I was curious to see what my car use would be this week. I’ve had full access to my car since dropping my husband at the airport on Sunday. I’m a little disappointed by how much driving we did, but the week felt a bit urgent as we’re leaving town Friday ourselves. Here are the sad stats:

Monday: morning car to grocery store, afternoon bike to library and park
Tuesday: morning car to swim class, afternoon bike to beach
Wednesday: morning car to Tom Bihn, afternoon car to chiropractor, afternoon bike to kiddie festival
Thursday: morning car to swim and Tom Bihn (to retrieve credit card–doh!), afternoon bike to bank, grocery store, bike shop

I almost skipped our afternoon trip today, but we all needed a break from my frenzied packing and cleaning. As usual, our simple trip turned in to a cool adventure, thanks to traveling by bike instead of car. Locking up at the bank, we met a very cool dredlocked man (whom I’d imagine is known by everyone in Seattle and a fixture of the local bicycling scene) who said my bike reminded him of a Cuban bike. I wasn’t aware of a big biking with babies trend in Cuba, but it totally makes sense. I’d love to go investigate…

There were a lot of bikes at the Whole Foods bike racks and I admired a vintage-looking Mickey Mouse bike bell on the bike next to us. Nothng else too exciting, though. Trader Joes tends to get the flashy bikes, while Whole Foods gets the no nonsense variety. <insert high-price grocery store joke here>

Then the boys demanded we stop by the “puppy bike shop!” but unfortunately, Christiaan of Ride Bicycles wasn’t in with his house-sitted puppy. However, the mechanic who rides an Xtracycle was there and we talked X until my passengers got impatient.

The photo is from crossing over the freeway. It’s much more exciting to ride over the bridge when traffic is zooming by in both directions…but it’s more environmentally satisfying to scoff at the backed up car traffic. Today we had a bit of each.

I found my way to Matthews Beach Park today. Not the most efficient way, of course, because that wouldn’t be keeping in character. I followed Google maps suggestion to leave the Burke-Gilman and get on Sand Point Way. But the boys got to see a construction site, including flagger who stopped our traffic for a few minutes, so that was cool. On the way home we were smart and picked up the trail at the edge of the park.

We met up with some friends, including Andy and his awesome Xtracycle (the photo’s from Touch-A-Truck at Magnuson Park a couple weeks back, btw):

But before I get to the Xtracycle, I was pleased to see I can pack enough stuff for the beach just on my bike (last time my husband pulled a trailer full of crap, too). Except for the big green truck that has to come with us everywhere, I brought minimal beach toys and just one small towel, but it did the trick. Andy, on the other hand, was able to throw just anything onto his X, including a retired metal pot. Yeah, the cooking kind. Talk about a big scoop! My kids would love something like that at the beach, but not until we have more storage room.

I took the X for a spin with the seat down most of the way, but it was still too big for me. However, it was enough to make me fall in love with Xtracycles a little more. I rode with the kids one at a time–not for safety reasons, but because it was too hard to get them out of the playground sand pit–and they both liked it. The four-year old is even able to dismount solo, I learned during a slow turn when he catapulted himself off to run back to the sand pit and snatch his precious green truck away from his little brother. I’m still worried about sibling friction with them so close together, but they’re finally getting to a stage where they play together more than they fight over toys (unless the green truck is involved, obviously).

Best discovery was the Rolling Jackass double kickstand (the names of these things!). With handlebar deployment lever! I didn’t realize the price tag was $400 as I was testing it out today. Whoa. But worth it.

It really felt like summer yesterday. Today, not so much. I had plans to check out the Solstice Festival–no, not the naked bike parade portion in Fremont, but the after-party just down the hill in Gas Works Park. But I was too wimpy to brave the rain. Finally the drizzle let up at 3:30, just in time for us to ride to a birthday party in the neighborhood. So nothing too exciting today–just wanted to whine about the rain. It’s much harder to deal with following a sunny day.

We met a friend at View Ridge Park this morning and it seemed like a perfect bus-to/bike-home trip. I usually use the Metro trip planner for bus trips, though I don’t find it user-friendly. It didn’t present me with a good option for today, but Google maps did (or so I thought).

