Wednesday is the one day of the week I need to use the car. We have twenty minutes to get from preschool in Lower Queen Anne to a class in Lake City, eight car miles (and at least 11 bike miles) away. Last year we took the bike and bus once, but there’s simply not enough time this year. At least our morning was full of bikey fun and I clocked 14 miles.

After preschool drop off, the toddler and I explored a bike route to Mounger Pool in the Magnolia neighborhood. I wouldn’t call it an easy ride, but we made it. I’m fighting a cold so I want to try again when I’m 100%. I also want to do a little experimenting with the route. I really don’t like the Emerson hill where the Ship Canal Trail ends. It’s short, but steep (for me). And then I think I could avoid the uphill/downhill of Condon Way. Of course the long gradual slog up Thorndyke is unavoidable, but maybe it’ll get easier in time.

Magnolia is a cute neighborhood so I don’t mind spending more time there while experimenting with bike routes. We stopped briefly at Serendipity Cafe, though there was no bike rack out front. It was cold out so I locked up in front of one of the two metal benches no one was going to make use of. There’s a bike rack at the opposite end of the block, but I’m too lazy to walk that far from a parking spot.

We rode back to Fremont to meet the preschool at a tour of Pel’Meni Dumpling Tzar. I had intended to meet them at school and help keep an eye on walking preschoolers, but I got a little lost on the way out of Magnolia and went straight to the restaurant. Things never look the same biking in the opposite direction! But it gave me some ideas for my modified route. And our timing allowed us to see a big and little tugboat traveling along the ship canal together. I didn’t realize they come in different sizes.

Pel’Meni is really cute with a large patio out back. We’re definitely coming back soon to eat dumplings–today’s tour was very educational, but not tummy-filling.

After walking the kids part of the way back to school we raced home to fetch the car. The last time I used the car was for this class a week ago. Last week we swung by Trader Joe’s on our way home, but inspired by 30 Days of Biking I thought it’d be better to go straight home and ride the mile there. Not for the added miles, but because taking the bike makes the trip an adventure while driving makes it feel like a chore. I don’t think this sensation will ever wear off, although we’ve only been shopping regularly by bike for four months now so I might be wrong. Unfortunately, the big kid who’s freshly recuperated from a stomach bug is now catching a cold and didn’t want to go back out. But I’m going to remember this idea and next time we’re in the car not consider it important to combine a grocery trip when it’s so much more fun to come back out with the bike.

Today’s route to Magnolia:

Possible future route to Magnolia:

Today’s miles: 14.1 miles
April cumulative: 68.0 miles

It’s hard to get out the door when there’s nowhere to go. The four-year old stayed home sick from preschool today so we hung around the house waiting to see what the weather would do. My one idea for today was to figure out a bike route to Mounger Pool in Magnolia since swim lesson sign ups are a few days away, but we didn’t make it out before the rain started and then it lingered all day long. Mr. Family Ride offered to stop work at five and take the kids out for a balance bike ride so I used the opportunity to take a ride myself and meet my 30 Days of Biking quota.

The timing was perfect because the clouds parted and the sun finally made an appearance–although an odd rain fell for a few minutes despite the clear skies. I needed AAA batteries for my new Bike Brightz (well, for the DVD player remote I stole batteries from) so I took the beach cruiser, a GT/Dyno Bikes Kustom Kruiser Kozmopolitan. Mr. Family Ride got it for me when we lived in San Diego where it was my primary bike and it’s not as useful here in hilly Seattle, but I just love this bike. And all the kid carrying has made me strong enough to ride it in Seattle. I really should clean it off and take it to the beach for a nice photo set, but in the meantime, here it is in its grimy splendor:

The RainMan triathlon results are out and my lack of training shows. This won’t be as descriptive as last year’s race report. How did I have the time and energy to write all that??

Swim – 15 minutes in the pool
2010: 17 laps
2011: 17 laps
2012: 17 laps
I think I could have snuck in one more lap, but I stopped when I saw everyone else stopped on the wall. Darn. Next year I push through to the buzzer. I happened to be the fastest swimmer in my heat so Mr. Family Ride annoyed everyone in the stands around him by saying, “Look boys, Mama’s crushing the competition! She’s dominating the field! Shout: Go, Mama, Go!”

Cycle – 30 minutes on a stationary trainer
2010: 5.35 miles
2011: 7.91 miles
2012: 7.30 miles
I’m disappointed I rode less than last year, but at least I remembered to put water bottles on my bike this year. I couldn’t keep track of my laps while swimming, but the bikes have a little computer next to them so if I’d gone in knowing the number to beat, I may have pushed it a little harder.

