The 6 year old urban planner. Part 3.

During our downtown adventure of a couple of weeks ago, my son and I came to the intersection of 1st Ave and Cherry St.  As we were waiting at the corner, I explained that it was an all-way-walk signal and that when it changed, we could cross in any direction, even diagonally.

"Wow!" he exclaimed. "We don't have to wait and cross twice! I bet everyone wants one of these!"

Downtown Adventures

I love walking through cities. Now that Spencer is old enough to have more stamina, I can share this with him and explore more of Seattle together. Schools were closed for mid-term break a couple of weeks ago, so I took a vacation day on the Friday. On weekends, downtown Seattle is either packed (Pike Place Market, the Aquarium) or deserted (everywhere else?). Yesterday was a rare chance to go downtown during the week. At the time, we were still searching for a new family bike (more later) and I don't care for driving and parking downtown, so we took the bus. Kids love the bus - playing fares, getting transfers and pulling the cord to signal your stop are all exciting to them. Before Spencer turned six, he could ride for free on King County Metro, but I'd always give him a coin to drop in the box. The bus drivers were typically good sports about it and would very solemnly give him a paper transfer that he would hold onto all day.

We took the bus to Pioneer Square. Spencer was fascinated by the life-size statues of firefighters.

Our first destination was [storefront] Mushroom Farm. This is a project set up in the lobby of an architectural firm as a demonstration of sustainable agriculture and how one business's waste product can be another's resource. The CityLab7 group collected used coffee grounds from local coffee shops over a two week period. he grounds, which are very rich in nutrients were then used as a growth medium for mushrooms.  

Examining the coffee grounds. This was before the mushroom spores were added, right? Right?

The inoculated coffee grounds were packed into bags and brought to the coolest greenhouse you've ever seen. Built of reclaimed wood and plastic, it's set up in the street-level space near Pioneer Square that is owned by an architectural firm. As an aside, do you call a mushroom chamber a greenhouse? They need to be warm and humid, but don't need light.

My friend Chris is part of the CityLab7 group and was on hand to show us the greenhouse and answer questions like "How big to they grow?" and "Are you a mushroom farmer?". My questions were more technical, like "Hey! What's that white stuff?". As it turned out, the white stuff was the mycelium, the underground portion of the fungus. The mushroom part that we see (and eat) is the fruiting body, which produces spores. The mushrooms have since appeared, so it should look even cooler now. If the timing and schedules work out, I might get to go back and see it again.

Chris answers Spencer's many, many questions.

The farm is open to the public 11:30am - 1:30pm on Tues-Fri until Mar. 23. It's a fascinating project and looks beautiful, so if you get a chance, go see it!

Spencer is growing like a mushroom. The New York Times may have a better camera, but they don't have a model who's this cute.

We then walked back through Pioneer Square. A couple of blocks are pedestrian-only, which gave us more scope for activities like chasing birds.

Yes, dear - I'm sure those gulls were VERY frightened.

After we left Pioneer Square, our explorations took us to a rock & fossil shop and a lovely little pocket park with a waterfall. I would have taken more photos, but we'd been walking for a while and lunch was calling. In fact, when I tried to pull out my camera, Spencer said "Mommy! Don't get distracted!" Our lunch at the Crab Pot and play time at the neighboring arcade are therefore undocumented.

The big attraction of the day was the Seattle Aquarium. They have touching pools, where you can touch sea anemonies, sea stars, sea cucumbers and more. Spencer is asking one of the volunteers questions. Many, many questions.

Our favorite exhibit is the octopus tank, but you never know how much you'll see - the giant pacific octopus is nocturnal and has excellent camouflage. It can be hard to convince a little kid that a lumpy piece of red rock is actually a sleeping octopus. They're justifiably skeptical when parents say thing like that. We lucked out that day, though, and got there just before feeding time. The octopus was very active, so everyone got a good view of it, suckers and all.

Come closer for a hug, little boy....

We had a great day downtown. It's fun to break from our usual routine and activities and I'm going to make a conscious effort to do this more often. As much as I like my neighborhood, there's much more out there!

We're grounded

As in can't lift off the ground, got a broken wing (NOT a broken bone, luckily enough).

Since I joined the Loop Frame Love collective last spring, I've been writing about my adventures riding with my son, Spencer, now 6. We've been using an Adams Trail-a-Bike attached to a mountain bike for the past 2-3 years. My son was scared to use it at first, since the seat was higher than his little 12" wheeler. Plus, there is a noticeable side to side wobble to it, that I could not get get rid of, no matter how much I tightened the connections. So, we took it slow and practiced at the local elementary school, which has a big paved area. Spencer gained confidence quickly - when he started yelling "Go faster, Mommy!", I was pretty sure that we'd gotten the hang of it. 

