I don’t get to the mall often. The last time we went was almost three years ago, on the bus. Unable to find yellow kid pants at the thrift store, I broke down and ordered new. I’m a sucker for the “in-store pickup” option so that’s what drew me to the mall. When having things mailed, I use regular post, but reading “Has the Rise of Online Shopping Made Traffic Worse?” makes me feel in the minority. I probably encounter ten delivery trucks parked in bike lanes per week, by the way. Often very close to available parking spots.

I had the luxury of biking over solo on my road bike so I didn’t mind that I hadn’t bothered looking into a friendly route. From Green Lake, it was just a straight shot up 5th:

It was very quiet at midmorning, both on the street and in the mall. A delivery driver in the parking lot gave me a “We’ve never seen a bike here before!” look, but someone had thought about bikes because I found a bike rack at the entrance I needed on the southeast side of the building.

I didn’t have time to take pictures along the way, but the hills provided for some nice scenic city views. Instead, here’s inside the mall. Uh oh, aren’t empty mannequins a no-no? Right after I snapped the picture, the whole display was whisked away. Thank goodness.

Heading back from the mall I decided I really didn’t like the first few blocks south on 5th Avenue NE. It was still a quiet time of day, but I felt very exposed on the four-lane road with no shoulder or bike markings. I know it’s just paint, but I would have felt safer with bike lane or sharrows. And this was traveling uphill at fast-bike-running-late speed, not slow-bike-with-kids speed.

So I came home and asked for advice on the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group. But rather than leave the knowledge buried there, where I’ll have trouble searching for it when I need it, I’m going to share it here. I’d also love any additional advice!

Here’s family-bike-friendly route advice #1:

“To avoid the hill from the South, take Wallingford Ave N from Greenlake then right on 92nd. Left on 1st though it is really narrow in that stretch. I ride on the sidewalk on 1st from Northgate to 102nd? when coming from the North, but don’t think there is sidewalk any further South.”

Family-bike-friendly route advice #2:

“Try taking 8th NE once you cross the freeway. Nice residential street.”

And family-bike-friendly route advice #3, from Ballard, which looks nice and I’m happy to go this much out of the way out of the way for a nice route:

“From my house, it’s Interurban trail to 125th, cross Aurora at the light, 125th to Haller Lake. There’s a nice, circular road around the lake, then south on first ave north. At Northgate elementary, turn left and take the overpass over the freeway. There’s a bike lane that splits off down the hill into the neighbourhood. From there you just need to cross Northgate way.”

Look who’s open: G & O Family Cyclery: “A Family and Cargo Bike Shop For Seattle!”

I am not the only Davey Oil fan who is super excited about this! I have just one complaint: the lighting in the shop is not great for iPhone pictures so everything’s a bit blurry. This was a soft opening, by the way, so things are still being unpacked and assembled. We went in at 12:30 and I bet things looked much different by 6pm. I can’t wait to see the progress when I swing by tomorrow for a second look.

I love this wall full of treasures!

The place is amazing. Also amazing is that their opening was put on hold just less than a month after an unfortunate fire. I came by yesterday mid-morning to deliver our old train table and the place was empty. That was pretty fun :) This is the train table I worried wouldn’t fit in the trunk of my car when I retrieved it from its former family four years ago. It was no problem with the bike. I could have even fit my other kid had he not been in school.

My Yuba cargo straps were perfect for holding it on the bike. They were in my Portland DRT (which I aim to finally write about soon!) goody bag and they are so easy to use.

The train table is a gift, but the tracks and trains are just loaners (so if you have spares, check in with Davey and he’ll probably want them! …but I get to help with the track layout) except for one very special tanker car I found in our collection. This one stays at G & O for sure.

We left G & O with a Brompton! Well, an empty Brompton box to be exact. I’ve got plans to turn it into a train costume. My days of dressing the kids in bicycle infrastructure costumes for Halloween are sadly over.

Someday I’ll buy a real Brompton from G & O. I’m looking forward to test riding one soon. And then test riding my Big Dummy with a Brompton in each pocket.

