We dropped our houseguest off at the airport this morning (by car) and then biked over to Matthews Beach. I learned a valuable lesson along the way. I saw a poster for the Orange Bike Parade and wanted to take a picture and tweet it, but while I was digging around in my bag, not finding my iPhone (left it at home, turns out), the bike (and kids) tipped over. This has happened before a couple times and it’s heavy to pick up. The other times people have run over and helped me, but I had a brainstorm that if it happened again, I should remove the kids before righting the bike and save my back. Worked like a charm! And I only had to take the 35-pound rear kid out.

NOTE: I’m a huge klutz. The millions of mothers who bike with kids in the Netherlands don’t drop their bikes and you won’t, either. Today’s fall was about being stopped on the slopey gravelly shoulder of the bike path and being an idiot. Here’s the poster I went through all the trouble to take a picture of:

3rd Annual Orange Bike Parade
Sunday, October 2nd, 2012
Seward Park, Seattle
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Registration $15 individual | $45 family

We had a great time last year and plan to attend again. However, I haven’t been on the lookout for orange pants, plus I sacrificed one of my orange socks to Totcycle for the 9 to 5 overnight scavenger hunt. Time to orange up! There will be t-shirts, decorating, and face painting at the event so it’s not imperative to show up ready to roll.

Another fun ride is happening the same day: the Tour de Flannel. We also did this ride last year and loved it (though we didn’t go all the way to Woodinville like the read riders).

Back to today: the beach was big fun and I’d like to point out that the bloody nose was a result of a head-on brothers collision in the playground and not from the bike mishap.

Vancouver is awesome! The kids and I drove up two days ago to explore, retrieve a friend from the Vancouver airport yesterday, and drive back down to Seattle today. A feel a little silly doing a post that involves no biking on my part, but I wasn’t able to find a shop that rents cargo bikes (based on one phone call to Rain City Bikes). However, yesterday we drove by Yes Cycle Bicycle Rentals and I saw they had bikes with iBert front baby seats or rear kid seats. Too late for this visit, but I phoned them in the evening and asked if one could rent a bike with both front and rear seats. The guy on the phone said he thought it’d be hard to handle (even after I mentioned this is my setup at home), but I think we left it at, yes, I could rent a two-kid bike. Hopefully my next visit up will be by train with my bike along, but if not, I’ll be visiting Yes Cycle.

Sunday we drove directly to Granville Island and luckily found a parking spot. Bicycle is definitely the way to visit the place. We saw bikes everywhere, many of them rentals and lots of their riders obviously inexperienced, which makes me think it’s an easy-to-reach destination. We spent most of our time at the wonderful spray park and playground, but the Kids Market and Public Market were big draws, too. I saw lots of bikes with trailers, but the cutest thing I saw was a bachelorette party on bike. The bride-to-be wore a shiny white sash and a veil flowed out from under her helmet.

We headed to the Sylvia Hotel in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day across the street on English Bay. Paradise! The bay is lined by an inner walking path and an outer bike path and again, there were bikes everywhere. Bike rental shops everywhere, too.

Monday was monsoon day which drove us indoors to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park, right next to our hotel. It was too rainy for me to see any bike paths, but I know they’re there.

I see a Canadian bike adventure in our future. Bike to King Street Amtrak Station (though 7:40am departure doesn’t sound too pleasant–but better than 6:50pm departure with 10:50pm arrival) and easy bike over to the Sylvia Hotel. Another option is to stay at a hotel along the SkyTrain, but I really liked the West End/English Bay area. Canada, we’ll be back!

I love the comments we get while out and about on the bike. This morning on our way to Ballard we got a “That’d make a nice picture!” and a “Cool!” but the best was the peeing guy in the bushes along the Fremont Cut who shouted “Hey!” to his wobbly buddy who was barley holding up the peeing guy’s bike while pointing at me with his non-aiming hand. I took it for a truncated “Hey! Look at that sweet bike! Did you see it? I’ll describe it to you when I’m done over here. And hey, don’t drop my bike…which is much lighter than her bike, by the way.”

