Worth it to bike uphill to Crown Hill for free aquarium passes? Heck yeah! And the money I saved was a bit more than we dropped along the way at Top Ten Toys to replace the wooden puppy lost in Discovery Park the other day. I was chagrined to realize that the free passes were a block deeper into Crown Hill than the dreaded Soundview Park I just said I wouldn’t bike to again.

The aquarium was great, but the cool red octopus bike rack was blocked off by construction. The guy at the ticket desk hadn’t noticed the fencing (so new today?) and checked into it. Turns out it’s tunnel-related and the strength of the seawall is being tested chunk by chunk. The octopus should be back in business next week if not sooner. But in the meantime, I had a great excuse to lock up to a pole right by the entrance; the octopus is kind of far away.

After the aquarium we paid a visit to Pike Place Market and took the elevator at Lenora to save a bit of hill climbing. It’s a nice elevator, but we still had to climb one steep block of Lenora so I’ll look for an alternate route next time. I’ve taken the elevator by pier 66 before and seem to recall that one was easy enough for getting to higher ground.

19.3 miles today. I pointed out to Mr. Familyride that I was less aerodynamic than normal due to toting the stroller along. He laughed and said there was nothing aerodynamic about me to begin with and it was more about the added weight of the stroller. Oh well. My carbon fiber side-entry water bottle holder still makes me feel fast and light every time I look at it.

While waiting for a sailboat to go through the Fremont Bridge, a slow biker hopped the line of patiently waiting bikes. I’ve always assumed this was a FIFO situation–first bike in, first bike out…except for spandex-clad roadies in a hurry, who are welcome to zoom ahead. Needless to say, I was appalled at her behavior and passed her twice–once when we all passed her on the bridge, and a second time when we caught up after our detour along the access road to bike by our secret train tracks below Westlake. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but I’m slow myself and try to stay out of the way so everyone can get where they need to get and not be annoyed at the mamafiets they encountered on the ride.

The Seattle Center was big fun today and I discovered the High Rail Bicycle at the Pacific Science Center. It’s 15 feet in the air above a net, water, and the skeletons of previous passengers. Supposedly the bike can’t fall off the one-inch rail, but it doesn’t feel all that stable. The little circular handlebars didn’t help, nor did the operator encouraging me try riding hands free (I did, for like a second–eek!). It’s only open in the summer, and only on nice-weather days, so we were lucky to have access today. And no flip flops allowed–I had to borrow my friend teeny little shoes. And yeah, I totally want to try it again!

Today’s first: up up up to Discovery Park! I met up with Biking with Brad at the locks and followed his Xtracycle up the steepest route possible to the park. I’d previously been on the wooden bridge between 33rd Ave W and 32nd Ave W once, but in the other direction when I missed my turn and got more hill than I counted on. In the northerly direction, this is the route one ends up on following the “Ballard via Locks” bike signs, by the way. If I come back on my own, I might try my usual Fort St Bridge crossing and climb up W Government Way.

One of the moms at Brad’s kids’ nature school recognized me from the poster for Moving Planet [September 24 at South Lake Union Park, RSVP on Facebook] and I talked baby bike seats with another mom. But Brad stole the show because he took shifts of six kids at a time for spins on his Xtracycle while we waited for our blackberry paint craft projects to dry.

But Discovery Park wasn’t all fun and games. The bumpy paths caused a couple things to bounce out of my baskets: the little kid’s berry-picking basket and the big kid’s wooden puppy that comes along everywhere lately–doh! Note to self: lash down all cargo in future.

Who knew that yesterday’s Helix Bridge adventure would serve as a dry run for today. After everyone had their turn on the X and the paintings were all dry, we followed Brad and kids home for lunch. They supposedly live in Lower Queen Anne, but it was plenty uphill for me. Apparently “lower” is to bottom as “flattest” is to flat, as I tiredly discovered on San Juan Island last summer.

As we were getting to leave Mid Queen Anne, a friend texted me to say she was in my neighborhood of Wallingford and wanted to meet up. It felt odd to reply, “Sure! We’ll be home in an hour if you’re still there” when by car we were only 10 minutes away. I need to get over the feeling of having to apologize for being different and biking everywhere.

We left the house at 9:30 this morning and didn’t return until 7:15. In those nearly 10 hours we biked 25.4 miles…though we hadn’t set out with such a big day in mind. I blame the high mileage on the quality of kindie rock we Seattle-dwellers have become accustomed to hearing. The highlight of our day was supposed to be a free kiddie concert at Waterfront Park, but the first guy was pretty sucky and the second act covered three Disney princess songs before we just couldn’t take it anymore.