If you’re in the area, pop in and check out G & O!!
8417 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA

This started two weeks ago when, after ferrying the kids to school via cargobike, I swapped it out for my road bike for a six-mile ride to Wedgwood to see the chiropractor. I figured since I was only another two miles to the thrift store I may as well take a quick peek for items to make that yellow dinosaur-spider hybrid costume (which has since changed twice and counting) before swapping back to the mamabike.

It was a no go on the costume stuff, but I ended up finding a bunch of other stuff…yet not leaving myself enough time for the ten-mile ride home! In the old days (before someone stole our trailer last month, that is) I would have towed the empty trailer during morning dropoff and left it locked up at preschool, but as it was, I showed up one seat short.

Preschool is only two miles from home so I figured it’d be a manageable walk. Plus I scored some shoes at the thrift store so I wouldn’t have to walk in my cleats. My four-year old was only too happy to perch on my saddle and cling to my back.

We walked half a block when it occurred to me one or two of the buses that stop by school run through our neighborhood. And just as I was thinking this a bus pulled up so I asked from the sidewalk, “Hey! Do you run along 40th?” and sure enough, it did! So we ended up walking one block, busing 12 minutes, and walking one more block. Too easy! Not to mention it was incredibly easy to lift that little bike up on the bike rack! My road bike probably weighs 20 pounds, but I’m used to busing with the Bianchi Milano plus kid seats which is around 50 pounds. And there was the one time I transported Mr. Family Ride’s beach cruiser when I really should have hauled it by cargo bike. But the cargo bike was only 10 days old and I didn’t know any better. And hey, that was my first time schlepping kids with the wrong bike.

Anyhow, the kid had so much fun riding on the wrong bike that I did it intentionally today. This time I was on my cyclocross bike, practicing cyclocrossy stuff with a friend in a park. I ended up having enough time to head home and swap bikes, but decided it’d be more fun to show up on the wrong bike so I used my extra time to figure out that “easy” route up Queen Anne at which I failed last month.

I paid closer attention to the twisty turny route (so easy when alone, so hard when with two passengers) and didn’t miss any turns this time. I only went as far as McGraw, though, as Biking with Brad told me I’d have gained all my elevation by then. No time to stop for scenic view pictures this time, but here’s a quick snap of the cross bike at David Rodgers Park, the destination of our last visit up Queen Anne.

I should really try the route on the cargobike to see if it’s doable, but on the cross bike with half-inflated tires, it felt pretty not-flat. This route came from a friend who rides a regular bike and uses it as a scenic ride up the hill and refers to it as “as flat as possible.” A couple days ago I met a bike mechanic who lives on Queen Anne and mentioned ways one can zig zag up to avoid the worst hills, but again: regular bike. Plus he used to be a bike messenger and firmly believes in having his kids pedal their own bikes so I wouldn’t call him ideal route-referrer. Today’s route was all uphill for the first half and then flattened out nicely. Not in the sense of “Keep riding up that hill and it’ll eventually flatten out.” I hate when people say that–it won’t “flatten out”! But in this case once I got the climbing out of the way, I found a lot of flat terrain.

As predicted, the kid was ecstatic that I showed up with the wrong bike. He wanted to repeat the bus action of last time, but it was such a nice day I convinced him we should walk to Solsticio for a smoothie.

Solsticio doesn’t have a view of the water, but it does have a great view of the Burke-Gilman Trail. First we saw Kent Peterson whiz by, visiting town from Issaquah, and then Mr. Family Ride biked by on his way to lunch. I texted him to stop by on his way home and walk a bit with us. Apparently 0.7 miles was the little guy’s limit for sitting on the cross bike’s saddle so I moved him to the handlebars for the remainder of the walk.

Mr. Family Ride stuck with us for a few blocks but then saddled up and rushed back to work. And then he called me to see if I wanted him to come fetch us with the car so we wouldn’t have to walk up the hill at the end. What?! I’ll admit I bike because I’m lazy and don’t like walking, but I like to save my car rescues for bike breakdowns or frozen kids far from home, like last Cranksgiving. Not to mention my younger son has developed an aversion to getting in the car because it creates too much pollution.

I don’t mind riding in the rain–so long as I’m heading for a long stop at an indoor location where I can dry out while my bike is parked in a covered location. However, last weekend, we rode 30 minutes to Ballard both Saturday and Sunday to hang out outside for the day. Saturday was the Ballard Bikes to School Kick-Off Event for which 40 kids braved the weather for bike rodeo, helmet fits, snacks, bike repairs, and more.

