Seattle Biking Day:
39.55 miles, 1030 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 50 min.
Daily Drena: Miles and Smiles with Miley
After a restful evening, we awoke refreshed and began preparations for the bike ride around Lake Washington. This began with a finely prepared meal of toast with almond butter, heaped with strawberries, apples, and cinnamon. Mike and I preceded to eat poorly apparently, as we needed forks to finish up the fallen items while the two ladies were able to manage o keep their toppings entirely upon the toast. We are quickly becoming accustomed to the 6-star service we are receiving at this Bed and Breakfast and, I suspect, are going to be sorely disappointed for the remainder of the trip! After cleaning up breakfast, we took a quick little drive over to the start point at the Wilmot Gateway Park and began the adventure! After a lovely ride along the Sammamish River Trail, which reminded me of the Towpath from rowing up, we made out first stop at Matthew’s Beach Park, for a restroom break and I adjusted my seat slightly forward. Fun was being had by some swimmers, kayakers, and paddle boarders, along with some ducks lazily swimming around near shore.
Mike then led us to the University of Washington, where they usually stop for a snack in front of the large fountain with Mt. Rainier in the background. Unfortunately, the fountain was closed for repairs, so we didn’t get to see that spectacle, but we went a little farther up the main path in the hopes of seeing Rainier. It was somewhat hazy, but you could see it far in the distance, straight down the walking path. We had some snacks while admiring the architecture of some of the older buildings built in the 1920s through 50s, then headed onward.
We wandered over to the shores of Lake Union next, to take in the view of the Seattle skyline at the Gas Works Park. This was the site of the Seattle Gas Light Company’s coal gasification plant, which powered the streetlamps, ligts in homes, then cooking stoves and heat for homes, starting in the 19th century through 1956. In the 70s it was converted into a park, but they left some of the machinery which is quite cool looking. From the viewpoint, we also had a number of sea planes fly right overhead, as part of the scenic tours you can take from the air over Seattle.
We headed back east, then south a little until we hit the SR 520 bridge and took that east across the Lake. It has a lovely wide separated biking lane that spans the entire bridge, so is a pleasant enough ride with some good views along the way. This bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world at 2,350 meters long, which has concrete pontoons anchored to the lake bed. We then proceeded up and over a few grueling hills to the east through Bellevue on the way to one of Mike and Holly’s favorite haunts, Spark Pizza. We filled up (perhaps a little too much) on some delicious pizzas and raspberry lemonade while hanging out for a good part of the afternoon.
We powered up to stretch out our now stiff legs and sore posteriors and got back on the bikes. We were able to pop back on the Sammamish River Trail for a pleasant ride back to our starting point. Along the way, we were lucky enough to see a bald eagle swoop down into the river and catch itself a fish. Apparently, there are a few here that Mike sees often on his rides into work.
Mike’s chauffeur service back to the house was superb and we earned ourselves some well earned showers, and a quick nap for some. Slowly powering back up, we headed out just before dusk to have some pickleball fun at the deck side court (more exercise!) to call it an evening.