On the way to the beach we stopped in at Dutch Bike Co. for a banana, an apple, and a bonus rear hub adjusting. My gears behaved for a day after my friend adjusted them, but went back to refusing me the two easiest gears. Upon leaving the shop we met a neighbor of Tocycle’s, who recognized my bike from pictures and opened with “I read your blog.” Too cool! She’s got a rear seat, but agrees with me that the handling with just a rear kid is squirrely. I told her I think a Bakfiets in Ballard is coming up for sale soon so hopefully next time I see her she’ll be sitting pretty on a cargo bike.

Heading home from the beach we had a cool wouldn’t-have-happened-in-the-car moment when we saw our favorite ship, the Virginia V, fueling up on the other side of the Aurora bridge. She doesn’t usually leave her moorage at South Lake Union Park so this was very exciting–even more exciting than the excited peeing dude this morning. We spent the rest of the ride home guessing what she was planning to do with her full fuel tank. I think we decided upon bringing a load of puppies and monkeys to the ferry terminal where they would cross the street to board a train.

Today we took our first bike-on-bus trip with full beach gear. I did better with choosing a bus stop this time. I’m not sure I’ve figured out the best way to choose a route/stop, but the Metro Transit site seems pretty useless so I’ve been relying on Google maps transit directions. I usually find a route that involves a transfer and bike to the second bus. This time I was smart enough to examine the route of the second bus and choose the stop closest to the bike path, rather than the stop closest to home. I don’t completely trust Google maps since last time it directed me to a stop and time that the unexpected express bus skipped over.

The bus was late so we were late for our chiropractor appointment, but things seemed busy enough that it didn’t matter. It probably wasn’t wise to not leave any wiggle room between the scheduled bus arrival and our appointment, but I like the stop and route we chose so I scheduled our next visit for 30 minutes later and we’ll keep everything the same. There was a pregnant woman on a bike with toddler in trailer at the chiro today. She didn’t cheat and take the bus over. Hard core.

Now for the fun part–we took the short trip to Matthews Beach. Side note: this is such a nice beach! The Lake Washington water isn’t too cold to swim in and there’s a real locker room with warm-water showers. The playground was redone in the past year and is really nice. It’d be nicer if it was closer to the beach, the way things are set up at Golden Gardens, but it’s still great. We stayed and played at the beach and playground all day long.

A great part about staying out so long is getting to ride home during commute time and see so many people out on the Burke-Gilman. This evening we saw three Xtracycles. We also saw a guy on a folding bike with plastic bags hanging from each end of his handlebars. He looked jealous of my baskets and big load of stuff. I would have offered to carry his little bags for him, but he was going the other direction. Near campus we saw a twenty-ish kid pedaling with just one foot. We caught up to him at a red light and asked what was going on. My big kid likes to occasionally push his balance bike with just one foot to be silly, but I figured this wasn’t just for fun. He said something was stripped and he’d just put the pedals on in his garage without checking. They had toe clips so I can’t imagine what the problem was, but he wasn’t cackling the way my guy does when he one-foot balance bikes so I think he wasn’t doing the funny-monkey-one-footed-crazy-race.

We started our day at seashell park (Ballard Commons Park) to play in the spray park and watch the skateboarders–after a stop by Dutch Bike Co for apple, banana, and coffee, as has become our Ballard habit lately.

The boys weren’t really feeling the spray park so when Brad texted that he and his Xtracycle full of kids and kid bikes were down at the Seattle Center, we migrated south. Along the way we got to wait for the Fremont drawbridge (always fun on the bike, pain in the butt in the car) and then retrieved the wheel I knocked off green plastic truck two weeks ago.

