Today was not gorgeous out like yesterday, but it didn’t rain until 3pm so that was something to celebrate…with some morning clowning around on the bike:

On the way to PCC after preschool pickup we saw a car use the contra-flow bike lane rather than honor the one-way road and go around the block. I’ve seen this happen just a handful of times, but I bet it’s a common occurrence. It’s a great bike lane in theory, but there’s usually an armored truck parked in it when we visit the grocery store. Upon leaving the grocery store we saw two guys walking their bikes in the bike lane. It certainly does serve a lot of different purposes.

In the evening I ditched the kids to be a panelist at Cascade Bicycle Club’s Cycling Wisdom by Women, for Women. I met a couple friends at Fremont Brewing Company to lead a group ride over. I think if it hadn’t been raining a few more women would have made it out.

Great turn out at the event, 40-50 women on a late (if, like me, you consider 7-9pm late) and rainy night.

Photo courtesy Martha Walsh

Cascade Bicycle Club is going to start more women’s programming. Here’s the brand new Resources for women cyclists web page, revealed on the big screen at the panel. Ooh, I’m “bicycling supermom”!!

Today’s miles: 19.2 miles
April cumulative: 101.9 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 5

Dogs: 0
April cumulative: 8

Seattle was gorgeous today! Hottest day since last October, high of 71F and 52–and clear!–already at 8:40 a.m. [I still can’t believe I think 52 is warm. This weather-wimpy Southern Californian has totally adapted!] Blue-sky view from the Burke-Gilman Trail on the way to preschool:

This guy was soaking in the sun while smoking a cigarette in front of one of our favorite Henry murals. He had a computer bag nearby so I think he was also waiting for the bus.

One kid down, one to go. Here we are waiting for the light to turn left off Nickerson. Five lanes at this spot, four lanes in most, all pretty unfriendly. Full disclosure: I normally take the sidewalk for Nickerson because I can’t keep up with the fast-moving traffic–there’s a sharrow in the right lane, alongside parked cars. But if there’s a big opening in traffic I’ll take to the road because crossing the long way around in the crosswalks adds over five minutes to our rushed commute.

After preschool we hit the library, but just a quick visit so as not to waste the sunshine.

Since we were just a couple blocks from the Fremont Troll, it seemed like a good day to get dusty. It’s sooooo dusty at the Troll.

Heading past Gas Works Park I yelled at a woman who ran the stop sign from Meridian. There’s something I neglected to mention about yesterday’s Kidical Mass: as we headed out of Gas Works Park along the gravel path to the west of the parking lot, we came across a crash scene. It looked like a car had struck a pedestrian or bicyclist and I quickly turned the group around, I think before any kids realized what had happened. We were able to cut through the parking lot and continue onto the trail. So I lost my cool watching this woman ignore the stop sign at this same intersection one day later. The passenger had his window down so they must have heard me shout, “Nice stop!” a couple feet from their car. Incidents like this always leave me with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach–mad yelling never feels right afterwards. Maybe I should have said something loud enough, but not angry. I dunno.

To raise my spirits we continued along to UW to check out the new two-way protected bike lanes/cycle track on 40th…but The Ellen Show was on campus and I couldn’t get through with my usual route. Hard to see in my small picture, but it’s solid people beyond the fountain.

Lovely view of Mount Rainier in the other direction…also impossible to see in my small picture.

A nice volunteer directed me around the mayhem and we came across one of the UW self-service bicycle repair stations, situated next to a covered bike corral. While admiring it I heard my name–it was Henry of Liontail Cycles! He was en route to his parked Xtracycle to carry his visiting brother to a sail boat. Just a two-hour tour so he should be back for his new job at G&O Family Cyclery this and every Saturday–what an exciting pairing!

