Hey there! This is Alex, the newest addition to Dutch Bike Seattle, coming to you with my inaugural blog post.  Born and raised in Seattle, I graduated from the University of Washington in 2008 and have been wasting my anthropology degree working in the bike industry ever since. For blogging purposes, I’m going to start of by focusing on events and other fun things to do on a bike, whether specifically bike related or not.  To that end, here’s the post, about how I spent the 4^th of July:

4^th of July! Fun! Family! Beers! Hotdogs! Bicycles? Here at Dutch Bike, we say yes. What better way to celebrate the birth of our country than by celebrating your independence from traffic jams and fossil fuels? To that end, I spent a good chunk of my 4^th of July at the Arboretum riding bikes and just hanging out.

The real impetus for the gathering (other than just having a good time) was the third annual 4^th of July Sprints, held again this year at the bridge to nowhere at the Washington Park Arboretum.

The bridge to nowhere, if you’re not familiar with it, was originally constructed to be an Interstate 5 bypass from I-90 to Route 520, but then abandoned due to environmental concerns. Today it sits unused except for the occasional person brave enough to dive from the high point of the bridge into lake Washington below.

Though the event was ostensibly a competitive one, the atmosphere was decidedly laid back.  Not being much of a racer myself, I chose to spend most of my time just watching and talking.  Eventually the day proved itself to be a true Seattle 4^th of July, and the rains came, moving us down the bridge under shelter.  Which just goes to show, one of the most important characteristics you can have when biking in Seattle (in any season!) is adaptability.

If you’ve never been (or just never ridden) to the Arboretum, it’s something I would heartily recommend checking out.  The array of flora present ensures that it’s beautiful in most seasons, and it’s home to one of my favorite places in Seattle, the Japanese gardens.  Perhaps most importantly, access is extremely bike friendly, with a number of routes to take depending on where you’re coming from. So the next time you’re in the neighborhood, you should stop by! Have a picnic, drink some wine, and have a great day on your bike.