Moms on Bikes

Today we headed to Seattle to ride on Lake Washington Blvd with J's parents.  They ride Dahon folding bikes, and had already unpacked them when we got there.

This stretch of Lake Washington Blvd was closed to cars today because it was a Bicycle Sunday, so we had the road to ourselves.  As did all the other families, moms, kids, and cyclists.  The road follows Lake Washington, and is lined with flowering trees.  It's about three miles to the Seward Park entrance.  For a while I rode with J's dad while J rode with his mom.

The folding bikes are single gear bicycles, so I found that if I stayed in my middle gear we traveled at the same speed.  I enjoyed not having to have to worry about getting out of the way of people because we had the whole road to ourselves.  Car-free days are genius, and I wish there were more of them in more places.  The freedom of being able to ride on the road was fantastic, especially for someone like me who's still not comfortable sharing the road with cars (not that they share much).

Soon we arrived at the Seward Park entrance.  I didn't realize it, but there's a bike path that follows the waterfront of the park, which is a peninsula that juts out into the lake.  We found great places to stop along the way with docks and views of the city in the distance.

Here, since we were riding on a smaller bike path and more moms were at the park riding with their families, I got to use my new bell more often.  Rather than yelling "On your left!", it's much more cheerful to let people know you're coming up on their left to ring a bell.

I loved watching J's parents ride their folding bikes.  The proportions of their bikes are different from ours with our big wheels and frames - their wheels are smaller, their seat posts and handle bar tubes much taller.  I love that there are so many different types of bikes out there for different people.

On our trip back to Mt. Baker Park, we was saw more and more cyclists on the road, including a large group of road cyclists all wearing the same jerseys who hogged the middle of the road.  I guess even on car-free days there's still someone who thinks they own the road.

The later it got in the morning, the more families joined us on the road.  I saw a dad who looked like he was accustomed to riding very fast riding very very slowly behind his son on a very small bicycle, who was pedalling as hard as he could.

We made it back to the car after riding over 11 miles (again!), then took off for lunch.  I look forward to spending more days riding with moms on bikes.