Today was disgustingly rainy and windy, but I purloined my husband’s rain jacket and waterproof gloves and discovered it’s not half bad when properly dressed. However, I’ve decided no matter the attire, I hate the Broad Street tunnel for crossing Aurora. I’ll find a new less-direct route for next time we hit the Seattle Center. In addition to the narrow sidewalk and missing curb ramp, I’m unfairly disillusioned today because I thought a speeding-around-the-corner truck didn’t see me (he totally saw me) and stopped and turned too quickly and dropped the bike. Again! Poor kids. No scratches, but I don’t want to see that embarrassing intersection again. A couple guys were on a smoke break nearby and ran over and helped me lift the bike back up.

I brought my rain covers (Ikea shopping bags), but figured the place was deserted enough that I could lock up to a covered fence instead of the exposed bike racks. And despite being dry under our rain-proof layers, I was in no hurry to face the elements again so we agreed to stay indoors until it stopped raining. Here’s a bike sign we discovered in the Japan section of the Children’s Museum Global Village exhibit:

The only bad part about staying inside so long is that we got to the rock store (formally known as The Frontier Gallery, informally known as “the store with the jackalope in the window”) five minutes after it closed. Darn! Trains are still number one, but rocks are becoming a close second. But the sun was out!

As usual, I had to walk a block on the way home, but I had a brilliant idea that might work next time: I’m going to have the big kid dismount and run alongside the bike as I pedal slowly uphill. He seemed OK with the idea, however declared he was too hungry to do it this time. I can’t really take credit for the idea because after voicing it, I remembered a friend in Queen Anne (super hilly) told me she used to have her toddler get off her Xtracycle as she walked it up hills. Can’t wait to give it a try!

Daily distance: 9.5 miles
Cumulative: 226.4 miles

I got lost driving to Lincoln Park today. Yep, the same Lincoln Park I biked to two days ago and have successfully driven to in the past. We’ve just been heading east so often lately for dentist and snowboarding that I automatically hopped on the 90, despite the GPS pleading with me to take the West Seattle Bridge. My GPS maps are out-of-date so after 30 minutes of being led to various closed onramps when the baby started shouting “Out! Out!” I turned tail and headed home.

Once home we hopped on the bike and headed to the Wallingford Center for the local bunnyfest. We missed The Bubble Man and egg hunt, but got to meet the Easter Bunny, get faces painted, and meet The World’s Most Interesting Balloon Artist. We left with oodles of temporary bunny tattoos, puppy faces, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wristband balloons. Plus we grabbed a sprinkler at Tweedy & Popp and met friends for brunch without having to re[bike]park. Bummed about missing two egg hunts and the Lincoln Park bouncy slide and more bummed about spending so much of this gorgeous day in the car for no reason.

Daily distance: 1.4 miles
Cumulative: 200 miles

A couple exciting things happened on the way to Pike Place Market this morning: we saw that the model boat pond in Lake Union Park is refilled and we met the Easter Bunny.

We were headed down 9th when we saw the Easter Bunny wandering around luring kids into Umpqua Bank for free candy, dog cookies, and professional photos. The baby decided he’s not a fan of the big bunny, but he did enjoy a surreptitious dog cookie in the evening.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I bought into the hype and tried to park my bike vertically by the Pike Place Market balloon clown. Needless to say, the weight of the rear Bobike seat made it impossible. Fortunately, the clown was busy with some tourists and didn’t notice and laugh at me. I ended up locking up near the fence of elevated bikes. It was useful that I parked flat in the end, because a cool dude on a $30 vintage (read: old Craigslist) Schwinn came by to admire the Bianchi and ask a bunch of questions. I think I talked him into upgrading to a Dutch bike.

The market was a bit of a bust. It was crowded as always and our friends didn’t show up so I figured we’d relocate to REI and see if could find a new messenger bag to salvage the day. I’ve gone back to using my old bag with the broken zipper and torn inner lining because my husband’s old Timbuk2 was simply too huge to use…though not big enough to hold the kid’s balance bike, it turns out. I couldn’t find the perfect bag, but at least we found the bike racks this time and the boys had fun playing in the kiddie climbing tree…and I only had to climb up once to rescue a stuck baby.

The ride home was nice, too. We saw Maximus/Minimus pulling into a garage. I don’t know if its parking sty is a closely guarded secret, but I’m filing this as an exciting secret discovery. I made it up Densmore, but that was with a couple well-timed stops for snack distribution, dandelion picking, and then a long break at the top of the hill at Wallingford Playfield. It was cheating, but it was nice not having to walk the bike at all.

Daily distance: 10.8 miles
Cumulative: 198.6 miles

…especially if you misread the water taxi schedule and miss the turn for the Lincoln Park bike trail.

My original plan was to ride through the locks and along the waterfront to pier 50, but I didn’t want to risk missing the 11:00 water taxi so I cut through downtown. Turns out I had plenty of time because the water taxi ran at 11:30–so I missed the 10:30 by 10 minutes! Grr. That’s twice I’ve misread the water taxi schedule so I’m bound to get it right next time. This was my first time with the bike on the real water taxi. We rode to Alki once before, but that was when a small Argosy ship was standing in on account of a water taxi collision. It’s great for bikes! There were two big bike racks and my bike and the road bike on board both stayed upright for the ten-minute ride.