We biked a mile onto the unversity to catch the 71, but the bike route was pretty sucky, involving a steep gravelly hill and having to walk the bike off a curb. Furthermore, Google didn’t know the 9:04 bus was an express so it blew by our stop. The driver noticed my flabbergasted look and was kind enough to point ahead to the next stop. I threw the kids back on the bike, slung on my bag, had the rear kid hold our snack bag since I’d already folded up the baskets, and flew after the bus. It seemed like he was waiting for us, but as soon as we reached the tail of the bus, off he went again. So we chased him around a corner and caught up for the next stop.

If that wasn’t enough, the little kid (in his bike helmet still, by the way) tripped on the way to his bus seat and got a huge lump on his forehead. Not our day! But the two blocks to the park were nice and flat and the ride home was fine. And the stop we ended up meeting the bus at (University Way NE and NE 43rd St) was a nice big covered stop that will be easy to reach in the future.

The weather turned gorgeous by the afternoon so we hopped back on the bike to check out Baldolero in Tangletown–a lovely slightly uphill on the way there, downhill on the way home ride. The outside area was unfortunately 21+, but the non-bar side was empty so the kids had the run of the place. The food was meh.

Yesterday I beat the a Google maps bike directions estimate by three minutes–uphill to Whittier! So I felt I could adequately compare bike and driving options to my hair appointment today. Google told me it’d take 12 minutes to drive to Ballard and 23 minutes to bike there. Considering I have the world’s worst parking karma and the time needed to walk from my awful parking spot, I decided things were equal for the ride over. The 28-minute bike versus 12-minute drive on the way home probably couldn’t be argued into a wash, but I didn’t point that out as I left my husband trying to work from home while minding the four-year old.

I noticed the old train tracks that cross the Burke-Gilman bike path by 6th Avenue NW have been spray painted red. I’m considering it a little bit of beautification (well, safetyfication anyway) of the west side of the trail while the east side is being fully revamped.

I was tempted to stop in at Dutch Bike Co on my way by, but I don’t want to have to admit I’m still having a bit of trouble on the hills even with my awesome new hub. Today was fine with just one passenger, but I haven’t made it up the steep and short route with both kids yet. However, I’m still not completely over the neverending cold so I have high hopes things will be great in a week or so.

Today was huge. Most of the hilly stuff was at the beginning for our usual Wednesday trek to Whittier, but then we did a bunch of new stuff. First up was a side trip the little one and I took to Honore Artisan Bakery while the big one did his class. Cute place, but a little on the fancy side so no blueberry muffin to go for the big kid and nothing dairy- and soy-free (no surprise there) for the little one. But we had a nice coffee and from-home snack on the outdoor adirondack chairs.

Next up was a detour through Sunset Hill to pick up a Craigslist CARES harness. I’m contemplating making our next trip car- and carseat-free so the cheap harness was lure enough to get me to attempt a ride to a neighborhood with “Hill” in its name. It was easy getting there from Whittier, but I don’t know that I could make it up from Market.

Then we coasted down to the Ballard Locks because I forgot about the south side ramp closure. I have yet to ride over the Ballard Brige and I hear it’s no picnic (I think because it’s narrow on the bridge and busy streets on either side) so I decided to try to carry the bike up the stairs. I dismounted the kids and was about the pick up the bike when a guy hopped up from his spot on the grass with his wife and four dogs and offered to carry my bike. Even without kids, that thing is HEAVY so I not-very-convincingly told him I could manage and then thanked him profusely a million times (once for each stair) on the way up.

We paused to watch trains for a bit and also made a quick stop for kid hot dogs along the waterfront at The Frankfurter. I’m a sucker for any business that declares itself “the best” and stands that don’t require removing kids from the bike are so convenient. I love this picture a tourist couple took for me. Payback for my complaining about the kids not ever both looking at the camera.

Fortified for more riding, we headed south toward the Tom Bihn messenger bag factory, which finally (yay!) has regular retail hours. Notice I say “toward” and not “to” the factory. It’s a well-known fact I easily get lost and the detour signs really threw me off. I think the road closures didn’t actually affect my route much, but I’d already convinced myself we were lost and got farther and farther off track. At least we got to see extra train tracks and trains.