We took it slowly the first year, sticking to multi-user paths in nearby parks. Last summer was a big step for us, as we started to use it a lot for trips within the neighborhood (about 2-3 miles round trip) and slowly venturing beyond that to perhaps 4-5 miles total. It's been fantastic to be able to combine family time with an activity that I love. It also makes trips to the library and the store an adventure, rather than just a series of errands.

I've had rather mixed feelings about the Trail-a-bike itself, though. The relatively low price got us into family biking. Cargo bikes and Xtracycles were not even close to being on my radar at that time and I would not have spent that kind of money. It allowed us make the transition from occasional recreational use to weekly, though not daily, transportation use. I eventually asked about the wobble at a bike store and was told that it's a characteristic of the joint. The universal joint does make it easier to take a tighter turn. However, that plus the wobble, has always meant that Spencer's motion can swing the balance of both his bike and mine. He's generally pretty good at staying upright, but will occasionally get spooked if he thinks we're getting too close to something. He'll then lean hard the other way, once even shouting "Mommy, I saved us!". From a parked car, no less. I've never fallen over, but I've certainly had to quickly put my feet down and grab hard to hold us upright. A nearby friend of ours has an upstairs office that looks over the street, and he's teased me now and then about the path we were weaving down the street. It's pretty clear why I avoid bike lanes where we're squeezed between fast traffic and parked cars, eh? The ability to take the trail-a-bike on and off does have some advantages - it allows me to put it on the car rack and I have been using this bike on my own for transportation purposes. However, as I found, it also increases the potential for problems. 

Last fall, we had a spill. We were riding home on a quiet street, when I could feel Spencer lean one way. Then, a crash. I looked behind me and, to my horror, Spencer and the trail-a-bike were on the ground. I rushed over, helped him up, and did all the parent checks (Where's the blood? Can you move your arm? How about your leg?). A kind passerby picked up our bikes and moved them to the corner. A woman who lived nearby ran out with a bag of frozen peas. The final tally - a scrape on his elbow, a good scare and a big scrape on his helmet. When I looked at the bikes, I was dumbfounded. All the pieces were intact and, as far as I could tell, undamaged. But separate. How could we have ridden 3-4 miles without it being properly attached? The only explanation I could come up with was that it must be possible to put the hitch most of the way in so that the locking pin passed at the end, but not through the holes. The friction must have held it in until it received a sideways tug. We picked up the pieces and slowly made our way home. I promised Spencer that it wasn't his fault, he hadn't broken the bike, and that he could pick out any helmet he liked the next day. 

We did continue to use the trail-a-bike. I added a sideways tug to my pre-ride check to make sure everything was secure and wouldn't come out. Then, two weeks ago, it fell apart once again, this time while making a turn. As we were picking up the pieces and checking for injuries, two friends rode by on their bikes. They stopped and helped me search the intersection for missing pieces and debris. Once again, we were lucky that we weren't hurt beyond a couple of bruises and scrapes and that there were no cars nearby at the time.

I have not been able to find any mechanical damage. It could be my error in attaching the hitch. But, I have been using it for over 2 years now AND I've made checking the hitch part of my routine for months. If I can make a mistake under these circumstances, there is one hell of a design flaw. We will not be using it again. So, until I find a replacement that I'm happy with, we're grounded.

A Sweet Start to 2012

We visited our families in Canada over Christmas. It's always great to see family (though we won't talk about the trip itself). We were lucky that the weather cooperated - daily highs were about 20F/-5C, which meant we were able to have lots of fun playing in the snow. Still, we were more than ready to get back on our bikes by the time we returned to Seattle. Well, at least I was ready. And Spencer could be bribed. He was very excited to wear his new Lightening McQueen racing suit, courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa (step away from the Disney store and no one will be hurt....). 

Future cyclist of the month?

 While I hooked up the bikes, Spencer practiced his cool Jedi moves with the bike flag.

Vroom, vroom!

The goal of today's outing was to enjoy the outdoors and get a couple of treats, so we stopped at a local pocket park. We met an senior citizen doing tai chi in the park, who asked about the trail-a-bike. Then, a couple of twin 8-year olds arrived and gave Spencer a spin. For the record, I don't make Spencer wear his helmet at the park - he loves it and won't take it off.

Ballard Corners Park

After we were finished at the park, we continued to the commercial district of Ballard. The bakery was closed, so we couldn't buy bread. However, we could console ourselves with treats at Cupcake Royale. Aside from yummy cupcakes in many flavours, they make some of the best lattes in the neighbourhood. Given the high cupcake to mile ratio, I'm not certain if this trip was a net positive, health-wise, but it was very tasty.

Chocolate with cream cheese icing

This was eaten while wearing a bike helmet. We're very safety-conscious. 

