A Seattle Adventure: A 40-mile bike ride on the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River trails

I knew I was in trouble yesterday morning when Tom’s first words to me, as if we were in the middle of a conversation, were “Yes, but where should we go for breakfast?”

In spite of my 8-month quest to lose weight and get healthy, I didn’t argue when someone (it may or may not have been me) suggested that we go to the Maltby Café, home of Seattle’s most delicious and calorie-laden breakfasts.

I had this:

I didn’t eat the bread, nor all of the potatoes, but I knew that a quick visit to the gym wasn’t gonna cut it after a meal like that.  So I did what any crazy person would have done in that situation: I texted Peter, who now lives in Fremont (a charming neighborhood just northwest of downtown Seattle – and about 20 miles from Woodinville) and told him that I’d bring him his mail -- on my bike.  I knew I wanted a long bike ride since the weather is glorious and Seattle summers are so pathetically short, and I was afraid that if I didn’t hold myself accountable for arriving somewhere far away I might not go the full distance.

I’ve been riding both the Burke-Gilman Trail (which extends south-westward around Lake Washington from Bothell to Ballard) and the Sammamish River Trail (which extends south-eastward from Bothell to Marymore Park in Redmond) for a few years now.  I’ll often take a quick 6-mile ride to Redmond or head 10 miles in the other direction to Matthews Beach, but until yesterday I’d never ridden all the way past the University of Washington district and on to Fremont! And back.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the sunshine…

A few miles into my ride I noticed that the blackberry bushes, which are considered a weed in the Pacific Northwest at all times except during a few weeks in August, were heavy with fruit and I promised myself that I’d stop on the way back to pick a few.

Log Boom Park is at the extreme northern end of Lake Washington and is a great place to stop for a view of the lake…

There’s something encouraging about this “Welcome to Seattle” sign.  It means I’ve hit about 9 miles… which turned out to be less than a quarter of my total ride yesterday.  But hey, it’s Seattle.  Encouraging nonetheless.

I stopped at Matthews Beach, 10 miles in, for a quick energy bar and some dried apricots…

…and then I was on my way again, to the re-construction of Husky Stadium…

…and on to a quick view of the University of Washington campus.

Probably my favorite part of this ride was beneath the Aurora Bridge.  The views are spectacular!

I’d like to win the lottery and live in one of these houseboats.

(Yes, that’s a houseboat.)

Once I passed the quaint little Fremont bridge, I knew I was almost to Peter’s place.

My intent was to get a shot of Peter and me together  to “prove” that I rode all the way to his place, but he and Micheala, um… weren’t feeling so great yesterday morning (OK, by that time it was early afternoon) because they’d apparently had a really good time partying the night before.  Still, Peter agreed to take a shot of me in front of his place.

Then he went back to bed.

And I headed back home by way of Gas Works Park.  Talk about great views…

I mean talk about great views…!

On the way back I passed directly by my Gottman Institute office!  I’d had a view of the bike path from my office window (which is right behind that center tree) and wondered what it’d be like to ride my bike 17 miles to work each day.  Then I got laid off.  Anyone have a job for me? (No, seriously.)

There are some really beautiful stretches of trail right in the middle of the city!

I stopped at Matthews Beach again on my way back.  I came this close to jumping in the water!

Leaving Seattle.

Well, hello again blackberry bushes!  Time to get to work…

Within about 10 minutes I’d almost filled a big ZipLoc bag!

This sight means I’m almost back to Woodinville.  By this time my crotch was hurting sumpin’ furious.  I think I might need to look into a softer bike seat.

There are my friends the geese again!  They have no fear of humans at all.

I did it!  40 miles in one day! 

Please, Seattle summer, stick around for a while!

And now I need to do something with these for our Sunday breakfast.  Any ideas? 

No fair giving me calorie-laden recipes or you know what I’ll need to do today… 

Sprucing up the nest

I’ve been such a bad blogger that I didn’t even blog Aleks’ and Kat’s graduating in June.  So here’s a quick remedy for that:

We now have four – count ‘em, FOUR – college graduates!  Not including saving for the whole thing, that was a ten year adventure from when Elisabeth started at Cal (9/02) to when Aleks and Kat graduated from UW (6/12). Phew!

Like many recent graduates, Aleks and Kat moved home and got to work looking for jobs.  Kat is making a great go of her new photography business (weddings, portraits, etc… hire her!) while also working at a wonderful local restaurant and Aleks has landed a very cool internship with an organization that appeals to all his passions in government, political science, and international relations. But for now they’re both living at home – which is just fine with us!

Prompted by our nest re-filling a bit, we made some big changes to the house.  Aleks’ room, with the furniture we bought for him soon after he graduated from a crib, has always been right across the hall from ours.

Once he moved back home, he decided to move downstairs into Peter’s old room next to Kat, which had been recently turned into a guest room.

Once he did that, Kat and I got to work completely updating Aleks’ old room and turning it into a new office.  She and I painted the walls a warm sage green and Tom built new window casings and a window sill, and now we have an updated and much bigger office, which I love!

We were even able to revitalize an old futon that my mom and dad made us way back in the early ‘80’s:

But my favorite part of our new office is the closet-turned-workspace:

The previous office had been in this small room…

…which we renovated into a new guest room.  I love the new bed!

We even filled the bookshelf with books that guests might want to read.  (And yeah, which didn’t fit into our other bookshelves…)

There was a time when six of us were squeezed into this house.  Fortunately, all four kids had their own rooms, but there were no extra rooms for guests and no dedicated office space.  Once Aleks and Kat move out, we’ll potentially have three guest rooms and a home office.  Who needs THREE guest rooms?  Unless, of course, you consider doing something like this… which I have!  Especially since our town is quickly becoming quite the wine tasting destination!

Anyone have experience with Airbnb or a similar organization or have any suggestions?  I’m all ears!

Yakima from the rear view mirror

In June, 2011, six months after graduating from Washington State, Peter landed a job in Yakima, a town on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains, about two and a half hours from the lush greenery of Seattle.  Peter has lots to say about Yakima, probably the kindest being that it’s “not Seattle.”  Let’s just say that his year in Yakima wasn’t the happiest of his life and he worked hard to find his way back to Seattle, where his heart is (and where Michaela, who shares his heart, also is).

At the end of May, Peter landed a great job in Seattle and began to make plans to move back.  Then, two weeks ago, he found an apartment in the heart of Fremont, one of Seattle’s most desirable neighborhoods for young professionals. So he paid his dues in Yakima for a year and finally last weekend Tom and I helped him move back!

This is the shot he talked about for months -- Yakima out of the rear view mirror:

Granted, it’s not the most beautiful place on earth, but just a few miles from the town of Yakima is Yakima Canyon – which is, I swear, one of the most beautiful places on earth!  (In a very non-Seattle way, of course…)

Come join us, won’t you?

Wide open road and the bright blue skies…

…and lots of rock!

See those teeny-tiny specs in the water?  Those are people on inner tubes and small rafts, spending all day floating leisurely down the river, soaking up the sunshine!  I’ve decided that this is something that I must do!

Look!  A deer!

We must be getting closer to cloudy, gray Seattle…

I don’t think Peter will ever head back to Yakima, but someday I just might!  Floating down the river in the middle of the beautiful Yakima Canyon is definitely something I’d spend a day doing.

But yeah, a full year out there really would be a bit much.

(With apologies to Lorenne!)