The kids were a bit stir crazy by the time we arrived so we didn’t stay long and made our way (just getting a little lost this time) back up to Pioneer Square as quickly as possible for lunch and running around. We were very close to the King Street Amtrak Station so we biked over, but were distracted by all the exciting construction equipment outside that we didn’t lock up and go in. Next time.

My map doesn’t include our getting lost mileage, but we must have done 30 miles all told. Needless to say, I’m not in a hurry to have such a big day again. We were out from 9:30 until 4:15 and most of that time was spent in the saddle.

We’ve had a couple exciting car-free days: yesterday we took the bus to Mounger Pool in Magnolia. We’ve only gone by car in the past. And today we took our first non-car trip to the chiropractor in Wedgwood. It looked too hilly to bike so my obvious options were taking two buses or walking a mile and taking one bus. I don’t know what my hangup is about transferring buses, but I have yet to do it with kids and I was too lazy to walk a mile so we biked to the university and grabbed the bus from there.

I was feeling confident on my bike-on-bus skills having done it twice now so I didn’t watch the video tutorial several times last night as I usually do. It went well…except when I forgot to close the bike rack at the end. So back to watching the video in preparation.

Riding home from Wedgwood we were able to check out a portion of the Burke-Gilman Trail closure detour. It’s hilly. It wasn’t too hilly to handle this direction, but I don’t think I could manage the other way. We saw lots of plastic-shrouded detour signs ready to be unveiled in two days.

I had planned to check out the recently redone Matthews Beach playground, but was so happy to finally reach the Burke-Gilman and fed up with stopping to check my list of directions at every turn that I went south instead of north. It wasn’t beach weather, but I had promised beach so we stopped at Magnuson Park beach instead. It was freezing. They played at the water’s edge for a bit, but when the Canada Geese got out of the water and huddled together to warm up, we called it a day.

Things are back to normal! Well, I’ve still got a bit of a cold, but the kids are 100% and the weather is nice. I had hoped to fit our towels, toys, and snacks into my two baskets and my husband’s big messenger bag, but we had to resort to the Burley trailer, too. The funny thing is, the kids both wanted to ride in the trailer. I think it was more about riding with Papa than riding secluded in the trailer.

I made the mistake of leading the way and immediately heard, “You know what we need to get you? Some pedals and shoes!” Is it possible to change a cyclist into a regular ol’ bike rider? Granted, he’s right to worry about my pedaling style–I have to keep my feet on the outer edges of my pedals and my knees out to the side a bit so I won’t bump the front seat. Not enough to look funny (I think), but enough to draw the attention of my SPD-shod husband. But he also called me fast, so that made up for it.

On the way home I saw two Xtracycles up ahead on the Burke-Gilman Trail in Fremont and insisted we catch up to them. It took us a few minutes during which I pointed out all the wonderful benefits of owning an Xtracycle which resulted in a “You want an Xtracycle, we’ll get you an Xtracycle!” Woo hoo! The pestering has finally paid off. Then the pair of X’s on the trail turned out to be Car Free Days so we said hi and chatted for half a mile before they turned off.

The photo is from my morning excursion to the grocery store. I hadn’t wanted to bring the Pillow Pet along, but in retrospect, a bulky light Pillow Pet that doesn’t leave the basket is a much better tagalong than a tiny backpack filled with heavy pebbles and trains that doesn’t leave the basket. Funnily, at the beach a family with a small child clutching a Mini Pillow Pet was admiring my bike and I heard the mom say, “But we have so much stuff to bring along, like the Pillow Pet.”

I’ve been down with a cold for a week and counting and missing lots of wonderful Seattle bike events. It started with the Aaron’s Bicycle Repair Memorial Day Cargo Bike Ride. Before reading the description I had no idea it’s flat (which I still need to see with my own eyes and wheels to believe) from the waterfront to West Seattle. I’m keeping their Pike Place Market to Lincoln Park route handy and intend to try it soon. It’s been fun taking the water taxi over, but considering the fact that I can’t read the schedule to save my life and that it doesn’t operate daily year-round, a bike-only route sounds great.

Yesterday we all missed watching the Ballard Crit. Two years ago I was too tired and pregnant and opted to nap while the rest of the family went. Last year we all went and had a great time. I talked about going this year, but ended up napping instead. I guess we’re due to attend again next year.

