Moving Planet Seattle

Saturday was the Moving Planet Seattle Event. The theme was transportation, so it was fitting that folks met around the city for group rides to Lake Union Park. About 20 of us met in Ballard for the ride, including three families.

Our trail-a-bike.

A kindred spirit had an Xtracycle.

A tandem bike completed the set.

Our fearless leaders set the pace in the awesome, traffic-stopping conference bike from the Dutch Bike Company. This beast is mighty, but slow and a tad too wide for the trails. So, we took a traffic lane and made a slow parade to Lake Union Park, with enthusiastic waving and bell-ringing at passersby. Once there, the group dispersed to explore the different events, though we did run into each other throughout the day. Metaphorically speaking, that is.

The conference bike in all its glory.

The Center for Wooden Boats had wooden sailboats for kids to play with on the boat pool. Spencer was so excited to see the boats, that I could barely get him to leave long enough to lock up our bike. We probably spent 20-30 minutes there.

I was more excited to see this bike, which looked suspiciously familiar....

After looking around for likely suspects, I took a deep breath and asked "Hey, are you the Family Ride blogger? I recognize your bike." Yes! It was Madi from Family Ride, who was friendly, charming and  happy to talk about bikes, boats and kids. She asked if I'd been on some of the Totcycle rides, because I looked "sort of familiar". After a minute, she realized that she'd seen us here on the blog. That, my friends, is the kind of fame that blogging can bring you! 

Jennifer and Madi, who both looked "sort of familiar".

Spencer eventually had his fill of the boats, so we wandered off to see more sites. Along the way, he was caught by the plastic bag man. The costume was made from 500 bags, but he'd lost a few along the way. Kids just couldn't resist trying to pull them off. At least, my kid couldn't. And I did make him stop and give them back.

There was a great kids' craft table, which spawned many masterpieces. A fish doesn't need a bicycle, unless, of course, it's a bicycle powered by cocktail umbrellas.

I was delighted to run into my friend Arvia. The folks at the family bike expo talked her into taking the kids for a spin in this:

I tried it out as well. It was reasonably easy to pedal, at least on flat pavement, but quite tricky to turn. It has an extremely wide turning radius and you end up leaning over ridiculously far. It felt like I was about to fall over, but it's really quite steady. Not exactly a practical bike for most people, though. 

Some bikes were made just for fun:

More crazy bike-like objects.

Oh, yeah, there was also a rally:

Mike McGinn, Mayor of Seattle

We listened for a while, but when Spencer tried to take a nap in my lap, I knew it was time to go. All in all, it was a great event on a beautiful day. The organizers did a good job of combining fun, family activities with real activism and awareness, a tricky thing to balance.