Run – 2.97 miles around Green Lake
2010: 34:16
2011: 35:51
2022: 33:47
I’m amazed I was able to run the whole lap around the lake. I had considered just walking, but I got out the door in time to join a group of three runners and I kept with them for most of the way. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it alone. And next year I’ll remember to bring sunglasses.

I got my medal (everyone gets a medal) and my cup of Makeda Coffee, but that was all I got to see of the afterparty as we had to rush home with the sick toddler. Many areas to improve on for next year.

Today’s miles: 1.2 miles
April cumulative: 53.9 miles

I played car this morning and utilized the curb-side pickup at preschool. I’ve seen it done for sleeping baby siblings before and figured it was a service my bikey family would never need, but the little guy got stomach buggy yesterday and isn’t quite 24 hours in the clear. I didn’t want to bring him inside and possibly expose the other kids so the teacher came out to fetch the big guy.

A quick trip to the grocery store was safe, so we paid a visit to PCC on the way back home. It’s hard to do a small shopping trip with so much cargo room, but PCC makes it easier when those five items total $40.

I’d like to point out that this is the same bike rack Seattle Bike Blog tweeted a picture of yesterday:

It’s not quite as packed when it’s not farmers market day. But it’s a great rack–I love on-street parking. The bike in the background today is pulling a trailer with a balance bike in the rear cargo slot.

Back home, we swapped to the old mamabike and headed to Dutch Bike Co for a new center stand. I’ve gone through two Pletscher two-leg kickstands so far. They’re great little kickstands and I love how they fold up to the side, but I’m just asking too much of them. I tried a Velo Orange Dual Leg Kickstand a while back, but it didn’t do the trick so I returned it the same day. It hasn’t been too bad with no kickstand in the interim. I started on this bike with the stock single kickstand and am used to leaning it against my hip while loading the kids. I also utilize trees and fences to balance it.

Today I had a hebie bipod stand 605 installed per Dutch Bike Co’s recommendation. It’s the same one that comes on the WorkCycles they carry. This thing is going to last!

I thought I’d drop it off today, take the bus home, and then pick it up tomorrow or Wednesday (thus the stroller bungeed to the basket), but apparently when the owner of the shop says there’s room to keep your bike overnight, one should still check with the mechanic. Fortunately, by the time the little guy had finished his banana from the cafe, Fritz had made time to stick on the new hardware.

This was my first trip on the Burke-Gilman Trail since Hum of the City and I were detoured for the bollard removal. Now there are strips of fresh black asphalt and those of us with wide loads don’t need to worry about getting hung up.

There was time to go home and swap back to the new mamabike so we grabbed it, the balance bikes, and some snacks before heading back to preschool.

My plan was to let the kids ride ride ride at Gas Works Park so they’d be sufficiently tired that I could go to the Menstrual Monday ladies ride. We were only there for about half an hour when the stomach bug hit the other kid. I guess I should have seen that coming. We headed home and stayed indoors and amazingly, the toddler still fell asleep at six. Yeehaw!

I met up with Tracey of RAW between our two houses and we headed to the Seattle Center together. She still had her baby-towing trailer (empty, that is) attached to her road bike and I had opted to take the Surly Big Dummy mamabike. I removed the kid seat and took the balance bikes out of the FreeLoaders so I was relatively light and aerodynamic. It’s a good night bike because the dynamo lights are BRIGHT, plus I wanted to show off the awesome Bike Brightz from Hum of the City. [Note: No hostess gift required or expected if you come visit, but this pink Bike Brightz is awwwwwwwesome!]

The only tricky thing about the Menstrual Monday rides is that one doesn’t know the destination ahead of time. I told Mr. Family Ride I’d be home at 9, but we rode to The Bridge in West Seattle. Perhaps I could have made my self-imposed curfew if I’d skipped the patio time, but Tracey and I stayed for one drink before leaving early. I was home at 10:30. I think the other 13 riders stayed a lot longer and didn’t get to their respective homes until Menstrual Tuesday.

It was nice having the bright lights (and the Bike Brightz got a couple raves), but next time I’m bringing my road bike. Even an empty Big Dummy is a lot to lug around for 20 miles. I’ve ridden down the Avalon hill once with West Seattle Spokespeople (I took the bus to get to the ride), but this was my first time up it. It’s big.

Today’s miles: 40.9 miles
April cumulative: 52.7 miles

Ride. Tweet. Blog. Repeat. It’s 30 Days of Biking time! This is my fourth time taking the challenge, though I didn’t complete it last time thanks to a pesky kidney infection. This year I’m compromising by starting the month out just slightly sick, with a little cold.

Today I loaded the kids into the double trailer and dragged them two miles to Green Lake for the RainMan Indoor Triathlon. My original plan was to carry the kids and my road bike on the Big Dummy so I could meet up with some friends and show them my awesome cargo bike, but the crappy forecast spoiled that plan. Surprisingly, it barely rained today, but I was better off lugging a smaller load given my current state of sniffliness and whininess.