Today was the Tweed Ride which is too hip for the likes of me and the Port of Seattle Centennial Bike Ride which I thought sounded like a good ride for us, and probably the closest I’ll ever get to riding a century (not because it’s close to 100 miles–it’s only 14–but because it’s got a lot of the same letters in the title).

Instead I took the big kid to Touch-A-Truck at Magnuson Park, figuring the 5-mile ride wouldn’t be too rough. The ride was OK, but the Brica snack pod was unable to cling to the Bobike maxi through the multitude of bumps on the Burke-Gilman Trail by the University. The silver lining is that the lid of the plastic snack cup it came with stayed fastened. And the trail was filled with friendly sun-kissed Seattlites who hurriedly picked up my dropped pieces before I even had a chance to stop the bike. We’ll give it another try, probably with a lighter water bottle and attached somewhere else if we’re planning to encounter a lot of bumps. So not a total fail, but I was loath to give up precious basket space to carry it the rest of the day.

It was a wise move to take the bike to Magnuson–the place was jammed with cars looking for parking for Touch-A-Truck, the playground, and a gazillion soccer games. Of the three friends I ran into, two of them also came by bike. I had expected to see five other friends and can only assume they gave up looking for parking and headed back home.

We hit Metropolitan Market on the way home and crammed a bagful of groceries in with our other stuff. It’s nice not having one kid along for grocery trips–I was able to put my messenger bag in the front seat rather than wear it. I was eager to ride up Brooklyn and see how it felt with the new hub, but between my cold and not riding much for weeks, it wasn’t a fun hill. It seems it’ll still be a while before I can really appreciate my easier gearing. However, I didn’t have to walk at all and that is proof the new hub was worth it.

In upcoming bikey stuff I’ll most likely miss, Tuesday night is something called Heels on Wheels in Capitol Hill. Hopefully it’s a regular thing that I can make one day. And now, more napping…

There are so many exciting new gismos on the Bianchi! The pox-free four-year old and I took the bus (so pleasant with only one kid in tow!) to Dutch Bike Co to retrieve the bike. It was drizzling when we left the house, but gorgeous by the time we reached the shop. I wheeled us down to the viewing platform at Fremont Canal Park for some photos of our new bits. Note: ADA accessible viewing platform means ramps, but not necessarily generous turning room so we probably won’t try this again.

Most exciting/expensive is the Shimano 8-speed internal hub. It doesn’t make for a very exciting picture, but here it is:

And here is the new shifter that goes with it. It’s oriented differently from the old one (twist up for easier instead of down) so that will take some getting used to. I’ve had a bit of practice with that, though, as the Dutch cargo bikes I’ve rented in the past are the same. I also finally got a bike bell, which I found by Googling “cute bike bell.”

It didn’t seem wise to only give one kid access to a bell, so I got two. The front bell is a bunny and the rear bell is a kitty. The kitty is attached to the front of the rear rack for now, but I might try to find a different place for it.

Next up is the Brica snack pod to hold snacks and drink for the rear kid. It’s designed to go on a stroller or car seat and works fine on the Bobike maxi. It makes it harder to put bulky stuff in the basket under it, but it’s easy enough to momentarily remove if I really want to cram large items under it.

For my own water (or more likely, a small cylindrical container filled with trains and rocks) I got an Orbea lateral-entry water bottle cage. It’s carbon fiber which I find hilarious on my bike. You can also see the zip ties holding my new cable in place. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I would have been disappointed if Fritz “King of Zip Ties” Rice hadn’t utilized any. They’re not the first zip ties he’s put on my bike, by the way.

I don’t think the cage will hold a full-sized water bottle, but at least it holds a 12 ounce Thermos FUNtainer (7.38 inches high):

I had hoped to stop by the library and grocery store before heading home to really load up and test the new gear range…but I forgot to bring my bike lock. So I can’t comment yet on how much easier things are. I’m also quite out of shape from being cooped up for the last few weeks so I might not appreciate how awesome the new hub is until I’m back in fighting form. Once home, I discovered my final delivery of exciting stuff had arrived: my new Betty Basket Liners! I’m having some fit issues so they’re not ready to roll quite yet, but expect a full report on them, too, soon.

Daily distance: 4.9 miles
Bike Month cumulative: 76.9 miles