View from the Flower Garden

My summer flowers are in full bloom!

A Red Tailed Bumble Bee on a cone flower.

Cleome aka "Bicycle Flowers" 

Seeds given to us from a host's neighbor while on a bike tour. 

Shasta Daisies

More happy bees!

California Poppies

Agapanthus

Columbine

Yellow Coneflower

Ice Cream

We're very fortunate to have not one, but two ice cream shops within a few blocks from our house. Our favorite is a coffee shop that sells locally made Liks Ice Cream.  Late evening family bike rides to get ice cream are absolutely one of my favorite things to do in the summer!

Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa

Today is the start of RAGBRAI XXXVIII and I so wish I was there.  As I've written before, this tour was a huge part of my biking life in my 20's.  I did my first one in 13 years a couple of years ago as a celebration of getting back on my bike after inadvertently hanging up my wheels for a few years.  I simply could not make the logistics work this time around though.  Maybe next year! 

In celebration, I dug out some old RAGBRAI photo albums and picked out a few photos from various rides.  These are all from the late 80's and early 90's, when I was young, carefree and could party and ride all week long. 

My first RAGBARI.  I did it on a Specialized Rockhopper!  Oh how times have changed!

If you build it, they will come.  I convinced my downstairs neighbor and good friend to come along that year.  She had no idea what she'd gotten herself into....and loved it.

Is that Shoeless Joe?

After a couple years on that Rockhopper I found a used Bridgestone road bike. 

It totally changed riding for me!  It was a fantastic bike and unfortunately, I sold it years later not knowing what I had.  My brother still rides the old Trek he's on in this photo.

I wore that silly white bandana every year! Oi!

One year I did the ride on my own and hooked up these guys from Minnesota early in the week.  We rode together off and on throughout the week.  One of the things I love about the ride is meeting folks and teaming up, be it for a few hours or a few days. 

The end of the road....for a year, anyway.

Where the Hipsters (and their bikes) Hang

I don't get out late too much.  Well, I suppose I could but I don't.  I have an old friend in from NYC in town and she requested a night out on the town.  We decided a drag show was in order.  The show touted to be the "best" wasn't on last night so we hit the only other show we could find. It was......  Perhaps it got better as the night rolled on but we didn't stick around to see.  We were starving and food definitely took precedence!

We hit it for some Thai food on South Broadway.  The annual Underground Music Showcase was in full swing and the streets were alive with hipsters and other music lovers.  Evidently I know a lot of hipsters and other music lovers because I ran into several friends.  We nommed on some great food, walked with the crowds, weaved in and out stacks of bikes parked everywhere and listened to some really great music.

I think the Baker and I may need to find a sitter for the evening to see my gal Suzanne's band, The Legendary River Drifters.  When I saw her last night, she reminded me of their show tonight. She *always* reminds me of her shows and I never manage to make it, mostly just because I'm old and boring.

The Finale

The finale of the baking extravaganza this week!  We tossed out the coconut milk poached fish which was on the menu and feasted on bread, cheese and wine for dinner.

A challah fresh from the dome. Behind are a couple of sourdough baguettes and an olive loaf.

Stinky cheese and fruit!  

A German Tilsiter, Drunken Goat Cheese and English Wensleydale with cranberries.

Vino!

Perfection

Bliss

(tilsiter and dark chocolate)

This is What Success Looks Like

I serve on the board of a small non-profit, The Bike Depot, whose mission is to support health and active living by increasing access to bicycles, promoting safe, bike-friendly environments and advocating for policies that promote bicycle access and use.  While most of the work I do for the Depot is behind the scenes organizational development and administrative ops type stuff, I generally swing by the shop two or three days a week to see what's going on and check in with the staff management team.  

Whether the scene is Fix Yer Bike, when anyone can come in and have access to the shop to learn how to fix their own bike with our highly skilled mechanic volunteers....Or a program night when Earn-a-Bike participants are learning basic maintenance skills in preparation for taking home a bike....Or volunteers prepping bikes for program distribution or sale...Or a group taking a class on anything from patching a tire to performing detailed and complex repairs....Or our certified mechanics doing commercial service....Or a meeting where our staff and board are creating connections to the community to deliver on our mission,  the energy is amazing! 

The Depot's programs are supported by community grants and donations and  income from retail sales and commercial service.  We carry a nice line-up of both new and used bikes and accessories.  If we don't have it in stock, we can get it.

We always need donations of bikes and bike parts!  We re-use, re-purpose and recycle!

Here are a few pics from last night's Fix Yer Bike:

Baking Frenzy!

The Baker and his back yard brick oven are in high production mode today!  This is round one. Wonder if we're having bread for dinner? 

I think I'll stop at the cheese shop on the way home!

ETA - stage two!