School started in Seattle last week. Hurray. Yippee. Yahoo. I’m not even going to try to contain my excitement as I now have two kids in school full time. After seven years of kids-all-the-time, it’s nice to have some time to myself to do whatever I want.
And I want to ride my bike. Alone. (I’d also ride with a friend if the opportunity presented itself as long as they promised not to whine or bicker or proclaim, “it’s not fair” if I pedaled a little faster than them.) Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, kids, seattle, sustainability
Tagged bike-to-school, bikes, bikes as transportation, seattle
Tim and I highly recommend a visit to the new South Lake Union Park. Situated on the south tip of Lake Union, next to the Center for Wooden Boats, it’s a surprisingly serene locale to have a picnic and enjoy the hubub that Lake Union has to offer. While we lament the short-sighted Seattle voters each time we go there, it’s still a great spot even if it’s NOT as good as it could have been. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle
Tagged bikes, carfreedates, dates, Family Cycling, kids, seattle, South Lake Union Park
I took this video of Stephan from Dutch Bike while riding with him a sunny Ballard evening earlier in the month. Continue reading
Posted in bikes, cargo bikes, seattle, shops
Alan of ecovelo posted this wonderful Cargo Bike Pilot interview of Val Kleitz. The video, by the Cargo Bike blog, shows why Val’s a legend around here.
He’s been an inspiration and a huge support of our move toward (and efforts to blog about) family cargo-biking goodness. Since we love the Val and all of his infinite wisdom, we thought it was worth posting here as well.
The group cargo ride images make us lament our late start for the July 4th ride even more. Who would have thought they’d leave close to on time for once! For what it’s worth, the photos from our cargo ride of two+two are up.
– Anne and Tim
Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, seattle, sustainability
Tagged bikes, cargo cycling, cargobikes, interview, seattle, Val Kleitz
Looking Back at Seattle
We’re always hunting for fun car-free day trips. Since our kids aren’t riding too far on their own yet, (they ride on the Xtracycle Snapdeck) we’re limited to one-way distances under 10 miles or so.
That’s why the Elliot Bay Water Taxi, which runs from downtown Seattle to Seacrest Park, is a great day trip. The ferry leaves from Pier 55 – roughly a seven mile ride from our house. Once the ferry docks, Alki is a quick 2.5 mile spin along the waterfront to all the sand, sun, cruising, and beach volleyball you can handle.
The bike friendliness of the Water Taxi is a bonus. There’s plenty of room for bikes inside toward the bow (that’s the front for you landlubbers). Just roll your bike on the boat, pay your $3 (or $1 with a Metro transfer), bungee it to the railing and enjoy the 12 minute crossing.
We have taken our road bikes on the taxi before but we weren’t sure if the crew was going to balk at the longbikes— transit workers can be cranky about bikes (especially really big bikes) sometimes. It turns out the Argosy (the tourist boat company contracted to run the water taxi) employees were great and loading the bikes was no problem—even on a busy weekend day.
The beach, bikes, and a big boat. All easy and hassle free.
Val sent us the info about the Fourth of July Cargo Bike Ride. Sounds like fun. Meet in Pioneer Square at the Pergola – First and Yesler @ noon. The ride will commence at 12:30. Details here.
We’ll probably wander down and ride part way. We have Fourth of July plans so we won’t be able to linger. Hope to see you there.
– Anne and Tim
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle
Tagged Cargo bike ride, cargo bikes, Fourth of July, seattle
This Sightline video is worth a 44 second watch. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, seattle
Tagged alternative transportation, cars, seattle, SR 520, traffic
We met a group of kids and parents for donuts this morning for our last ride to school event of 2008. We had a pretty good turn out considering yesterday’s sun was long gone and the Seattle mist had returned. There’s nothing like sending your kid off to school with a nutritious breakfast in their belly. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, kids, neighborhoods, seattle
Tagged biking to school, last day of school, seattle, top pot donuts
We thought we were done with the rain for a few months. After our horrible winter, we thought the worst was over. A few weeks ago it was 90 degrees for a couple of days. We enjoyed some nice evening rides, we got out our window fans, cleaned the deck and stocked the fridge with Mojito supplies. Mmmm–Tim makes a mean mojito.
But we were wrong, so wrong. Friday it was 50 degrees and raining, it even snowed in the mountains a few days ago. I finally had to turn the heat back on because the kids won’t get out of bed in the morning. And our mojito drinking days will have to wait. Continue reading
This is sweet. The volume of commuters is almost like something you’d see in Northern Europe. The video author says the state ferry system is thinking of bumping cars in favor of bikes because bikes generate more revenue per square foot of deck space. Makes sense to me—six or eight paying cyclists in the space of normally occupied by a lone driver is easy math.
Wasn’t it just last year they were saying passenger/bike ferries weren’t an economical option ? I guess they didn’t anticipate the impact of $125/barrel oil on the hearts and minds of SOV ferry commuters.
– Tim
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, Commute, mass transit, seattle
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