This evening Brandt’s to-be preschool had a lantern walk by the lake. It wasn’t raining, but it was pretty cold. Most of the lanterns blew out right away, including ours, so Brandt was able to tuck his hands in his pockets as he trudged along. He’ll toughen up into a Pacific Northwesterner soon, though. Another mom there mentioned Baby Rijder was a real PNW baby. However, she couldn’t see he was heavily layered (long-sleeved onesie, pants, baby legs, socks, shoes, coat) inside the ring sling. I think Rijder’s being born during a heat wave makes him just as cold blooded as Brandt’s start in the desert makes him. We’re all wimps! Even Dan spent enough years in California that he’s pretty wimpy now, too.

It didn’t occur to me that it would be dark by the time we rode home (duh, lanterns) so we had our first night ride. There are only like three hours of daylight in the winter up here so I’m sure it won’t be our last.

I took my first bike ride with the trailer today. Actually, I took a test ride with the empty trailer once last week, but today was my first bike ride with both Brandt in his front seat and Baby Rijder in his car seat in the trailer. It’s hard! I even had to walk a block. It is going to take a lot of practice before I can make the ride up Stone…and Baby Rijder’s just going to keep getting heavier!

For the record, my only reason for biking was because I got a parking ticket at Revolutions Coffee last week (I tried to buy a parking sticker, but the stupid machine wasn’t cooperating). Of course it rained cats and dogs on us (ooh, I’ll have to teach Brandt that term–he’ll love it!). It wasn’t awful. The bike has fenders and the rain shield kept Baby Rijder dry, but I don’t think I’ll make a point of riding in the rain. I guess I’ll know I’ve become a true Seattlite when that changes.

We took our first whole-family bike ride today. Our 2.5-year old rode in the Bobike Mini on my bike and our 2.5-month old rode in his car seat in the Burley trailer behind Mr. Family Ride’s bike. The photo is from after the ride–he’s smiling because he liked it, not because he’s glad it’s over.

Our first stop was Canal Street Coffee. It felt just like being in the Netherlands: sunny, but cold and windy, and sitting in a coffee shop next to a canal. The WC was even decorated with Dutch reprints. The Night Watch hung in the prime location above the toilet, natuurlijk.

We continued along the Burke-Gilman Trail to the Ballard Farmers Market for lunch–Canal Street Coffee was more about the coffee and the view than food.

Heading home, the mile-long uphill of Stone Way was incredibly hard, but we made it without stopping. Funny to think I was in better shape nine months pregnant on the fourth of July than I am now! I’ll have to do a lot more riding before I attempt Stone with both kids on my bike.

We rode down to Gasworks Park for the big fireworks show tonight. It was so hot today that we didn’t even head down until after 7:00. Sunset was 9:10 so the show didn’t start until 10:00. I was hoping to toss Brandt in a bouncey house when we arrived, but the bounce houses were HUGE and then lines were long. So we passed the time sitting on our picnic blanket, eating hot dogs and brownie bites while watching the boats.

It was crowded, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And Seattlites are so nice and mellow. We were right by the beer garden, but the drinkers were all quiet and well behaved. I can guarantee this would not have been the case in San Diego. Or Vegas. And the show was awesome. I haven’t been this close to fireworks in quite a while, so that alone was cool, but the display and coordinating music was great, too. Even better than the SPARKLE shows in Santa Barbara.

So glad we rode the bikes because the car traffic getting out of Gasworks was crazy. The bus looked packed, too. The ride up Stone was still easy for me (granted, Brandt rode in the Burley behind Dan on the way back). And I still didn’t have to resort to my lowest gear or rest on the way up. But this might be my last long ride for a while, I’m thinking.

Today was more about swimming than biking. We all rode down to the lake so I could swim the one-mile event of the annual Green Lake Open Water Swim. It kind of feels like cheating, swimming while so buoyant.