The Seattle Center was a much better time–the boys hopped right into the DuPen Fountain and splashed around. Brad and his kids took my bike for a little spin while his Xtracycle looked on and chuckled. Then I discovered how great it is to have a handy friend–I warned Brad he wouldn’t be able to shift into the two highest gears if he needed them, but he took a look and said it was actually my easiest two gears not working. Dude, I need those easy gears! No wonder the hills have been feeling harder lately. He asked what kind of tools I had on me (ha!) and then MacGyvered something together from his tool kit and Legos and adjusted my rear hub. And tightened my breaks.

After Brad and kids took off for lunch, we watched the skateboarders at Sea Sk8 for a bit before heading to a pre-preschool playdate nearby.

I should have taken the short and steep route home now that I’ve got my easy gears back, but we took the easy way up Stone and it only seemed fitting to stop at the Lower Woodland Park skatepark, where we sat and ate a snack while watching the skaters and scooterers. There was one kid on a bike inside the skatepark, but I think he was just watching his friends and not riding. I hadn’t noticed this, but bikes aren’t allowed in Seattle skateparks. Muuqi just wrote a piece about this on Life(Cycles). At least Lower Woodland Park has dirt jumps right next to the skatepark that we’ve enjoyed in the past and hosted a few BMX riders today.

The internet has connected me with another new Xtracycle friend, Biking with Brad. I belatedly realized that I had already read about his Xtracycle back in April when Eric Shalit pointed me to a picture he took and posted on Tubulocity. Don’t let this coincidence give you the wrong impression that there are only a handful of Xtracycles in Seattle. There are tons of ’em. In fact, everyone has one but me.

Today we met Brad along the Burke Gilman Trail and followed him to the Arboretum. I’ve never biked there before, assuming it’s hilly, but it’s nice and flat. There might be a little bit of hill I’m forgetting, because I tend to go a bit faster and pay less attention when following another bike. I’m not sure this is the exact route we took, but it’s pretty close:

After tagging along to Nature School, my little guy rode on the back of the X while my big guy borrowed his new two-year-old friend’s balance bike. For the record, Brad had offered to carry our two balance bikes, since his Xtracycle can easily hold four kid bikes. Both kids sat on the parked Xtracycle together, but it was too big for me to take for a spin to really try it out. I’m not sure things will stay as easy as they are now if the kids were suddenly within touching distance of one another. It’s nice to have them so close to me yet still far from each other in my current setup. Of course I could put a front seat on my pretend Xtracycle, but that would negate my ability to stand in the pedals up steep hills.

After a little playground romp, I loaded my littles back onto my dainty (compared to the X) bike and the six of us rode to U-Village for birthday cupcakes. Happy birthday to me! I didn’t arrive home to an Xtracycle with a big bow on it, but maybe next year…

To demonstrate how much bikier I’ve become over the last year, we biked to Soundview Playfield for a birthday party we drove to last year. One word: phew! The route looks simple and boring, but it seemed uphill the whole way.

The two-hour party wasn’t long enough for me to want to hop back on the bike for the ride home so thank goodness it was wading pool day (the smaller wading pools aren’t open every day of the week to save money and water). I came very close to falling asleep on the grass while the kids played and eventually rode them home and then took a real nap.

I’m sad that the birthday boy and his family are moving away, but I won’t miss the ride to Soundview.

I would not have wanted to put this in the car:

But no problem tossing his painted little self (and this is only halfway through our bubble and paint area adventure) on the bike.

This afternoon we biked up to Phinney Ridge for SDOT’s Summer Streets (“Walk.Bike.Shop.Breathe.Play”). I considered hauling the balance bikes up there, but I’m glad I didn’t because there weren’t a lot of kids riding bikes around on the closed streets. Instead I bungeed an umbrella stroller and Ergo to the bike and we walked the length of the event. We also transported a bunch of cans for Seattle’s Largest Canned Food Pyramid.

The event was fun and we ran into lots of friends (all of whom bike with kids, I’m just realizing after the fact!), but the coolest thing that happened was while riding home up 45th, just moments after admiring a parked mamafiets with a black Yepp front seat, I heard “Are you Madi?” It turns out the owner of the bike is a friend of a friend who had just heard a description of my bike.