The nice weather brought out many other cyclists, as you can see by the full bike rack at Ballard Market, a local grocery store. This is a sweet rack - sturdy, lots of capacity, sheltered from the rain and close to the door. However, our rig is a little bit long and stuck out into the parking lot, so I thought it would be wiser to park at the plain, but functional rack that is further to the side.

 

What a sweet ride! 

Upon leaving the store, I was delighted to see a Little Tyke parked at the bike rack. I believe that counts as active transport by anyone's definition! Particularly for the parent, who probably had to push the kid home. All in all, it was a terrific start to 2012. Happy New Year!

The 6 year old urban planner. Part II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Avenue_and_Bridge_Deck_20.jpg

 Sometimes my kid cracks me up. Early this summer I was driving with him on Aurora Blvd. Highway 99 extends both north and south of Seattle, but it then becomes Aurora Blvd, a city street lined with businesses in the north end, before reaching the tunnel and then the Viaduct downtown. For much of its length, this street is a major arterial with four lanes, two in each direction. It carries a high volume of traffic and is a necessary route through the city, but is an awkward hybrid of freeway and city street and is a major barrier for both pedestrians and cyclists.

As we drove south, Spencer asked “Where’s the bike lane?”

“Well”, I replied, “It’s on the sidewalk. People walking and people on bikes have to share.”

Spencer was not pleased with this explanation. “That’s not fair! There isn’t enough room there to walk and ride bikes at the same time!”

Well, Seattle?

Cycle chic, personal style, and feminism

(Forgive me, folks, I'm a couple of months behind on my blog reading, but I had to share my thoughts on this...)

So. Wanting to wear stylish clothing on my bicycle makes me a tool of the patriarchy?

*Eyeroll*

Heaven knows there are lots of sexualized 'cycle chic' photos that have been circulated that have almost nothing to do with bicycles and everything to do with the male gaze - for amazing commentary on that see Sweet Georgia Brown - and lots of other 'cycle chic' photos that have everything to do with selling us stuff we don't need. The criticism that the cycle chic movement is vulnerable to being co-opted by sexism and consumerism is a valid one. However. That doesn't mean the movement itself is sexist and consumerist.

On a continent where girls stop using their bikes sometime in their teens because they think it makes them look dorky, and where the idea that bicycling is a fringe activity is used to justify rolling back funding of much-needed bike infrastructure, I believe that photos of women and men (of all ages, sizes, and shapes) enjoying bicycle rides to go places and do things help to make cycling more accessible.

As for the perception that cycle chic prescribes a particular, exclusive, commercial version of fashionable: I do not believe that expensive clothes, or expensive bikes, are a prerequisite for cycle chic. That line about your clothes being more valuable than your bike in the Cycle Chic Manifesto? I think its author is talking about using the bike as a tool for living - along the lines of his post about your bike being like a vacuum cleaner. I stand with Velouria on that topic, and think emotional attachment to bikes we've customized to our tastes is part of what makes bicycling appealing - but the point is that perhaps he's using 'value' (not expense) as a stand-in for relative importance. He's saying it's not about the bike, it's about your personal style and your needs, and that your bike should suit you, not the other way around.

I don't believe that youth and a standard definition of beauty are requirements of cycle chic, either.

It doesn't matter if you wear something you've made, something you've thrifted, something you found in a big-box bargain bin or something you had to get on a haute couture wait-list to buy. It doesn't matter if you're twenty or forty or eighty. What matters - with both personal style, and cycle chic - is that you feel great about yourself, and that you're having fun. To me, the most attractive thing about any photo of a bicyclist is the sense that they're having fun on their bike. They look great because they feel great, no matter what they're wearing.

I'm a 40-year-old plus-size mother of two who lives in the suburbs. I ride relatively inexpensive workhorse 3-speeds, for fun and the occasional grocery run, and I stop riding when the snow flies (icy roads plus drivers not expecting to see cyclists in outer-ring subdivisions is a bad combination). I have a closet full of jeans and t-shirts and thrift-shop finds and handmade jewelry. I rarely wear makeup, and I don't do designer labels (Well, I have this one scarf, but it's not an obvious status piece.). I am a chic cyclist, and a feminist, and an advocate for better bicycle infrastructure and more sustainable living.

None of these facts preclude any of the others.

What a shame that some bicycle advocates don't see it that way. I guess they're just not listening.

(PS: Yes, I know there's an issue with the Disqus comments right now - I am waiting on their support people to tell me how to fix it. Apparently they upgraded their back end and broke the CSS somehow. Meanwhile, you can read the white-text-on-white-background if you highlight the comments.)

Kidical Mass rides in Novembrrr!