Then Sunday I ran a Family Bike Expo booth all day at the Sustainable Ballard Festival. Again, an impressive number of people braved the crappy weather.

But our regular rainy rides these days are for rushed school dropoffs and I’m finding the kid rainsuit and rain pants we used last year aren’t the most convenient of solutions.

When my trailer was stolen a few weeks ago, the thief also got my old snowboard jacket I used to wrap around my four-year old in the Yepp seat. Now we’re using my husband’s old snowboard jacket which isn’t quite as water resistant as mine, but it’s bigger so it covers his legs even better (Side note: I didn’t even know there was a difference between water resistant and waterproof before moving to Seattle). Coming home on Saturday the kids felt the rain coming in through their helmet vents and I discovered their jacket hoods partially fit over their helmets. Somewhat helpful, but when I got home, I ordered them waterproof Helmetcovers. If you don’t need waterproof, there are some cute designs.

The snowboard jacket keeps my little one’s legs dry so I don’t need to deal with his rain pants, but the front kid doesn’t stay quite as dry. The last two days I’ve tied my water resistant jacket around his waist to make a rain apron. It works well! But his jacket is also only water resistant so he’s got quite a damp jacket by the time we get to school. I think a kid-sized poncho–something long enough to cover his legs, but short enough so I don’t worry about it tangling in my chain–would be ideal.

As for our stuff, my first grader’s backpack fits perfectly inside a festive Ikea insulated picnic bag:

And our smaller stuff goes in 99-cent Trader Joe’s shopping bags:

I still need to work on my gear as well. I like my Rainlegs for single rides, but they’re not great for 20-minute ride to preschool + walking around preschool for a few minutes + 20-minute ride to elementary school. But their comfort versus rain paints makes them good enough. Of course they were no help when I slipped going down the wet steps this morning and landed sitting down. If that happens often I’ll have to rethink rain pants. I’ve been using my husband’s rain jacket that needs a hit of Nikwax to get it waterproof again. I’d like a rain jacket of my own some day. My friend loves her Seattle-designed Hub and Bespoke Women’s Riding Coat and there’s also the Seattle Iva Jean Rain Cape. Not that it has to be local–I see a lot of Showers Pass Portland Jackets out and about. And another friend has us ogling fancy Danish rain jackets.

I’m having footwear problems, too. I had some cheap rain boots, but they weren’t very comfortable so I got rid of them. But my leather boots have been wet since Saturday…though I keep putting them back on. However, I ordered a MaxxDry Boot|Shoe|Glove Dryer. I can’t wait for it to arrive!

Do you have a favorite piece of gear for rainy days? Or dream product?

Glove addendum
I forgot to mention gloves! Possibly because I lost one of my gloves on Sunday :/
The rear kid is good in non-waterproof mittens under his straitjacket.
The front kid has Bar Mitts on his stoker bars that have made a huge difference for him. Sometimes he wears gloves under them, too.
I haven’t figured out a good glove solution for myself. I tend to ride around with three pairs of gloves because they either soak through from the rain or get sweaty on the inside (I’m assuming my gloves–now glove–that say WATERPROOF on the outside are getting wet on the inside from sweat?) so I wear one set for the preschool run, another set for the elementary school run, and a third set if I’m going somewhere else afterwards. Not very efficient. I hadn’t considered Bar Mitts for myself, but maybe that would work best.

Bike seats addendum
I also neglected the rig! I had a great system with the old mamabike–small Ikea bag for the front seat and large Ikea bag for the rear seat and my saddle. And those two bags held our stuff while riding.

I have a Bike Cap from Dutch Bike Co for my seat, but no system for the kids at the moment. If they were in rain pants, it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but it’s not so nice to head back out to a wet bike in regular pants. And since the straitjacket jacket and apron jacket are just water resistant, they’re not adequate to leave over the seats while we’re away. The Ikea bags don’t fit as well on this bike (and I think one may have disappeared in the stolen trailer) so I’m still working on this, too.

The four-year old and I checked out some PARK(ing) Day parks today. There were 40 Seattle PARK(ing) Day parks listed, but we chose 10 that seemed fairly close together and on flat terrain for a 2-mile ride around downtown (plus 4-mile ride to the first park and 5-mile ride home from the last).