I have a terrific knack for getting lost. I blame Santa Barbara–the coastline runs west-east instead of north-south and is surely responsible for ruining my sense of direction back in babyhood. Missing a turn in the car is a huge pain and often takes me a long time to correct (even with my GPS patiently telling me what to do), but missing a turn on the bike is usually just a bonus adventure (or not even worth mentioning). This morning we ran an errand in the U-District and got a bit turned around trying to get down to the Burke-Gilman. I got stuck crossing the University Bridge, but bridges are always fun and we had no bridge-crossing plans for today.

While waiting for the light to change to cross to the northbound side of Eastlake Ave, I chatted with a pedestrian who told me she wished she’d had a front baby seat when her kids were little because her only option was to sit her big kid in a rear seat and wear the baby in a backpack. I’ve seen babies strapped to biking parents in backpacks a couple times and once on the front in an Ergo. I don’t think it looks particularly safe, but I know my perfectly safe setup looks crazy to lots of people and have decided to be more accepting of all bike arrangements I initially deem kooky.

So our light turned green and we waved goodbye to the woman whose kids survived being transported on her bike and back and had our first ride on the northbound side of the University Bridge. Northbound is just as nice as southbound, but I prefer riding on the west side of Lake Union so this may have been our one and only NB UB trip. I found my way to the bike path (second time’s the charm!) and along to Golden Gardens Beach. It truly is summer finally–we saw a woman on a beach cruiser with two tiny dogs in her front basket.

In keeping with the summertime theme, we stopped at Molly Moon’s for ice cream on the way home. I honestly just stop here because it’s an excuse to ride up Stone Way instead of the shorter and steeper routes. Lately we also stop halfway up Stone to check out the big construction site at 40th so it’s a doubly rewarding: excusable rest break and ice cream!

A jogger asked me if my bike was motorized today. When I said no, she moved on to, “Well is it electric?” I felt bad bursting her bubble so I admitted I had to walk two blocks uphill on account of the trailer of balance bikes I’d hauled to the lake.

Last week I scored a couple 99-cent baskets at the thrift store (as well as a big yellow toy truck). I also bought a pack of full-price zip ties to attach them in style and six new bungee cords of various lengths. I haven’t gone overboard with the bungeeing yet, but I have grand plans to strap in some bulky stuff.

We don’t make it to Green Lake with the balance bikes often. I prefer our new neighborhood of Wallingford, but it certainly was nice being a block away from the lake with its walking and biking path. We played on the south end near some exciting dirt trails with lots of tree roots to bump over. This was the little guy’s first time with his balance bike at the lake and of course they both insisted on riding on the little pier. Fortunately only rocks and pinecones took dips in the lake. A friend who is in the process of becoming a professional photographer took some pictures of the boys which will undoubtedly come out much better than mine. Can’t wait to see them!

But the most exciting part of today was being reunited with my beach cruiser when I rode to Ballard for a haircut. This isn’t just any beach cruiser, it’s the Cutest Bike in the World–the GT Dyno Bikes Kustom Kruiser Kozmopolitan. I’ll have to clean it up and take some close ups, but in the meantime this photobucket has some good shots of one, though she swapped out the stock bowling pin valve caps for little dice. Dyno Bikes/GT doesn’t make them anymore, but here’s what the catalog looked like. Yeah, it came in calendar form. My cruiser feels a little stripped down. Last time I rode it regularly (five years ago), it had a beer holder and six-pack holder–a.k.a. cup holder and basket. Not sure what happened to them, but they’re probably floating around in the garage somewhere. I ran into Totcycle on the ride home and asked him to take a picture of this momentous event. I think he wouldn’t have recognized me sans mamafiets and helmet had I not shouted his name.

I made one startling discovery: I was able to ride home just fine on my single-speed cruiser. I took the short and steep route and while it wasn’t a breeze, it was totally doable. So now I’m confused. Is Seattle not as hilly as I’d thought? Or am I just super strong from lugging sixty pounds of children and additional junk around on my non-motorized bike.