Last biking weekend complete

Well, we survived. I think Dave had his doubts (understandably), but we made it through the weekend.

To be clear, it's not that we couldn't physically handle back to back days of 50 mile rides. It's that I'm mentally sick of biking. On Saturday morning I said, "I want to go to the zoo." It's taken a lot of our time this summer to prepare for my bike trip, and I'm really ready to have more time for other interests. I'm still excited and I don't have any regrets, I'm just ready to go and do this thing! Apparently my mental lethargy has resulted in me reverting to age 5. I whined (a lot). I complained. I was snappy. In short, I think I was pretty much a miserable person to be around this weekend (at least when biking)!

On Saturday after I spent some time dragging my feet around the house, we rode from Ravenna to Marymoor Park and back. It's a pretty easy ride for us now, almost completely flat, a nice trail ride, and a route we know well. On the way back we stopped and visited Dana for a bit, which was lovely. Then we continued north into a strong headwind. Not the highlight of our day. We took a pause at Bothell Landing, where in the morning we had seen a bunny and in the afternoon we saw a smaller bunny (so cute!) and some chickens. I told Dave I want a bunny - he said okay, since he wanted a bunny when he was a kid. Yay! :)

Now the sad part. While in Bothell I apparently 1) sat in a little bit of dried dog poop - easy to remove and not so horrible AND 2) stepped in poop - more frustrating. Especially because I didn't realized my shoe was covered in poop until we were in Lake Forest Park and (given my incredibly pleasant attitude) Dave suggested we stop for food. In the process of discussing options and me being a pain Dave stopped and I took my first ever fall with clips. Then I was really a joy as I both scraped my knee and discovered the poop - oye. We crossed the street to Starbucks and I did everything I could to clean up. Sadly cleats are made to really cling to things, so I couldn't get everything. I calmed down and apologized for being a big pain and we made it home, deciding that 50 miles was going to be enough given how things were going.

Things were much better once we got back and cleaned up. We went to Kirkland and met my parents for dinner (Olive Garden - yum). They parked in one of the crazy super-slanted spaces in downtown Kirkland that Dave and I are always afraid of, and then we walked around the waterfront a little bit. Sleep was very good when we got back.

Sunday morning went a little better. I still didn't want to get up, but we made some tasty pancakes with some mix I got in Hawaii. They had coconut and pineapple, which I was surprised I liked, but they hit the spot and got us off to a good start. Then we drove down to Marymoor. I was feeling sick of all of the typical bike routes, so I made Dave pick. We did the Lake Sammamish loop first. There are some slightly downhill portions where you don't really have to pedal to keep moving, and at some point Dave suggested to me, "Can we pedal for a while?" :)

After Marymoor we were very hungry and I thought it would be fun to do some more relaxing riding up in Woodinville. So, we headed up to Red Hook for lunch. There were tons of bikes outside, so we didn't feel bad walking in sweaty and in bike gear. Our veggie burgers were satisfying and we tried the sampler - which works well since I like light beer and Dave dark. Then we pedaled across the street to Chateau Ste. Michelle winery. They were setting up for a concert and there was fun music playing. We looked around in the shop and sampled a rose (tasty). Then we headed back to the trail and up to downtown Woodinville. Though we were pretty full I really wanted to full experience (i.e. Cold Stone), so we got an ice cream to share (chocolate cake ice cream with Heath bar - good work, Dave).

From there we decided to return to Marymoor and call it a day. We got back and took a nap, then cleaned up and generally lounged. I think we are both glad to be done for a little while.

I biked in to work today and will be dropping off my bike at REI tonight. It will be disassembled and shipped in the next couple of days. It will be really weird to see it on the other side. I'm planning to borrow Dana's bike for a ride before soccer on Wednesday, and if I get to bike again it will probably be next Monday. I'm not going to push it, though. My body and my brain could use a rest before the big ride!

I'm finishing collecting all the gear I need. Dave's family has been wonderful in their support, and his mom found a 1-2 person tent that's really light. I'm going to take that along. Thank you!

And of course Dave deserves a big thank you for putting up with me - I'm almost there! Thank you!

P.S. - Dave and I got caught up on Battlestar Galactica on Friday night! :)