The cycle track looks nice. It’s two blocks long, running along NE 40th Street from the edge of UW at 15th Ave NE to Brooklyn Ave NE. There are currently four-way stops at The Ave and Brooklyn, but it looks like stop lights will be added. I’m curious to see if there will be a push-to-cross button accessible by bike, but that doesn’t seem feasible with a two-way cycle track (well, not for both directions, anyway).

And one last lovely view of Mount Rainier on the way home. It’s right above the. The SUV in front of the red truck, that is. Talk about a lot of big cars. The stop sign runner was in a station wagon, by the way. Carrrrrrrrs!

Today’s miles: 13.3 miles
April cumulative: 82.7 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 5

Dogs: 1
April cumulative: 8

Our morning started with a soccer game–Mr. Family Ride could come today so there were five bikes for our team…and with one kid out sick and the Wheelha.us family toting an extra player, that meant only one kid didn’t show up by bike.

And then more fun with Kidical Mass! I liked this month’s format: we hung out at Gas Works Park for an hour and a half for chatting, kiddie games, and test riding before heading out on our ride. (All my pix here)

Here’s a “OK, who wants a rice cake?” pause en route while waiting for a small tantrum to finish up a ways back. I had my own misstep shortly after this when my two free-riding children collided and a hurt arm required the remainder of the four-year old’s ride take place on the FlightDeck.

Our ride ended at the Moisture Festival and we intended to stay and watch, but the sound was too loud for the kid without sensitive ears so we headed back towards home.

We made it to the Google Steps where we stopped for a snack. I had a little laugh when our bikes stopped traffic. I eventually walked down to ask if he had any questions about the bike, but it turns out he was just admiring the layering of the three bikes. It also turns out we had met two years ago at Totem House and talked bikes then, too!

Here’s a picturesque water sip (and horseplay) stop as we headed back to Gas Works Park.

And here’s a not-as-picturesque water sip stop a bit up the road. There are A LOT of water sip stops when riding with kids. They’re gradually getting fewer and farther between…though it might be the pedaling and bigger wheels making them just seem so.

Today’s miles: 6.9 miles
April cumulative: 69.4 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 5

Dogs: 0
April cumulative: 7

Went incognito today on my road bike all alone to get a hair cut. I saw a family biking dad on his Kona Ute on my way and said hello. I think he recognized me, but I pointed to myself and said, “Pink Big Dummy!” just to be sure.

My route took me through Bell Street Park which I rechristened Bell Street Park for Cars:

I think I chose the wrong day to make fun of cars with #ReplaceBikeWithCar dominating the Twitterverse.

Today’s miles: 9.4 miles
April cumulative: 62.5 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 5

Dogs: 0
April cumulative: 7

The morning was spent on foot–walked two blocks to bring the six-year old to school and then walked a mile to a playdate and back. Probably more than we normally walk in a week! After that we needed to stick close to home because the sewer guys working next door were going to start pouring concrete to patch their big hole in the sidewalk soon, but we snuck in a few laps around the block. Here’s the “velodrome” around the corner:

I didn’t want to carry the Big Dummy over the grass around the construction and I was too lazy to reset the rear wheel I somehow knocked off my road bike so I used my cyclocross bike. My pit crew wasn’t as quick as normal, distracted by the digging and cement mixing behind him. (I should have sneakily swapped the order of the pictures to make it look like we aired up before our first lap around the block.)

Our fourth and final lap was sans shoes for one of us. Turns out it hurts. I was riding my Time pedals with flip flops and was hardly in a position to lecture.

Eventually the hole was filled in and covered up so we loaded up for school pickup with all three bikes, snacks, and sand toys.

This is pretty exciting: the kids’ old bikes’ brakes weren’t strong enough for the hill down from school:

But I couldn’t convince them to ride the second block:

Down on the Burke-Gilman Trail we saw a Peddler Brewing Company keg delivery. It’s gradually getting easier riding with both kids on the busy trail. They get a lot of smiles and encouraging comments and are thankfully great at keeping right. I love hearing walkers giggle after hearing their chirps of “On your left!” But there are also multiple stops for water sips on sections with no shoulder and the occasional unsanctioned race that always ends with punching or scratching.

