Most days it annoys me when my mom asks me to take out the compost (recycling was so 2009 in Seattle) and it’s always hard to find parking by the raw tofu restaurant my dad insists on frequenting. But in an effort to appreciate the city that raised me I’m taking to my single speed (bike, that is) and traversing Seattle in search of the perfect day on a bike. After all, some days you fight the idiosyncrasies of the place you’re from, but some days you have to embrace them and join the hundreds of hipsters for their weekly game of midnight kickball in the park.
My first stop is the Ballard neighborhood Farmer’s Market, whose blog reads like a Seattleite’s food–porn. Open on summer Sundays from 10a.m.–3p.m., the market is more than you can take in, with local cheese vendors on side streets and fresh baked goods everywhere you turn. I opt for the pizza cart — a pizza oven on wheels that frequents late night haunts and always seems to appear wherever drunk people are wandering out of bars in sceney districts of the city. Freshly made thin crust Sicilian pizza with local toppings like Salumi sausage made down the street and seasonal vegetables make the pizza, and the farmers market, the ideal place to sit and rest. If I’m lucky I’ll find a dog to pet who will enjoy my crust.
The Ballard Locks are a relic of Seattle’s industrial past, a gateway from the lake upon which the city looks down onto, into the Pacific Ocean. The locks let boats descend 30 feet below lake level and they are the perfect spot in the summer to watch salmon climb the fish ladder. I bike through to check in with the fish and then head out again along the shore, bound for the Olympic Sculpture Park. The new sculpture park rests between downtown Seattle and the ocean, where tankers and ocean liners rest and refuel on their way to Alaska. With works by mobile engineer Alexander Calder and a giant typewriter tool by Claus Oldenburg the sculpture park is a pleasant rest before I climb the hills over downtown in search of ice cream to end my ride.
There are worse things than the organic food revolution. Yes, the single scoop ice cream cone I’m holding cost $4.75, but it’s flavored with real lavender and pockets of honey. Even better, honey lavender is one of the more mundane flavors offered at Molly Moon’s, Seattle ice cream shop du jour specializing in seasonal flavors and alternative ingredients like coconut and goats milk. Molly Moon’s also has a truck that settles in a different neighborhood each day, announcing its location on twitter. If that doesn’t scream tech industry meets Seattle urban hipster, I don’t know what does.
Related Stories: Top 5 Weekend in San Francisco
Related Stories: Summer in L.A.: Tim Burton Unpropped
Related Stories: When Free Is Just Boring: Brooklyn's Attempt at a Free Concert