Skirting around West Seattle was nice and flat and easily navigated…until I heeded the “Private road” sign and turned up 47th Avenue SW instead of connecting to the bike path into Lincoln Park. I had to walk the bike two blocks, but I finally made it–two and a half hours after I started. The map below is the route I should have taken. I won’t call it “the route I’ll take next time” because I’m pretty sure there won’t be a next time. Alki, for sure, but Lincoln Park, probably not.

The kids both fell asleep on the West Seattle side of the long ride home. Rounding the northern tip of West Seattle and seeing the water taxi approach the dock was such a relief after this morning’s snafu. I wheeled the sleeping kids on board and stood next to the bike. Probably not the safest way for kids to ride the water taxi, but yay for naps.

Heading up the waterfront, I couldn’t stomach the thought of an extra hill so I shook my first at Broad Street and took the long route through the locks. The big kid woke up in time to see the Interbay train yard. There was some good stuff going on today: lone train cars being pushed (or shunted in Thomas the Train-ese) down the tracks and a couple wingless 737s a couple cyclists deemed cool enough to stop and photograph. I waited until we were at the top of the hill to take my picture because I just wanted to get it done…so no nice fuselage shot for you.

I was exhausted by the time I reached the bottom of Wallingford so I didn’t attempt scaling Densmore (my current theory is that I only made it up last time because I was starting to get sick and my body wasn’t sending the proper “time to quit” signal) and had to walk an extra block and a half up 40th and 2nd.

Daily distance: 30.5 miles
Cumulative: 187.8 miles

Today seemed like a good day to try our alternate route to the Seattle Center. It’s longer (10.2 miles versus 4.8), but it’s such a pain to cross Aurora downtown that it seemed worth it. Turns out, it’s not.

Not that this should influence my opinion of the route, but we got caught in a rainstorm. We took refuge in Me ‘N Moms kiddie consignment shop so the kids could play and I could shop. I found several items, including a nice rain slicker for the big kid. Much needed because we learned on the Kidical Mass ride to the Seattle Bike Expo that his old rain jacket isn’t very waterproof. I didn’t see any bike racks near the shop, but I wouldn’t have wanted to park exposed to the rain anyway. Instead, I tucked the bike into the covered entryway of the neighboring business. I felt bad using their space, but it seemed like a slow day.

The rainstorm passed and we exited the store to a beautiful blue sky. The ride through the locks and along the train tracks was fine. The kids loved it as always–one loves trains and the other loves school buses and there’s a portion of the Terminal 91 Bike Path with trains on one side and a school bus parking lot on the other.

I think the path is sporting new blue reflectors. There’s a chance they’ve been there for a while and I didn’t notice them on previous grey and/or rainy trips, but I’m pretty sure they’re new. I wouldn’t want to get tripped up on the train tracks, but the white line seems a little more restrictive than necessary, making the path too narrow for two-way traffic.

I chose Broad Street as my route from the Waterfront to the Seattle Center. I don’t know if there’s a better nearby street and I might not bother looking for it because Broad really sucked! It was two very steep blocks. I have no idea how I made it up them. At the top of the hill we rode by a dad walking with his two boys. The older boy said, “Dad, you should do that!” Those kids must hate their poor dad because I must have looked a mess after those rough two blocks.

I opted to take the normal route home. It wasn’t all that great, either. I don’t like taking the sidewalk on Broad to get past Aurora and today’s construction meant I had to take the wrong side of the sidewalk. It was a little disconcerting to face oncoming cars while tunneling under Aurora.

But a bit of good news: I made it up Densmore without the Spokespeople pacing me up. Again, I have no idea how I did it. The white noise of my rhythmic panting lulled the baby to sleep. Good for him, but I was the one that really needed a nap after today!

Waterfront route to Seattle Center

Normal route to Seattle Center

Daily distance: 15 miles
Cumulative: 146.7 miles

With better planning I probably could have made today work carfree. But as it was, the boys and I took the car out early this morning to post our “reserved” sign on our picnic shelter, pick up the birthday cake, and fetch bagels. Then the baby and I biked down to the park with decorations and craft project while the birthday boy and dad drove to pick up the coffee and bring everything else to the park. In retrospect I should have accepted the help of friends and had people already planning to drive over get the food. I think we could have fit everything else on my bike and in a kid-less double trailer attached to my husband’s bike.

Two other families came by bike (and from farther away than us) so that was really cool! And since the day was sunny (though still cold!) there were tons of biking families at the park.

I just took the little kid home with me so I randomly chose a street to bike up from the Burke-Gilman: Latona. It was steep! I made it, but it was a grind. I didn’t have the helium balloon with me, but I can’t imagine anything would make that hill pleasant.

Daily distance: 2.4 miles
Cumulative: 131.7 miles