Sometimes it rains. And you get wet. And you stop and wait for the rain to pass under a tree while you eat chocolate. And mom is kinda mad. Then you go home.
Looking forward to some better weather.
Please.
– Anne and Tim (not pictured but equally wet)
Posted in bikes, Burke-Gilman Trail, kids, weather
The Bike Fairy gives prizes to kids who ride to school
May is officially Bike month. For most riders, that means Bike to Work month. But as you’d expect from a blog that focuses on family cycling, we like to remind folks that it’s also Bike to School Month!
Despite unseasonably cold and wet weather the majority of the month, 86 kids at our school have already completed their online logs for an impressive 517 bike trips to school. We’ve counted more than 100 bikes at morning dropoff twice already, and that’s with the sucky weather. These kids are kicking ass.
Today the focus around town will be on the grownups riding to work for the F5 Bike to Work Day — Cascade is promoting a ride with the mayor and photo-op at City Hall, F5 is sponsoring feed and swag stations all over town, and there’s a big after party in Ballard – but that’s OK, because we’ve got the Bike Fairy! Continue reading
Posted in bikes, Events, kids, kids' bikes, seattle
Tagged bike fairy, bike-to-school, bike-to-work, bikefairy, bikes, kids
Can you imagine a better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens than by blowing off (get it?) work to participate in the Seattle Beer Week Brew Cruise (this means May 18 for you non-volcanic historians).
The ride starts at 1:30pm at Big Time Brewery and Ale House on the Ave. in the U-district, and then, like a Yelm-swallowing lahar, it will ooze its way on the slightly-downhill-to-flat Burke-Gilman Trail toward Ballard. Scheduled stops are: Big Time, Fremont Brewing, Hales, and Maritime Pacific. Mmmm…tasty. Continue reading
Posted in bikes, Events, seattle
Tagged beer, bikes, costumed rats, seattle, seattle beer week
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn unveiled a multi-year Walk, Bike, Ride campaign yesterday at the Beacon Hill light rail station. Initial reaction locally was mostly lukewarm, with many observers pointing to the plan’s lack of funding as a major obstacle to success.
Paul Andrews of Bike Intelligencer summed up the announcement and the campaign eloquently with his post Walk, Bike, Ride, yes. Spend? Um, err….”
Where’s the money, Lebowski?
The opening line from “The Big Lebowski” kept rolling through my mind as Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Council member Larry Phillips and a supporting cast of street activists rolled out a new “Walk Bike Ride” campaign at the Beacon Hill light rail station this afternoon.
Andrews is a seasoned newspaperman and professional writer. And it shows. In contrast to many bloggers (yes, bike bloggers, too. This one included), Andrews can really write. In a, concise post, he covers both the good of the plan (The mayor, who biked to the press conference, wants to encourage a city-wide shift away from driving), as well as the bad (uh, how are we going to fund said shift)?
It’s worth popping over to Bike Intelligencer and getting the full poop. But while you are here, you might as well know that The Car Free Days’ take on the plan is a qualified “Bravo.”
Sure, presenting the plan in tandem with a big-ass bucket of money would have been nice, but we’re reasonably happy with the overall message. If we can instill the city’s collective mind with the idea that “bicycling is a normal option for normal people,” we’re on our way to change. Continue reading
Need a new bike for your kid? Then head on down to Genesee Playfield this Saturday, May 8th from 10:00 to 4:00.
Bike Works’ annual Kids Bike Swap event helps to facilitate the flow of affordable bicycles within the community while simultaneously preventing fully functional bikes from ending up in local landfills. This event provides families with a cost-effective opportunity that allows them to trade a child’s bike that has been outgrown for a larger bike that provides both a better fit and ride for their child’s next summer season of riding! Families looking to buy a bike, but do not have a bike to trade in, are welcome to come after 12 pm.
Get all of the details here
– Anne
Posted in bikes, Events, kids, kids' bikes, news
Tagged Bike swap, kids, kids' bikes, seattle
Now that our kids are getting older, they don’t always ride on the back of the Xtracycles. They are both confident road riders and are quite capable of riding their own bikes. But, sometimes they take a ride on the Snapdeck. Usually because it’s night or we’re traveling farther than they think they can ride or our destination requires pedaling on busy roads or they just feel like chilling on the back of the bike with a book.
When they choose to be a Snapdeck passenger, I usually tell them to wear running shoes. Cause even the most seasoned Snapdeck rider needs to get off, stretch his/her legs and take a little run from time to time:
– Anne
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, kids, xtracycle
The Easter Bunny is due any minute, so I’ll attempt to make this brief.
Anne and I attended a (first?) Seattle Bike Blog Meetup tonight at Brouwer’s Cafe in Fremont. Spearheaded by Paul Andrews of Bike Intelligencer, the idea (we think, Paul can correct us later) was to gather a bunch of local bike bloggers in one place and see if we can find some common ground.
We don’t have a single voice around here like the amazing Bike Portland, but we do have a buttload of passionate cyclists blogging their individual asses off on topics they care about. Of course, trying to make the leap from “individuals” and “personal passions” to “common ground” is huge. Herding cats is a phrase that comes to mind for me. Still, there are places where we all seem to overlap. Continue reading
Around here, we’re mad for smoothies. The youngest doesn’t want to get dressed until he’s had his blended concoction of mangoes, raspberries and bananas. And who can blame him? If your parents offered to make you a smoothie nearly every day of your life, you’d take ’em up on it, right?
Besides being wonderful parents and frozen-food gourmets, we’re also a little nuts for bikes. So it wasn’t much of a leap to decide to combine our passions into one Xtracycle-flavored taste explosion.
Of course, the easiest way to join these loves would be to get out the plastic and order a Fender Blender from Rock the Bike. These HPB (human-powered blenders) are much-loved by the kind of Xtracyclers you’ll often see lingering, sweaty, around large piles of fruit at the Bicycle Music Festival, Burning Man, and various bikey celebrations. I’ve tasted the results of such purchased efforts and unfortunately, while the smoothies taste delicious, they are really tainted by the same bitter aftertaste that comes with buying most commercially produced goods.
So, no, in my quest for a pure smoothie, I wanted to skip the commercialism, re-purpose items from our garage and kitchen (items that I’ve already paid the aftertaste tax on), flex my languishing DIY skills, and see if I could take the bike blender power to 11.
In the end I spent more time on the project than I expected, but the resulting efforts were worth it. We turned this:
Into this:
Interested in building your own mobile blender? Read on…
Posted in bikes, consumerism, extravehicular activities
Tagged "bike blender", bikes, blender, smoothie, xtracycle
We heard from Val yesterday that the Easter Cargo Bike Ride is on. Click the link for details. The route is South end friendly, it starts at the Delridge Playfield and ends at Seward Park. Continue reading
Posted in bikes, cargo bikes, extravehicular activities
Tagged Cargo bike ride, Easter, group rides, seattle
Thought I’d pass along some information about 35 $1000 grants that are available from the National Center for Safe Routes to School. The application deadline is April 7, 2010.
Safe Routes to School $1,000 Mini-grant Call for Applications
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (February 26, 2010) — The National Center for Safe Routes to School is now accepting applications for up to 35 $1,000 mini-grants for creative, youth-focused ideas that support safe walking and/or bicycling to school. Eligible activities must occur at an elementary or middle school in Fall 2010 and support the overall goal of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs — to enable and encourage children nationwide to safely walk and bicycle to school…. Continue reading
Posted in bigger than here, bikes, kids, neighborhoods, School
Tagged bike-to-school, kids, mini-grants, Safe Routes to School, School, SRTS, walk to school
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Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 