When the results are posted, I might do a race recap, like last year, because that was pretty fun. I think I biked a bit less this year than last…I wish I’d looked at my results ahead of time so I could try to better them. The last number I remember seeing on the bike trainer was 7.25 miles so that’s what I’ve added into today’s miles, but I hope to remember to update it when I see the real numbers. Those 7.25 miles were stationary, but each competitor was weighed while holding his or her bike and appropriate resistance added so I’m counting them in my mileage. I didn’t consider asking for extra resistance added on and thought to myself many times during the bike portion, “At least I’m not lugging that heavy trailer around right now!”

So hopefully I’ll kick this cold quickly and can get some exciting riding in this month. I’d like to explore farther along the Burke-Gilman Trail, carry an especially oversized load on the Big Dummy, and hit a few local bike events. A lot of Seattleites, friends, and cargo bikes are participating this round so it’s more exciting than ever!

Today’s miles: 11.75 miles
April cumulative 11.75 miles

It took failing 30 Days of Biking to truly appreciate how much it’s changed my life. I completed the last two rounds (September 2010 and April 2011) successfully, but nine days into this month I fell prey to a kidney infection and basically slept for five days straight. I probably could have staggered out of bed for a ten-second driveway ride each of those days, and probably would have done so for the previous rounds in which I participated. I’m strangely not upset about having failed this time and I think it’s because those two successful rounds have played the biggest part in turning me into an everyday bike rider. It’s great to realize how many places I didn’t think were bikeable even six months ago are now regular destinations.

I wanted to do something big today to commemorate the end of the month, but our day started out on a very low note when my very first bike passenger, Lyle, The Greatest Chihuahua of All Time, bid farewell to this world after 18 years of being the very best pet, friend, and sometimes-accessory a gal could have. So my first trip was a car drive to the vet. Then the kids and I biked to nearby Green Lake playground (and on the way we circled the traffic circle cow a couple times, naturally) and then onward to the U-Village shopping center to pick up a copy of The Tenth Good Thing About Barney.

I had forgotten about the filming detour so we took a side trip by the UW husky statue while trying to find our way back to the Burke-Gilman Trail. The detour-sign holders weren’t very helpful and most people carried their bikes up a flight of stairs. We found a pedestrian bridge with ramp just past the doggie statue. On the way home I ran into a friend with trailer who was practically in tears over having been turned back at two points trying to get through the closure. Thank goodness it was the last day of filming. I’m boycotting the movie over the mayhem it’s caused.

And that’s the end of round four (round three for me) of 30 Days of Biking. We had some great experiences this month–we took part in some memorable events: the Val Kleitz Memorial Bike Ride, the safer roadways press conference, Moving Planet, and the Safe Streets Social ride; we discovered the South Ship Canal Trail and Snoqualmie Tunnel; and we survived the first rain of the season and transporting a very big box.

I’m looking forward to round five in April. Maybe I won’t even feel compelled to fill the month with a bunch of firsts and just ride ride ride. I do hope to encourage some friends to join me for the fun.

Yesterday’s miles: 4.6 miles
Today’s miles: 8.9 miles
September cumulative: 212.0 miles
Days missed: 6

We took the car out this morning. I’m so sad that our weekly class moved from Whittier Elementary to Olympic Hills. I feel like I just figured out how to make it to Whittier by bike. Next Wednesday is Walk to School Day which originally further bummed me out, but now I’m thinking it’ll encourage me to bus and bike next week. I don’t think the terrain map does justice to how much beyond my abilities the new (green pushpin) school is.

Home from our car trip, we hopped on the bike and rode to Green Lake to meet a friend and once again stopped by the paper mache cow. This was the four-year old’s first visit to the cow. He wasn’t as scared of it as he looks.

My baskets were full of sand toys, but we stopped by the grocery store on the way home. I’ve never bought frozen pizza by bike since the Ryan van Duzer grocery shoppin’ on a bicycle video tricked me into thinking it’s a big deal. It’s not. I was hoping one of the boys would want to hold the pizzas, but they both feigned shivers until I said I’d hold them. Per The VeloBusDriver’s very helpful tip a while back to carry eggs in my messenger bag (or backpack in his case), I shoved the two pizza boxes in my little Tom Bihn Imago.

Not only did they stay put, they were quite invigorating! I think I might have to make a point of riding around with an ice pack in my bag from now on. I might start wearing a cycling jersey just so I can line the little back pockets with Mr. Bump ice packs.

Today’s miles: 4.5 miles
September cumulative: 203.1 miles
Days missed: 6

I thought things were exciting this morning when I used the vacant rear seat to carry a ten-pound box of laundry detergent. But that was nothing compared to the huge box I later brought to the post office. Note my lonely car parked in the driveway. Taking it wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting.

