say to his companion “Hey! Those are the bikes I build.” It has a lot of great features, including an optional rain canopy, you can check out on the website.

The step plates over the front fenders are very cool and there’s also an option to get a door on the front of the bike for passengers not big enough (or human enough–it’s called the doggie door) to reach the platforms. You might notice the toddler hand smudges on the shiny wood. I should have kept a moist cloth handy to keep it looking pretty. The exciting new optional frame colors (Fire Red, Orange, Royal Blue, Apple Green) probably work to distract from smudgy wood, though.

The only weird thing was the placement of the shifter. It’s on the seat post–something to do with cables of only two feet being available until recently. Jon mentioned they might change its location, which I hope they do because it was awkward to reach down between my lets to change gears. And I imagine it’d be near impossible to do so while wearing a shirt, for those fancy moms and dog schleppers. It was nice having foot brakes and the hand brake, but the position of the hand break in the middle of the handlebar took some getting used to. I forgot to ask why it’s in the middle.

We did a lot of riding to get a feel for the bike. There weren’t a lot of hills to be found, but it was great on the small rises we faced. My original plan was to ride south to Cloud Gate to take cool pictures of the bike, but Jon had me a little scared of riding on the tilted portion of the LFP by Navy Pier. Apparently trikes are happiest when they’re on flat terrain. So when we got sidetracked at Oak Street Beach, I wasn’t too disappointed. We hung out for a bit and then headed north through Lincoln Park. I wanted to check out the lily pond and the zoo–Jon said one is allowed to push a cargo bike through the zoo like a stroller–but I didn’t notice any signage and before I realized it, we were at a beach on the north end of the park. So we chilled on the beach and bought ice cream from an ice cream trike.

The shop is great, too, by the way. The boys enjoyed running around on the rubber floor mats, made from Schwalbe recycled tires. I was quite taken by the accessories wall and after hearing the melodies played by Jimbob Love on his many pedicab bells the other day and the ice cream trike today, I got a bell. I got one similar to the Triple Lindy’s bell so we could think back fondly on today if ever we get a chance to “on your left ding dong” anyone.

I couldn’t get these kids to smile at the camera all day, but as soon as they hopped in Jimbob Love’s Pedicab, I got big cheesy smiles. OK, the baby couldn’t take his eyes off Bobby, but can you blame him? The guy oozes cool.

But first the beginning of our trip…

This is the first airplane trip we’ve taken without car seats! We’re staying in downtown Chicago and should be fine with public transportation, walking, and biking. In the past I’ve had to bring my big BOB single stroller, mostly for carting the car seats and luggage around the airport. That thing easily holds big wheeled suitcase, little wheelie bag, two tiny kid backpacks, my messenger bag, a bag of snacks, and the big kid perched on the handlebar (while little kid is on my back). I’ve never once bothered to get anything out of the little wheelie bag on the plane so I got a Tom Bihn Super Ego messenger bag to hold just as much stuff, but fit under the seat (Which, by the way, Jimbob Love called “cool bike bag”). So considering how comparatively light we’re traveling, I thought we might give public transportation to the airport a go. I couldn’t fully commit, though, so I told myself that if we were up and ready to leave the house at 9am, we’d go for it. Otherwise we’d go by car at 10.

We were up on time and the only sucky part was the six-block walk to the bus stop from home. The first three blocks were uphill and we were running five minutes late so we had to run the last block. I had the little kid on my back and stacked everything else (including folded up stroller) on the big wheeled suitcase while the big kid ran alongside me. In retrospect, I should have removed my huge laptop from the messenger bag slung over my shoulder and kept it in the suitcase until bagcheck. Next time. My shoulder is a little sore from lugging the heavy load to the bus and through the airport. My husband borrowed a coworker’s car with car seats to fetch us from Midway airport so the day wasn’t all public transportation, but it’s important to leave room for improvement.

This morning was all about trains: L train to Metra train to The Choo Choo train-themed diner (food delivered via model train) in Des Plaines, with Metra train to L train back to Chicago. Then we explored downtown (aka, I got horribly lost trying to walk three blocks back to the hotel). I almost hailed a pedicab, but ended up finding the Chicago River and the water taxi, which is almost as exciting as a train. Then we walked a bit more to Navy Pier for the ride-on Kiddie Express Train. I saw pedicabs at the entrance to the pier and checked with one that kids are allowed to ride, having already decided I didn’t want to walk anymore. There were two pedicabs there at the time, the young guy I talked to and a cigarette-smoking guy shouting at passersby, “You want a ride, yes?” I told the young guy I’d look for him when we were done with the kiddie train.

Fortunately the young pedicab guy was gone by the time we returned because all three of us were drawn to the yellow music-issuing chalkboard-encased Jimbob Love’s Pedicab. It was so nice to get pedaled around for a change! I had been looking forward to when I can put a kid on a FollowMe Tandem to help with the pedaling, but now I want one of them to grow up and become a pedicab driver and do all the work. Bliss!

Bobby showed us a nice bike route out of Navy Pier, but I didn’t pay close attention so I’m not sure I’ll find it again. The riverwalk, however, I’ll be able to find, and it should be nice to cycle on a weekday. Today it was moderately crowded, but Bobby’s harmonic ringing of his four bike bells cleared the way. If it wasn’t so far away, I’d be tempted to go to tomorrow’s Northcenter Neighborhood Garden Walk just for the free Jimbob Love pedicab rides.

