My front bike tire continues to do an excellent impression of being uncursed, which has been great fun. I may have skipped checking out the festivities around the opening of the 520 bridge over the weekend in favor of making my meandering way up the Burke-Gilman trail just to test how broken the curse might be. It was lovely – people can say what they like about Seattle weather being dreary and gray, but I adore it.
Which is the present prelude to a story of agony and woe. I had such a nice time over the weekend that I came up with the, in retrospect, terrible idea of biking through a Tuesday tour of Queen Anne and Magnolia. I had a meeting in Fremont at 1pm and the timing seemed perfect to me.
Here’s some interesting trivia: The office where I spend most of my desk time is in Capitol Hill, which is on the fifth tallest hill in the city. That makes going other places by bike fairly pleasant, and coming back less so. Queen Anne hill, however, is the third tallest hill in the city. The part of Queen Anne Ave that climbs the hill is one of the steepest streets in the city. The alternative routes near it aren’t exactly flat.
I’m not eager to go biking up Queen Anne Hill again any time soon. Once I got to the first property everything was great because I’d more or less finished the whole climb, but getting there was a beast.
The ride to Fremont when I was finished was glorious, though. Biking down one of the steepest hills in the city is great fun.
Getting to Magnolia later for evening tour probably would have just been a nice challenging ride. I made it, but it was a little much after the morning. Next time I think I’ll take the bus up the hill and reap lazy rewards.
Location: Queen Anne, Magnolia
Time: 2.5 hr
Transit modes: Bike, Sheer force of will
Cost: $0
Cats petted: 1
Tea consumed: Tea Republik Vanilla Chai, all the water
Properties Viewed: 5