I couldn’t figure out a good way to secure the box to the bike so I capped it with one of my waterproof IKEA bags, bungeed to itself underneath the seat. It looked less impressive hidden under the bag, but it stayed in place the mile to the post office.

We couldn’t resist swinging by the big cow again. That cow is going to make us late for preschool pickup one of these days!

Today’s miles: 14.4 miles
September cumulative: 198.6 miles
Days missed: 6

I was pretty excited to take our first rainy ride of the season. I’m sure the feeling won’t last–I’ll always be a weather-wimpy Southern Californian. The boys wore rain suits and boots, but I forgot gloves for all of us. They seemed OK, but I was uncomfortable riding with wet hands. The front kid’s Newt Suit is awesome, but doesn’t have pockets. The rear kid sports MEC Rain Bib Pants under Lands’ End (via thrift store–woo hoo) rain jacket so he had pockets–and he’s the fussy-about-pockets one. I have some MEC rain pants for myself, but was too lazy to put them on and ended up with very wet pants cuffs. Room for improvement. I’d also like a new rain jacket as I’m using a hand-me-down babywearing jacket, which is waterproof and wonderful, but I worry that very heavy rain will seep through the head hole in the back since it’s held closed by three snaps rather than a zipper.

I was rather proud of my two-IKEA-bag seat-covering system last spring, but after dropping off the four-year old at preschool this morning, I realized it’d be nice to have a third bag so I can leave his seat snugly covered the four hours he’s not using it. As it was, with reparking and recovering twice (coffee shop then playgroup) during the four hour break, both kid seat pads got soaked. Dutch Bike Co has some cute shower-cappy seat covers I’ll look into for my seat.

Route-wise, I decided a while ago I wouldn’t take my usual steep decent to the Burke-Gilman Trail come rainy season. Perhaps I’d feel differently if I had disc brakes, but I think it’s more about needing to let more time pass since my skidding-out-on-the-ice incident last winter.

I had a nice bike-beats-car situation this afternoon. The playgroup Little R and I attended this morning was at the house of a preschool buddy and we left at roughly the same time to pick up the big siblings, me on my bike and my friend in her car. I felt like I was running a bit late so I tossed the bike in a bush, without locking it or turning off the lights and got to the parent lineup at 1:02. Fortunately Monday is music class day which often runs late so I wasn’t late after all. My car-driving friend arrived a few minutes later, having missed a light I was able to take via crosswalk. And then the final mom arrived several minutes after that–she had to circle the block to find parking. Go bikes! However, had I been in my car, I would have been running several minutes ahead because I wouldn’t have stopped to take pictures of the life-size paper mache cow (on the traffic circle at Woodlawn and Kenwood if you want to check it out before it dissolves). So totally worth it. I never would have been able to hop the curb to get to the cow with both kids on the bike, by the way.

We made a late afternoon grocery-shopping trip once the rain had stopped. I made a very interesting discovery–Seattle rain brings out the ugly bikes. The railing outside the U-District Trader Joes is usually a veritable fashion show of hipster bikes, but today was all be-fendered B team. I shouldn’t mock them–I think I’ll put fenders on my mountain bike and hook it up to the double trailer when it gets snowy (lightly snowy, that is) out.

Today’s miles: 12.5 miles
September cumulative: 184.2 miles
Days missed: 6

I always take my helmet off when I visit the grocery store–even for one-item trips–but the kids don’t mind leaving their Little Nuttys on and it certainly speeds things up. However, in addition to the “Cool helmets, guys!” we get some funny looks so I wonder if some fellow shoppers think they’re wearing the helmets for the shopping cart ride. I’m tempted to notify them, “We came by bike!” but I just smile and imagine I’m thought of as the crazy lady that puts her kids in helmets to go grocery shopping.

The grocery store was only a small part of our fun day. In the not-so-fun department, I opted to return some library books to the Fremont branch and rather than go around the block, I scaled one block of Troll Avenue. Big mistake–way too steep for two weeks into the cough-that-wouldn’t-go-away. Fortunately our next stop was Space Needle Swimming Pool (aka DuPen Fountain) where I recuperated in the shade while the boys splashed around. And then we moved to the Children’s Museum where they splashed around at the water table while I further recuperated on the squishy toddler play floor.

I had originally planned to head home and hook up the trailer to haul our expired carseat to the CoolMom carseat recycling event at the Phinney Farmers Market, but I couldn’t stand the thought of more hills. But I really like the idea of biking our old carseat to recycle it so it’ll happen one of these days.

Today’s miles: 11.0 miles
September cumulative: 163.0 miles
Days missed: 5