Independence Day Cargo Bike Ride!

On Interdependence Day, the Family Oil celebrated in style, with an Independent-of-Nonhuman-Powered-Transportation Day!

On this momentous day, Mama Oil, Little Oil and I celebrated our eventual independence from nap schedules! Little Oil is pretty attached to her napping routine and she naps for a long time, (like, three hours right after lunch). Now, that's great. We are happy to help her get so much rest. She's such an energetic kid, I'm sure she needs it. And we do appreciate the break some days, but it is pretty hard to get anything done or do anything too far from our home when we need to be at home for such a big part of the day. I know you parents out there will understand. If you are not a parent, just try to imagine, m'kay? So it was pretty awesome of Mama Oil and I to decide that we'd just head out in the AM and roll right through naptime and just focus on the fun and family-time. We rule.

We had a great morning, starting at our fave coffee joint, Vivace's Sidewalk Stand.

You don't even need dismount to enjoy a tasty coffee or a Steamed Robot! (a Steamed Robot is Little Oil's drink. She loves it. I think it is very funny that she has her own drink that she named. It is a quad shot breve with four lumps of stevia melted into the espresso shots.) (Not really, it's warm soy milk.)

Bikey and beloved best buddies meet us at Cal Anderson for a playground date. Good times. Willa rides in a BoBike Mini front seat.

Then we headed down to meet up with the Cargo Bike Ride. Little Oil was talking about the ride all day. After I'd explained that we were going to another big bike ride she kept asking,

Little Oil, "We going toKikoo Max?"

Me, "No, honey, that's a different big bike ride..."

We saw lots of our buddies at the ride. And their fantastic bikes.

Bikes that haul tunes...

and bikes that haul stuff.

It was a little like a Kikoo Max.

Yaaaawn. Little Oil slept through the whole ride. Cute!

She missed an awesome ride, but woke up just in time for an awesome picnic down on the West bank of the Duwamish!

This Large Wald Basket gave its life for our bbq!

Through the spokes shots are always good for an arty touch. Check out the coolio bends that Garth put in his fender stays.

Little Oil and Chris from the Bikery were like besties for the whole picnic. Chris slacklined and gave Little cookies. This is a very effective strategy for winning her affections.

The beach ball was a huge hit as well.

Mmm. Cookie face.

Before we left, I had a chance to ride on the flat bed of one of Cyclefab's cycle truck conversions. Johnathan powered us up to 20mph before tuckering out. Very Fun.

Then, the Family Oil headed for home. What a good day!

It would have been nice to see some more families at the ride. I heard from a lot of Pedaling Parents that they would have come, if the ride had been North of the Ship Canal. I know I am a lot less likely to show up for events with Little Oil if they are on the North side. It's kinda like the Ship Canal is the Mason-Dixon line of the Seattle family biking scene. Let's change that. I commit to coming out to more events in the North. Come on down to Central and South Seattle, Northerners! We'd love to learn your Ballardian ways. Tell us of Madsens and viking legends. Also, fellow Central Seattle Pedaling Parents, I get the feeling that the North Side has us beat, for sheer numbers of Pedaling Families. Let's get out there and do some recruiting! Maybe have a meet-up/ playdate in Volunteer Park? Any ideas?

Oh, and save the date for the SEATTLE CARGO BIKE ROLL CALL on August 11th! Details here!

Bye, Nice People!

-Update!-

I am mortified that I forgot to mention that most of the good pictures from the cargo bike ride come from friend of the blog, Andrew Squirrel. See more of his good pictures at his Flickr.