I was curious to see what my car use would be this week. I’ve had full access to my car since dropping my husband at the airport on Sunday. I’m a little disappointed by how much driving we did, but the week felt a bit urgent as we’re leaving town Friday ourselves. Here are the sad stats:

Monday: morning car to grocery store, afternoon bike to library and park
Tuesday: morning car to swim class, afternoon bike to beach
Wednesday: morning car to Tom Bihn, afternoon car to chiropractor, afternoon bike to kiddie festival
Thursday: morning car to swim and Tom Bihn (to retrieve credit card–doh!), afternoon bike to bank, grocery store, bike shop

I almost skipped our afternoon trip today, but we all needed a break from my frenzied packing and cleaning. As usual, our simple trip turned in to a cool adventure, thanks to traveling by bike instead of car. Locking up at the bank, we met a very cool dredlocked man (whom I’d imagine is known by everyone in Seattle and a fixture of the local bicycling scene) who said my bike reminded him of a Cuban bike. I wasn’t aware of a big biking with babies trend in Cuba, but it totally makes sense. I’d love to go investigate…

There were a lot of bikes at the Whole Foods bike racks and I admired a vintage-looking Mickey Mouse bike bell on the bike next to us. Nothng else too exciting, though. Trader Joes tends to get the flashy bikes, while Whole Foods gets the no nonsense variety. <insert high-price grocery store joke here>

Then the boys demanded we stop by the “puppy bike shop!” but unfortunately, Christiaan of Ride Bicycles wasn’t in with his house-sitted puppy. However, the mechanic who rides an Xtracycle was there and we talked X until my passengers got impatient.

The photo is from crossing over the freeway. It’s much more exciting to ride over the bridge when traffic is zooming by in both directions…but it’s more environmentally satisfying to scoff at the backed up car traffic. Today we had a bit of each.

I found my way to Matthews Beach Park today. Not the most efficient way, of course, because that wouldn’t be keeping in character. I followed Google maps suggestion to leave the Burke-Gilman and get on Sand Point Way. But the boys got to see a construction site, including flagger who stopped our traffic for a few minutes, so that was cool. On the way home we were smart and picked up the trail at the edge of the park.

We met up with some friends, including Andy and his awesome Xtracycle (the photo’s from Touch-A-Truck at Magnuson Park a couple weeks back, btw):

But before I get to the Xtracycle, I was pleased to see I can pack enough stuff for the beach just on my bike (last time my husband pulled a trailer full of crap, too). Except for the big green truck that has to come with us everywhere, I brought minimal beach toys and just one small towel, but it did the trick. Andy, on the other hand, was able to throw just anything onto his X, including a retired metal pot. Yeah, the cooking kind. Talk about a big scoop! My kids would love something like that at the beach, but not until we have more storage room.

I took the X for a spin with the seat down most of the way, but it was still too big for me. However, it was enough to make me fall in love with Xtracycles a little more. I rode with the kids one at a time–not for safety reasons, but because it was too hard to get them out of the playground sand pit–and they both liked it. The four-year old is even able to dismount solo, I learned during a slow turn when he catapulted himself off to run back to the sand pit and snatch his precious green truck away from his little brother. I’m still worried about sibling friction with them so close together, but they’re finally getting to a stage where they play together more than they fight over toys (unless the green truck is involved, obviously).

Best discovery was the Rolling Jackass double kickstand (the names of these things!). With handlebar deployment lever! I didn’t realize the price tag was $400 as I was testing it out today. Whoa. But worth it.

It really felt like summer yesterday. Today, not so much. I had plans to check out the Solstice Festival–no, not the naked bike parade portion in Fremont, but the after-party just down the hill in Gas Works Park. But I was too wimpy to brave the rain. Finally the drizzle let up at 3:30, just in time for us to ride to a birthday party in the neighborhood. So nothing too exciting today–just wanted to whine about the rain. It’s much harder to deal with following a sunny day.

We met a friend at View Ridge Park this morning and it seemed like a perfect bus-to/bike-home trip. I usually use the Metro trip planner for bus trips, though I don’t find it user-friendly. It didn’t present me with a good option for today, but Google maps did (or so I thought).

We biked a mile onto the unversity to catch the 71, but the bike route was pretty sucky, involving a steep gravelly hill and having to walk the bike off a curb. Furthermore, Google didn’t know the 9:04 bus was an express so it blew by our stop. The driver noticed my flabbergasted look and was kind enough to point ahead to the next stop. I threw the kids back on the bike, slung on my bag, had the rear kid hold our snack bag since I’d already folded up the baskets, and flew after the bus. It seemed like he was waiting for us, but as soon as we reached the tail of the bus, off he went again. So we chased him around a corner and caught up for the next stop.

If that wasn’t enough, the little kid (in his bike helmet still, by the way) tripped on the way to his bus seat and got a huge lump on his forehead. Not our day! But the two blocks to the park were nice and flat and the ride home was fine. And the stop we ended up meeting the bus at (University Way NE and NE 43rd St) was a nice big covered stop that will be easy to reach in the future.

The weather turned gorgeous by the afternoon so we hopped back on the bike to check out Baldolero in Tangletown–a lovely slightly uphill on the way there, downhill on the way home ride. The outside area was unfortunately 21+, but the non-bar side was empty so the kids had the run of the place. The food was meh.