On the way down we discovered a guy tossing out several planks of wood. Just yesterday we built little stairs in the backyard for Bettie the Dog and the kids really wanted to add a ramp (because that’s exactly what every sight-impaired, elderly chihuahua wants!) and boom, here was our ramp! So I biked around a bit more of a spectacle than normal with trailing kiddie bike and plank of wood.

Most of the park visitors we saw were on lunch breaks from nearby buildings and discovered the event while walking around, but we also saw a group of friends biking from park to park. And Seattle Neighborhood Greenways had an organized Greenways Go to PARK(ing) Day Downtown we caught up to at our 9th stop.

Stop one was the ReLEAF & Urban Forestry miniature urban forest:

Check out Dougie, the googly-eyed Douglas fir. He was at Fiestas Patrias last weekend, thus the “Hola soy Dougie” name tag. Que lindo!

Stop two was Weber Thompson’s “Carmageddon” putt-putt golf through buried cars.

Stops three, four, and five were three of the four Cornish College of the Arts parks. We drew with sidewalk chalk, drank lemonade while playing board games, and made a crown and sword.

Stop six was SDOT & Puget Sound Bike Share. The “Choose your mode adventure” transportation obstacle course was great! We used the scooter, but there was also a kiddie bike, hoppity hop ball, and hula hoops.

They wouldn’t let me ride the Puget Sound Bike Share (coming Spring 2014!) bike, but they let me lift it. It wasn’t too heavy. I think I’ve read they weigh 35 pounds. My bike is 75 pounds so I call that light!

The prizes were pretty great–small kid activity book and bigger kid comic book, crayons, sidewalk chalk, and stuff for grown ups. And Whole Foods had drinks and dog treats to go.

Stop seven Bohlin Cywinski Jackson bean bag toss.

Stop eight was Zipcar & Timbuk2 for the stationary bike time trials. We were so sure we’d win the prize bag, but the kid couldn’t reach the pedals and my showing just wasn’t good enough. This bike is one of the three Timbuk2 free bike share bikes.

Stop nine was the very exciting Cascade Bicycle Club temporary cycletrack. This was why I dragged the kid bike along today. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I didn’t think it’d be the entire block long! It was great. We hit a red light so I got the little guy ready across the intersection and he followed the temporary bike lane markings across Madison and into the cycletrack. We both loved it and rode it twice.

And finally: Stop ten SAM & Trust for Public Land had painting. With easels and brushes–though I’m sure finger painting would have been cool, too.

Henry was on site working on a piece, too. Talk about a striking resemblance! Though instead of a sasquatch, ours features a tree running with hot lava. Henry stopped by to check it out and I could tell he wished he’d thought of that. Keep an eye out for a Lava Owls mural, I’m tellin’ ya.

I’d hoped to help create and run a PARK(ing) Day park of our own for FamilyBike Seattle, but I didn’t get it together this year. However, expect something awesome next year! And feel free to send me any great ideas–I don’t actually have any yet.

I recently used and shared my sole cargo bike route up Capitol Hill, mentioning I had better route for next time. Next time came today!

My usual method for finding routes is to start with the Google maps suggestion viewed in terrain-view, compare it to the appropriate Seattle Neighborhood Greenways maps to make adjustments, and if I need more help, ask locals via the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group, or locals and more via Twitter. But this new route I was lucky enough to get from Julie Salathe, Cascade Bicycle Club‘s Education Director, when we were emailing about the last CycloFemme and she realized I really don’t know my way around.

Read the details–this is not a route Google would give:

When you go over the Montlake Bridge on the West side, stay on the sidewalk. Then you can descend on a little path under 520 and down to the Montlake playfield before you cross the hwy ramps. When you leave the Montlake playfield and turn left on East Lynn, take one of the first rights into a driveway for the Greek Church, and then go up a little dirt path thru the trees on the left and you’ll come out in a little stub that leads to E Blaine. Go on E Blaine instead of Howe, then right on Howe (at the end of Blaine).

Then, once you’re on Highland, I usually take the first alley for a few blocks, since one block of 20th is one way. Then go one more block in alley after Aloha, then go back to 20th. Then you can go through the Miller community center sidewalk (by the soccerfields) and you come out on 21st. Cross Thomas, then go back over to 20th. Cross Madison at 20th in crosswalk.