At Gas Works Park we met a lovely family with a Yuba Mundo longtail and three kids. One kid had scootered on the way there, but they squeezed all three on comfortably for the trip home.

We spent a long time in the sand pit and the biked separately up Kite Hill. The four-year old on his single-speed 16-inch bike had a stop a couple times, but with practice I think he could get all the way up.

I had to carry the four-year old and his bike for the hills on the way home. Here we are heading up the 12.3% hill the boys chose to walk down earlier. I heard a “Woo hoo!” from the trail which I assume was directed at me. (The six-year old was walking his bike up, otherwise I would have figured it was for him.)

Today’s miles: 3.9 miles
April cumulative: 53.1 miles

Bikes ridden: 2
April cumulative: 4

Dogs: 1
April cumulative: 7

Started out the day in a panic when I couldn’t find my keys. This wouldn’t have been such an issue in our previous houses where my bikes lived in a garage, unlocked (though it’s still a good idea to lock up in your garages, folks) so no time for pictures as I uncovered the keys, freed the bike from its lock, and we raced to school–four-year old riding his old 16-inch bike and six-year old on the FlightDeck. But here’s stage two, carting four-year old and the old 16-inch bike to Phinney Ridge to pass it along to a little friend who’s ready to pedal.

Then we met up with Hum of the City, visiting from San Francisco!

We headed to G&O Family Cyclery for test riding. This is how the kids test ride:

And like so:

But the real test riding was me and my four-year old on Hum of the City’s Brompton with Pere kid seat while she took out Davey Oil’s “Blooey” the EdgeRunner cycletruck with Stokemonkey e-assist:

It’s an amazing bike so naturally she attracted some attention–this guy hopped out of his truck to check it out.

I had to leave the fun to fetch my six-year old from school, but that played perfectly into running a little errand: returning yesterday’s not-broken-anymore Brompton to Sara. And I learned from Hum of the City the bag is the Ikea Dimpa storage bag, created for storing spare car tires, but perfectly sized for Brompton!

Then back to G&O with both kids to reconvene for more bike talk and dinner before dark ride home.

In boring blog news: trying to make things quicker by uploading photos straight from phone to WordPress. It’s much quicker, but the files are bigger and I really like poking at every image in Photoshop so not sure I want to make it a habit. But hoping to find some corners to cut to keep at the #30daysofbiking blogging. Couldn’t bring myself to do the typing on my phone, but I guess ideally I’d make it all short and sweet and mobile. Advice welcome!

Today’s miles: 17.4 miles
April cumulative: 49.2 miles

Bikes ridden: 2
April cumulative: 3

Dogs: 0
April cumulative: 6

Missed out on our morning miles due to skipping preschool. Elementary school is only two blocks away so we hoofed it, but eventually I loaded up the cutter and the longboards and took to the streets.

We hit a grocery store and then impulsively decided to check out Motion Boardshop to see about little longboards. Great place!

My plan was to route check for the upcoming April 19th Critical Lass ride, but when we got to Greenwood Park we realized how cool it was and just stayed to play. Another 11 miles missed!

After a while we headed over to G&O Family Cyclery. Now the original plan was to fetch my friend Sara’s EdgeRunner on the way up from preschool, but she ended up walking it over to the shop earlier in the day. Missed out cargo! But she made up for it by letting me bring her husband’s broken Brompton in. My son opted to stay at the train table and after I unloaded kid seat, groceries, and longboards, I had quite the empty bike! And then just the little Brompton on the way back:

With Bromptons on the brain, we test rode G&O’s demo Brompton with Pere kid seat. Very fun!