We took our time getting to the concert, starting with utilizing the bike as a stroller and walking a few blocks to a cafe with Mr. Familyride, who is recuperating from a broken shoulder and off the bike for a bit. In Ballard we stopped in at Dutch Bike Co. where Fritz diagnosed my slipping gear problem as “little feet.” Apparently my front passenger has been knocking the cable out of the eyelet. I tried to leave without fruit, but my passengers hollered at me until we went back for apple and banana. Nevermind we were a block away from the Ballard Farmers Market, which was our next stop, for honey sticks.

We chatted with some cyclists while walking through the locks. They were heading home from a big ride, but acted politely impressed at our Wallingford-Waterfront foray. Otherwise we crossed through fairly quickly, with just a quick peek at the fish ladder from above, because it was getting close to showtime. OK, one last stop because there’s a great blackberry bush on the Fort Street Bridge.

The day had started out incredibly foggy–we couldn’t even see the huge fishing boats close to the bike path. Fortunately, The Little Mermaid medley chased the fog (and us) away and it started feeling like spray park weather. Since our day felt suddenly very open, having planned to spend couple hours at Waterfront Park, we did a bit of exploring on the way back and discovered the elevator at the Helix Bridge. We admired the train tracks from above for a bit and then headed back down and onward to seashell park via the locks.

The front kid uncharacteristically fell asleep on the way there. No complaints here–the little guy rarely naps these days. He’s only two and certainly needs a nap, but in classic younger sibling behavior, he doesn’t want to miss a thing his big brother is up to. It worked out well, though. He snoozed on my arm and we wheeled him down into the dim fish ladder room where we watched salmon swim upstream for a while.

Seashell park was a bust. I’m not sure what the problem was, but apparently the water doesn’t spray out of the shells the right direction. So we decided we’d head over to South Lake Union Park for its properly-angled sprayers, but first we stopped for to-go sandwiches because all the unexpected biking was taking a toll on me. I’m not sure if bonk is the proper term for a recreational bike rider to use or if it’s reserved for real cyclists, but I bonked. So I hid in the shade at SLUP with my sandwich and juice while the monkeys went wild in the spray park. I blame the crap music earlier in the day for this, too. I don’t know why, but it’s all their fault.

I eventually recuperated from “bonked” to “exhausted” and we headed home. We took the easy way up Stone because I didn’t trust myself to take the steep route which requires dismounting to walk half a block. I thought I might abandon the bike if that happened. While huffing and puffing up Stone I saw a dad with trailer bombing down the other direction…riding with no hands…taking his helmet off his head and adjusting it down in his lap. What?!? I know a trailer is a different beast than an attached kid seat, but come on!

Other than the alarming no-hands dad on the way home, it was a great day. I tend to avoid the touristy spots on weekends so today was a bit out of the norm. We got a lot more comments about the bike seats and the one less minivan sticker than normal–all positive. Rock on, Seattle.

I played tour guide this morning and showed a Phinney-Ridge-dwelling friend my lowlands route to Golden Gardens beach. She takes the crazy steep windy direct route normally, but has only gone with her husband pulling the trailer. I’ve decided to include more glamour shots of Seattle (or wherever) in posts because the same bike and kids has got to be getting boring…but I decided this after taking all of today’s pictures so here’s beach and kids:

Loading up the bikes I met a woman who recognized my bike from seeing it at Whittier Elementary (weekly half hour class for us, real school for her kids) and from the blog. [Hi, Karen!] She has a tandem trail-a-bike, but an older, non-folding version. I didn’t realize they can fold up, but I’ve always thought they were cool. And there are some great accessories on the website: a baby seat and back rest. Great options for getting small kids onto a normal bike.

I hadn’t planned to brave any extra hills today, but I was lured to the Phinney Farmers Market with four words: Half Pint ice cream. My friend led the way–not the crazy steep windy direct route, but her plenty steep route through Ballard. The ride wasn’t too bad at first, but the last block of 73rd before Phinney was a killer. My friend belatedly realized she usually takes a different street for that last block. The ride was harder for her on city bike with double trailer (and bigger kids). I normally only tow my double trailer with my road bike and fancy clicked-in shoes and it’s still a struggle uphill. However, I was very jealous of the double nap her kids took in the double trailer. We hung out at her house to escape the heat and wait for farmers market to start. The boys were excited to see their papa’s beach cruiser, which is currently taking up room in my friend’s garage after playing steed to her visiting brother.