It took me an hour (versus Google’s estimate of 42 minutes, though I never take that for truth on the mamabike) with a few small course corrections and picture stops.

Here’s the first exciting part–secret path (well, at least to me; not to the many bicyclists I saw down there) to Montlake Playfield right next to the freeway onramp.

It was beautiful and leafy down there, too. I’m a sucker for signage, for multi-use trails, and for nature tucked into urban spots.

And check out these sharrows at the southeast corner of Montlake Playfield:

I misinterpreted the directions for the dirt path next to St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and cut through the empty parking lot:

but this is the cute little path I should have been on before the nice paved alley by the trees.

I didn’t like the block along 24th Avenue East and stuck to the sidewalk (four-lane road, uphill, with no sharrow or shoulder), but then I got to the car-free part of Interlaken Park:

It was beautiful! Check out the wall of ferns where I stopped to stick sweaters on the kids:

The car-free part of Interlaken was more-or-less flat, but once we got to Interlaken Drive–which we’ve taken several times in the downhill direction–it got a little less fun. The map says it was less than a mile and it wasn’t too steep, but it felt sooo long. I think I’ll need to ride this route a few more times to better appreciate it. I’m a subscriber to “the hill you know is less painful than the hill you don’t know” so I need to get better acquainted with this slope.

But after an uphill block of 19th (on which I followed a few tired-looking bikers–that made me feel a bit better!) we hopped over to three quiet blocks of flat alley. I didn’t see other bikes in here so I don’t know if it’s a common cut-through like the rest of this lovely route.

Here’s the path through Miller Park. There’s a play structure to the right, and apparently a splash park (though not open this late in the month) beyond that, by the community center.

I didn’t see a bike loop detector for triggering the light at Madison, but fortunately one of my passengers was willing to hop off and push the walk button.

Then finally: Central Cinema for Cartoon Happy Hour! Apparently car traffic was horrendous this evening: one friend arrived an hour later than us (we were five minutes late), while another had to give up en route once she realized how long it would take. The friend who walked two blocks to the theater beat us all there.

I took the familiar route home, up 19th, through Interlaken Park to the northwest corner, then follow the bike dots to the University Bridge. A nice thing about the University Bridge is that it’s so high that it’s not a painful climb to 45th Street. Those four gradual blocks followed by a bit of downhill to get home are sometimes a lot nicer than the two steep blocks home if I take the direct route. Yeah, I have to negotiate my way through the U-District and cross over the freeway (I take the sidewalk), but leaving the Burke-Gilman Trail to cross Pacific and then 40th is no picnic, either.

The kids liked the route enough to fall asleep. Good night!

While much of the world is checking out what’s new in bicycling at Interbike, I’m getting giddy about something old–a mamachari, the typical Japanese mamabike.

I know of one mamachari in Seattle, brought from Japan when a family moved and then sold to a lucky friend cheaply when they outgrew it. This seems to be the most common way to obtain a mamachari in America as they’re hard to ship affordably.

But this mamachari (red!) that has me giddy is the latest and greatest.

Mama Bicycle blog author and mamachari evangelist, Shuichi, has shipped a Bridgestone Angelino to us! The bike will reside with FamilyBike Seattle (of which I’m on the board) and be available for test rides and short-term rental.

G & O Family Cyclery has generously volunteering to assemble the bike, but due to a shipping snafu, the three boxes ended up the Ballard post office instead of G & O, enabling today’s adventure! Davey Oil (the “O” of G & O Family Cyclery) and I biked to the Ballard post office only to be told it was at the other Ballard post office yesterday (What?! There are two post offices in Ballard? Yes: there’s also the Ballard Carrier Annex post office on 9th. Huh.)…

…but had since been shipped back to Japan. They probably weren’t on the boat just yet and we could try to fill out a shop shipment form, but that would cost $11 and it probably wouldn’t work. (Again: What?! And of course we’d pay a mere $11 to save our boxes!) But before the clerk could further dismay us, the neighboring clerk leaned over and said we’d have to go to the annex and figure it out there.

