Archives

Covered parking at SLU

Oct13

I’m not sure if I didn’t notice this on previous visits or if it’s brand new, but there’s a covered bike rack at Lake Union Park! Either way, it’s fairly new. It’s on the SW corner of the park a.k.a. closest corner to the Space Needle for my fellow directionally-challenged friends.

Nothing extraordinarily interesting on the ride, though someone shouted “Happy Wednesday!” at us. I haven’t decided yet if that means more than just “have a nice day.” Maybe there’s some Seattle Wednesday phenomenon I’m not aware of. I have decided that I like riding home during rush hour. All those extra cars on the road all but guarantee I’ll miss one or both lights on my way up Stone. Also, it’s much easier riding up Stone when I’m just coming home from South Lake Union and not coming all the way from Kenmore.

Kenmore

Oct12

Feeling wimpy for not attempting the whole Tour de Flannel, I decided to ride into new territory, past Magnuson Park. I chose Log Boom Park, the northernmost point along the Burke-Gilman and 14.5 miles from home. Google Maps said it would take 1:16 so I’m proud of myself for coming remotely close with 1:33. Plus that included two brief stops: one to grab new kid snacks from the “trunk” and two to double check my iPhone map to make sure I hadn’t gone too far (ha ha, we weren’t even close at that point). I keep thinking I’ve embraced the journey itself, but I find myself caring about how fast I’m getting there.

The ride was great and the path is beautiful past Matthews Beach Park. I was the only one to appreciate it, though, since the baby fell asleep and the toddler had his nose buried in a book. I appreciated the quiet, too.

At the park, a mother and her grown daughter admired my bike setup. She was hardcore and rode everywhere when her daughter was little, from trailer to rear seat to trail-a-bike and didn’t own a car until the daughter entered high school. I told her I’ve been thinking about biking everywhere, but haven’t wrapped my head around grocery shopping yet. She suggested hooking up the trailer (which we actually thought of last night when I was lamenting not being able to Xtracycle the Milano and not being ready for a different bike) or taking a taxi. I can only imagine the nightmare putting two carseats into a taxi, so the trailer it is! Or perhaps it’s time to enroll in Amazon Fresh like everyone else and avoid the whole issue.

Practice bus rack

Oct10

We attended the Sustainable Ballard Festival today, first to volunteer for an hour at the CoolMom carseat recycling station, then to try the practice bus bike rack affixed to the front of a van. I tried twice, once as the first bike on and once as the second bike on…and I fit, Bobikes and all! But it is tiring work hefting the bike up there, and I’m not sure it’d go as well getting in the second or third slot with the baby on my back. But good to know for in-case-of-emergency situations.

There was a covered bike rack set up at Ballard Commons Park, but I’m not sure if it was just there for the festival or if it will be there always. I did discover a couple sneaky spots under the overhang at Joanne’s Fabrics, but it wouldn’t be cool of me to steal one and then hang out in the library or Tully’s.

Other interesting items of the day were learning a bike windshield is also called a fairing–this from the wife of the guy who cycles his chickens around in a mobile chicken coop! And I talked to the Undriving people and might be an upcoming featured Undriver. Woo hoo.

The kids were hungry by the end of the afternoon, but between the big one tossing his rainboot sole inserts down a storm drain and the little one discovering puddles for the first time and therefore riding home with no pants on, we weren’t exactly cafe-friendly. Plus I didn’t want to deal with de- and re-biking so we rolled into Dutch Bike Co. for a snack on wheels. So convenient! And as luck would have it, Fritz showed up while we were there so I showed him my rubbing fender which he promptly fixed permanently, with zip ties. Black ones, so the work doesn’t even show. I mentioned to him my bright idea to turn the Milano into an Xtracycle, but he warned me it might not work with all its parts, such as my pretty Celeste Green rear fender. So there goes that idea. Not to mention an Xtracycle wouldn’t fit on a Metro bus.

Fun with Google Maps

Oct7

We rode to Ravenna Park for the first time today. I’ve poked around Bikely and Map My Ride, but primarily use Google Maps bike directions. I was impressed it found this trail in the park considering how rugged it was. I had figured Google only acknowledged paved bike paths. Once I was on the path, I got a bit turned around and thought Google wanted me to take the top fork, but when I saw that it led downhill, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle the uphill. It turns out I was correct to take the bottom fork, but at the playground I came up against four concrete steps. I can’t believe that’s the route Google had chosen for me! I had the rear kid dismount and was able to carry the bike and front kid up so it wasn’t too big a pain, but next time I’ll stick to the street. And next time I go somewhere new and twisty, I’ll think about printing out the map.

Yesterday we cycled down to Lake Union Park and checked out the inaugural Farmboat Fall Floating Market where I took the following glamor shot of the bike to put on the Bianchi Flickr group. I labelled it the “Milano Minivan.”

