Weekend 1: Tour de Seattle.

What better way to get acquainted with a new city than to hop on a bike and ride around it?

I'm now convinced that there isn't.

I spent the first Saturday in Washington exploring the suburbs, parks, waterfronts and what turned out to be the biggest system of bike trails I have ever come across. In what I will now refer to as the "Tour de Seattle", I not only saw more of the city than I could ever see behind the glass of a car or bus, but I was also introduced to a New York City sized bike community exhibiting what I had only previously known as Southern Hospitality. Strange.

Oh, and I did my first century: 106.1 miles of travel in all. I've included a picture of my route, literally AROUND Seattle, below.

I've included letters on the map designating some of the more unique places I visited:

A. Home sweet home: 5611 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. I live in the "sketchy" part of the University District where street kids abound, it is not unusual to wake up with a homeless person sleeping in your back yard, or people either ask you for your possessions (iPod, bike, car engine, etc...) or for permission to urinate in your blackberry bushes. You can't beat it!

B. Marymore Park: 640 acres of playing fields, a bicycle velodrome, a climbing wall... you name it. It is also well known smaller concert venue attracting some of the bigger names like Alison Krauss, The Fray, G. Love, and Carbonleaf.

C. Mercer Island: A beautiful ~12 mile loop. Home to Forbes Royalty like Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, this section of the ride single-handedly redefined my understanding of the word MANSION.

D. Downtown Seattle: i.e. NOT the place to bike. You are either (a.) riding up an insanely steep hill no matter which direction you turn to, (b.) riding down a one way street the wrong way in confusion, (c.) about to get hit by a car, or (d.) some combination of the above. I'll walk the next time I visit, thank you.

E. Alki Point: The westernmost point in Seattle offering post card quality views of downtown and the Puget Sound. It was also the home of the infamous nomad, David Ficke, during his brief stint in West Seattle.


F. Magnolia: Just north of downtown Seattle and Elliot Bay lies Magnolia and the discovery park... not a whole lot to write about except that three of the hills in Magnolia, all back to back and separated by just 15 feet of flat surface, literally had me screaming as I climbed them and entered my 96th mile.

F-A: Between Magnolia and the U-District lies Ballard and Fremont, my two favorite places in the Seattle area. Fremont is a bit on the Yuppie side with trendy restaurants and artsy coffee houses while Ballard is just far enough behind as Fremont's poser younger brother to still have decent supply of comfortable brew-pubs and easy chair coffee shops to strike a balance.