So Davey and I left the wrong post office, flabbergasted, and trudged (well, the pedaling equivalent of trudged, anyway) our way a mile to the carrier annex. We were greeted at the door by a cheerful clerk who said of course the boxes were there! She’d been expecting us! Thank. Goodness. I’m completely confused about whom the first clerk spoke to on the phone at the annex, but whatever. The boxes were here!

It seems either of us could have fit all three boxes on one of our bikes–I was rolling completely cargo-ready: left the Yepp seat at preschool, left the first grader’s helmet fastened to his school’s bike rack, outfitted my bike with one Xtracycle WideLoader and one friend-made running board, but I merely secured one box to my FlightDeck. Davey pulled more weight with a box on either side. He’ll want me to point out his bike has electric assist.

Then it was just a straightforward 2.5-mile gradual uphill pedal to the shop, where we met Tyler, the “G” of G & O Family Cyclery. He happily posed on my bike.

And I got my first peek inside the shop. It’s going to be great! And so is the mamachari! I’ll have a mamachari update in a week or so.

Someone stole our double bike trailer from the back of our shared car port. Fortunately they didn’t also take the kids’ bikes or our helmets. Or cut the lock and take my bike. I don’t use the trailer often, but I like having it for a variety of reasons. It’s great for cargo, such as when we borrowed the Cascade bike rodeo kit. And I could never have braved Snowmageddon without it. Not to mention, it’s an integral part of the mix-and-match bike. My most common use last school year was to haul it the two miles to preschool, empty, and leave it there so I could swap to my road bike after dropping of at elementary school (which is only two blocks from home) and then not worry about having to factor in a second bike swap before 1pm. It’s an awesome little trick and I’m pissed I can’t do it anymore.

Not one to waste space (and not one to carry stuff into the house), the trailer also served as a storage bin. That means the thief also made off with our trunk bike rack and my snowboard jacket–better known as my four-year old’s “straitjacket” which keeps him warm in the winter while keeping his hands away from his brother’s grabbable hoods and neck. I’m sure there were a few other things in there I’ll soon realize are gone.

If I were to get a new trailer, I’d go for a Wike Moonlight Trailer. I first read about them on Pedal Powered Family. The iBikeuBike family has one and loves it, too. I’ve met both families, but haven’t actually seen their trailers! Not that I need to see one to know I want it.

But Seattle has a robust Craigslist classifieds site–which is how we originally got the trailer and trunk rack–so I started there. I didn’t see another $40 trailer, but I saw a nice, cheap trunk rack. Our Craigslist might be a bit too robust because I also so a nice-looking 20-inch BMX-style kiddie bike. The Danish Mosquito is extremely sturdy, but it doesn’t seem appropriate for my six-year old to use for the free kiddie lap at the cyclocross races. It’s not as light as the 16-inch Sparkle BMX bike, but it’s lighter than the Mosquito.

But the story gets better! While we were loading up the bike and I wondered where I could hide it so Mr. Family Ride wouldn’t notice it, the seller told me about their old trailer they’re soon planning to sell. I expressed interest in it and thought I got “dibs”, but when he called his wife out to see my crazily loaded bike and I realized I know her! I think that sealed the deal. She’s one of the moms from the Walk.Bike.Schools group and I just saw her last week at a meeting! Now I just need to wait for them to upgrade to a real cargo trailer. In the meantime, I might need to learn a little more about trailer attachments. Our cheapie red trailer had the little clamp that cinches to any bar and worked well on my road bike and Big Dummy (though Mr. Family Ride wouldn’t want to use it on his commuter bike with disc brakes). This trailer came with one of those, but they’ve replaced it with the better sort of clamp.

I had planned to put the bike in one pocket and the trunk rack in the other, but we hit the grocery store before our first pickup and I ran out of room. It fared OK in my front basket, though. The truck rack seller delivered it to our meeting spot by bike, by the way :)

The bike was on Phinney Ridge so I got to take a closer look at the Greenwood Phinney Greenways pop-up Greenway. I saw it while heading home from the Ballard Greenways Celebration and thought it was a real Greenway! The signs looked metal and the painted speed humps looked real from half a block away.

The cross streets also had faux speed humps. I hope to see more of these soon. And then real Greenways shortly thereafter.