After following the Totcycle blog for a couple of years, I finally had a chance to join his Kidical Mass ride last week.  The occasion was the grand opening of the Ship Canal Trial. It's a great piece of bike infrastructure as it lets people get from Magnolia and the Ballard Locks to the Fremont bridge, without having to take a confusing and not-particularly friendly interchange near the Ballard Bridge.

The forcast was for chilly, with a possibility of rain and/or snow. Chilly by Seattle standards, of course, which translates to 35-40F (2-4C). I hadn't taken Spencer for a winter ride before, and I was a little concerned about how to dress him. I started digging through the closet to find last year's winter gear. The snow pants fit great, but were probably unnecessary. Tried to find toques without pompom that would fit under bike helmets. The good mitts were left at karate class. And Spencer's winter coat looked awfully short in the sleeves. This is when I began to feel like a lousy mother and a lousy Canadian. Didn't I know that winter was coming? Has it ever skipped a year? In the end, the best solution was to wear last year's coat and a warm pair of my mitts that were long enough to cover his wrist, even with the somewhat too short sleeves. Extra sweaters, scarfs and toques were added, I packed the pannier, and we were ready to roll.

When we got to the end of the driveway, it became clear that I had overreacted and we were both terribly overdressed. So, we stopped to strip off layers, and my pannier was then stuffed with fleece for the rest of the day. Still, I'm glad we had the mitts and scarf - little bodies get cold quickly. Especially, when they don't help much with the pedaling. Finally, we were on our way and were only a little bit late to our meeting place at the Ballard Library. 

Spencer was ready to go.

Despite the chilly weather, there was a great turnout. I didn't get a complete head count, but suspect it must have been about 40 people. And the bikes! There were at least three Madsens, one Bakfiet, a couple of trailers and two trail-a-bikes. Clearly, this was a very bikey crowd.

We rode west on NW 57th St., one of our candidates for a neighborhood greenway. It's always fun riding with such a big group. We can chat with folks, admire the different bikes and swap stories. Of course we're still careful about traffic, but we don't really have to worry about visibility with a group of this size! We took 28th Ave NW and then Market St. to the Ballard Locks, where we had to dismount to cross the canal. There is no denying that this was a production. The walkways across the locks are relatively narrow - there's just enough room for a bike and pedestrian to cross each other. A group of cargo and family bikes takes a long time to cross. Fortunately, traffic was very light - there aren't many tourists out on a chilly November morning.

The locks were still pumped dry for their annual maintenance. We could see a few folks working away at the bottom, which gives a sense of how big it really is. The barnacles clinging to the wall were starting to get rather stinky by this point. It didn't seem to bother the crows and gulls, though - they were still enjoying their sushi.

See the three white dots? Those are the workers in their white hard hats.

After many photos and three separate bathroom breaks, we were finally ready to continue on our way. We rode along Commodore Way and through Fisherman's Terminal. It's a light industrial area without a bike lane, but the road is relatively wide and there was hardly any traffic. We arrived under the Ballard Bridge just in time for the opening ceremony. A good sized crowd of cyclists and walkers had gathered by this time.

 

Peter Hahn, the head of SDOT, gave a speech and cut the ribbon with very big pair of scissors.

However, for our group, the big attraction was Julian's thermos of hot apple cider to warm those chilly fingers.

Before too long, we were on our way. I don't have any photos of the new trail, yet, but there's a nice one here. It's a pleasant ride that I'll definitely check out again and will be my preferred route between the Pier 91 trail and the Fremont Bridge. However, there is a rather annoying double 2-curve to cross the train tracks. I know they need to slow bike traffic down and direct folks to cross at a right angle, but this really seems excessive. Still, it's a minor flaw in an otherwise great trail.

After crossing back across the Fremont Bridge, we split up to get food and then met again at the Fremont Brewery. This was my first time there, and I'm delighted to discover such a cool place. It's a local microbrewery which makes absolutely delicious beer. It's a tasting room, not a full-fledged bar and they don't sell food, but allow you to bring your own it. It's really a big room with picnic tables at one end and big, shiny vats at the other, but seemed cosy and friendly. It's also remarkably family-friendly - they even have a couple of baskets of toys! Only in Seattle. Sadly, I have no good photos from this part of the trip, so you'll have to take my word for it until you can go there yourself.

After food, a beer and lots of chatting and tracking down stray children, it was time to go. We'd had a full day and I knew we were in the pre-melt down phase. Plus, Spencer was getting tired too. We weren't the only ones who'd had enough. Thirty seconds earlier, this little guy had been flopped over the edge of his bucket seat. If only I'd been able to get my camera out earlier.....

It was a great group and a terrific ride. I hope we can do it again soon! And I did buy my son a new winter coat the next day.

The 6-year old urban planner