Tour de Flannel

Oct3

I’m sad 30 Days of Biking is over. I didn’t ride the bike at all on the first and felt bad about that. But yesterday we rode to Magnuson for the Harvest Celebration and it felt good to be back in the saddle. Then today was the Tour de Flannel, another big ride. Supposedly the ride from Gasworks to Woodinville is fairly flat, but I had decided ahead of time to create my own short course and made plans to bail 1/3 of the way there and meet up with a friend at Magnuson. But now I’m convinced it’s possible to make it to Woodinville and will try the full course someday soon. The “flannel people” as Brandt called them were super cool and I was sad to leave the ride, but the kids had more fun at the playground than they would have had at a brewery that for some inane reason doesn’t serve french fries.

Muuqi told me he got his mother the same bike as me. This is the second time I’ve heard this. Does that mean I’m riding the minivan of bicycles?? At least it’s an Italian minivan.

30DoB day 30: Water taxi

Sep30

28 miles cycled today! We swung by Dutch Bike Co. to get my rubbing fender fixed and have a snack, and then cut through the locks to eventually reach pier 55 (via pier 50 since I neglected to read the details of the water taxi substitution). We rode the water taxi to West Seattle and then biked to Alki Beach. The Argosy Sightseer was filling in for the damaged regular boat so that was cool. Instead of bike racks, there were bungee cords along both sides and they held the bikes in snugly.

On the way home I passed another cyclist on the way up Gilman. Granted, it was a homeless guy laden with bags and bags of recyclables, but it still felt rewarding to pass someone. Then we got caught up watching boats at the locks for a while. The lockmasters liked the Bobikes and gave the boys boat-safety-themed coloring books. Score!

We had a great victory on the way home. Brandt loves the Ride the Ducks amphibious cars (or “boat cars” as he calls them) and on a few occasions we’ve seen passengerless boat cars in Ballard and I’ve figured their overnight parking lot is somewhere in the area. Today we saw two of them and chased them down to their roosting spot. I’d never trespass onto a private dock with the car, but it doesn’t feel quite as illegal on a bike. So we biked onto the dock, but didn’t make it all the way down to the end. I was curious to see them all snuggled in, but the Hazardous Materials sign and guys in clean suits scared me off.

30DoB day 28: South Lake Union Park

Sep28

We stayed close to home in the morning with our first errand a bike-up ATM trip, which I think is my new favorite bike activity. Then we hit the children’s bookstore where we locked up to bicycle-shaped bike rack to play on their train table.

After waiting half the day for the sun to make its promised appearance, we eventually gave up and napped and then cycled down to the new South Lake Union Park where we discovered many new bike racks and lots of open space (though much of it was roped off to protect the immature grass).

It was cool riding home during evening commute time as we saw a lot more cyclists than usual. A hipster sat up in the saddle and applauded me as I huffed and puffed my way up Westlake to the Fremont bridge. I guess it’s not really that much of a hill if he didn’t need to hold onto his handlebars to ascend. I got a couple more cheers riding up Stone and a woman in a minivan slowed down to roll down her window and congratulate me. A gal could get used to all this attention. Brandt was pretty intrigued and said, “Mama, hear that??” each time someone spoke to me. Oh, and the sun finally came out around 7pm, shortly after we got back home.

30DoB day 27: Phinney success

Sep27

I made it to Phinney without walking the bike! 84th is indeed an easier hill than 83rd. The only problem is that it’s one way the other direction, but it’s nice and wide and empty and I don’t think my .0001 mph at the edge of the road would scare any oncoming cars.

It started drizzling as soon as we left the house so I went searching for a dry parking spot upon reaching the Phinney Neighborhood Center. I thought I found one under the stairs (and proudly took a picture of it), but I would have been better off leaving the bike exposed once the rain stopped and the dripping started. However, I saw a legitimately dry spot deeper under the stairs so provided I can squeeze my way back there, we’ll be fine next week.

30DoB day 26: Apple Store

Sep26

Took the boys to the Apple Store in University Village this evening to get my broken iPhone looked at. We usually take the Burke Gilman Trail to the west so it’s always an adventure to head east. It was quite adventurous this time as it was some sort of orientation day and the University area was teeming with teenagers wearing name tags milling about unaware of cyclists.

It was nice having the bike at U-Village because I can never find my way around so I easily circled a few times before pulling up to a map. That would have been impossible by car and taken much longer on foot. Yeah yeah yeah, I’ve been to the Apple Store once before, but I’ve got zero sense of direction.

The college freshman were off the path by the time we headed home, but there were tons of bugs out and I got one in the eye–yuck! We took a small detour on Northlake Way to better see the boats. There’s a bit of a bike path down there, but also lots of sharp rocks so I think we’ll stick to the BGT from now on.

On the way up Stone Brandt dropped his water bottle. That was a first. But it wasn’t too bad circling back and picking it up. Between that and missing two lights it was quite a relaxing uphill ride.