A fellow family biker recently coined the term “kidmiles” to describe miles biked with a kid on board. I agree those miles deserve a special name (that special name is kidkilometers where appropriate, by the way).

I have to admit I feel incredibly accomplished (or more worn out, sometimes) if I pedal a lot of two-kids-and-their-two-kid-bikes-miles, but today I had just one kid. Still counts as kidmiles, but easier kidmiles. I weighed the Big Dummy at the vet’s office recently and discovered it’s 76.4 pounds. I think the four-year old is 35 pounds and we had minimal stuff.

It was supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees today, but it stayed cool and cloudy so this isn’t the pretty photo essay I thought it’d be, but we saw some cool stuff nonetheless.

First stop: Westlake Center, where I gave the bike an extra pat goodbye as I left her under the monorail tracks. I’ve seen a lot of ravaged bikes on that rack.

But she was still there after we bought FOUR new bike bells at Daiso.

And this wind sock–shown here at our second stop, Back Alley Bike Repair in Pioneer Square.

The Back Alley visit was for a new pair of socks. Many choices, but I figured I’d go for the big wheels and represent the kiddie set at tomorrow’s StarCrossed cyclocross race. Hoping all the kidmiles will help me on the course!

Then Pike Place Market. Partially because unless I want to go way out of the way along the waterfront, the easiest route is up Western Avenue that ends at the market, but mostly because I wanted Briar Rose Creamery truffles and one of the two places to get them in Seattle is Beechers Handmade Cheese. We also grabbed a balloon animal, watched the fish throwing, and ate a bagel in the park. Crowded place, but fun!

And the trip home took us past Velo Bike Shop so I could check out the old Chinese baby bike seat I’ve been admiring through the window.

If this bike were in use, the seat would be closer to the front of the bike.

I like the double kickstand, too.

Then on to the world-class separated bike lane on Dexter. Ha.

But I was impressed with the TRAFFIC MERGE WITH BIKES sign once passing the delivery trucks blocking the bike lane. I’ve only seen BIKES MERGE WITH TRAFFIC before. Nice to know they made a special one. Never mind that bikes are traffic, too.

The little guy requested we swing by the Densmore bike tree on our way home so that meant a ride by the Essential Bakery salmon bike corral:

And behold the bike tree!

We continued a few uphill blocks out of the way to ride along the Neighborhood Greenway. The other streets up here are quiet enough, but I like to be a presence on the greenway. 13 kidmiles in the books.

Yesterday I led a Kidical Mass ride to the new Ballard Greenway (along NW 58th St) and it was a blast! We had about 50 riders, many of whom were kids on their own bikes. Seattle Kidical Mass rides often only have kids as passengers/attached on trailer bikes, which I think is mostly a result of our busy streets and hilly terrain…though it could also be that bigger kids have more activities on weekends and choose soccer/baseball/Lego club over group bike rides. Oh, we also had two dogs along for the ride! One in a bakfiets (with bigger kids riding alongside) and one in a Snoozer Sporty Pet Bike Basket on a front rack with kids in rear seat and alongside solo.

When I saw just how many little riders we had along, I got a bit nervous about the length and elevation gain of our route (my kids and I test rode it Friday and they had quite a bit of trouble) so we shortened the route from 3 miles to 2, with a big stop at Ballard Corners Park.

And the smaller route meant we were back with almost an hour to play before the ribbon cutting! Riders big and small had fun getting Undriver Licenses, riding the Dutch Conference Bike from Dutch Bike Co, making smoothies with the Cascade Bicycle Club bike blender, dancing along the A-1 Piano street keyboards, and riding the bike rodeo–I wasn’t the only one quite taken by the teeter totter! It was amazing! (Not that I tried it personally.)

And come 3pm, the kids patiently lined up to listen to speeches and cheer the ribbon cutting with Jennifer Litowski of Ballard Greenways, Cathy Tuttle, Executive Director of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and Mayor McGinn.

Here’s Cathy’s short video of ribbon cutting and zooming kids:

And many of us left with new big flags! Babette came equipped with bamboo stalks (the idea was to pull the leaves off, but we went for the natural look), attached to frames with two very tight zip ties and choice of colored streams for the top, held on with a bit of tape and a rubber band.

I’ve got additional pictures (with tons of the teeter totter!) on Flickr.