And in a repeat of last year’s 30 Days of Biking meets 30 Days of Scootering, we hung out with Kent Peterson at the shop. That’s why I brought the skateboards along, by the way–I thought maybe we’d go for a roll. No group roll, but here’s Kent’s scooter, my bike, the Brompton, and my skate. Friends!

Then we had to rush back to Wallingford for 3:30 school release. We’d gone all day without meeting any dogs and I was beginning to rethink my dog tallying when we saw the most adorable puppy. We had to wait our turn because two other random people were already petting her. And then we met a darling pitbull on the Wallingford Greenway.

I had hoped to drop the skateboards and groceries at home to make extra room on the bike, but the dog stops ate our extra time which meant I had to retrieve all this stuff from Julie of Wheelha.us with a half-full bike. Tandem trail-a-bike, two balance bikes, and Radio Flyer Scoot-About. And she had two kids on the bike!

I wasn’t quite so cool–I didn’t carry either kid. One walked and one rode a balance bike so I just had this lovely load:

Today’s miles: 12.1 miles
April cumulative: 31.8 miles

Bikes ridden: 2
April cumulative: 2

Dogs: 2
April cumulative: 6

And so begins another 30 Days of Biking! You can still join. New this year: Free Bikes 4 Kidz is donating a bike for every 30 pledges. I’m not sure I’ll be able to log our exploits on the blog each day, but I’ll certainly be biking each day and fulfilling the tweet aspect of #30daysofbiking. Oh, and by the way, I was pledge #1! I won a poster! I’ll post a picture of it when it arrives.

Today started with the school run–2.2 miles to preschool for a 9:00 a.m. drop off and then race right back almost to home for 9:25 a.m. first grade drop off. And we had to wait for the drawbridge in between! But we made it with five minutes to spare somehow. A 30 Days of Biking miracle. Photo taken by Mel, our elementary school’s crossing guard who bikes to work. He’s the best!

While the kids were at school I led the Seattle 30 Days of Biking Kickoff Ride, a lovely 8.7-mile loop.

We rode through the Caffe Appassionato drive through–they allow bikes!

And brought our coffees to the Ballard Locks.

Then I rushed over to 1:00 p.m. preschool pickup. I just missed the drawbridge and was four minutes late–a first, boo! I met a fellow preschool mom on the wrong side of the bridge. She was on foot and I should have offered more seriously to carry her over to school. I think she was game, but we decided I should rush over and report on the poorly-timed bridge opening. A shame I missed out on a fun carry the first day of 30 Days of Biking! And then we hit the grocery store (and kisses from the black dog tied to the pole).

Quick stop at Recycled Cycles to pick up my racing kit and then chanced upon the demolition of the North Transfer Station–quite exciting.

We saw Stella outside as we pedaled by Durn Good Grocery so popped in for a quick pet.

And finally home along the Neighborhood Greenway (where we met those dogs, Masala and Titan).

At 3:30 my first grader was done with school so the preschooler and I picked him up with the Big Dummy and the two kid bikes on board to head down to the Burke-Gilman Trail by UW Mercer Court. The kids biked back and forth and I was interviewed as part of the new Burke-Gilman Trail TIGER application. I forgot to take photos of the interview team at work, but Lynne happened to ride by on her Xtracycle EdgeRunner so here’s a picture of her. I first met Lynne when I saw her a block away on what turned out was her maiden cargo bike voyage and chased her down to ask a million questions (“What’s your name?” “How long have you had that awesome bike?” “Where do you live?” “Will you join the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group?”…you know, nothing too creepy).

I’m not officially declaring a theme for this round of 30 Days of Biking, but it’d be great if I didn’t use the car (I used it once last round) and it feels like maybe I should tally the number of dogs we meet after having interacted with four today. Four! And assuming I’ll ride multiple bikes, I’ll keep a tally of that, too.

Today’s miles: 19.7 miles
April cumulative: 19.7 miles

Bikes ridden: 1
April cumulative: 1

Dogs: 4
April cumulative: 4