Seeing that the Seattle International Film Festival had a showing of the Triplets of Belleville scheduled at Juanita Beach Park at 9pm on Saturday, I decided this was a good time to see this movie, which everyone seems to love. Since Juanita Beach Park is located on the shores of Lake Washington, I decided biking there would be easy and fun. I tried to entice my friends S., A., F., or M. to join me, but they all gave excuses ranging in seriousness from "It looks like it'll rain" through "I have to leave to Eugene tomorrow morning", "I'm still recovering from my broken leg so can't bike, and I've seen the movie already" all the way to "I'm flying out to Chicago before the movie starts". Pfft, whatever, I decided I would go anyway.
I started out from my house in Ballard and headed for the Burke Gilman trail. About 5 miles in, I reached the University. Here I had to make a choice: either continue on the trail to loop around the north side of the lake, or take the bus across the bridge. Even though I was making decent time, seeing as there was just over an hour left until the start of the movie, I elected to go the second route, which is significantly shorter. The SR520 bridge across Lake Washington is closed to bicycles. However, to accomodate those who want to get on the other side, out-of-service buses will pick up bikers at the stop on one side and drop them off on the other, as I learnt from an ex-schoolmate of mine. I took advantage of this deal, and it was sweet to get on an out of service bus, seeing as another guy waiting at the bus stop told me "what are you doing, it's out of service!" as I prepared to get on. I sure showed him! The bus driver was a very nice guy and offered to drop me off at the Yarrow Point stop, one stop further down than usual. Thus, my approach to Juanita Beach was made even shorter. What this route lacked in length, however, I realised that it made up in tricky routefinding.
Initially I attempted to reach the lake, thinking that there was probably a trail along the water. I succeeded in getting to Yarrow Point itself, which contained some historical plaques and lake access, which was however, beset on all sides by private property. Climbing back up from the water, I made an interesting discovery: my bike's rear shifter cable has gotten so old and loose that reaching low gears is actually impossible. Going to and from the University on the Burke-Gilman on basically flat terrain, I saw the cable was getting looser, but never realised it had gotten that bad. I am ashamed to admit I walked back up the hill to the first turn off parallel to the direction of the lake. I took this road, which at first looked like it was going in the right direction, but soon took two strange turns and ended up in a dead-end with a gravel path between two very stately houses and a public park. Following this path, I finally ended up on a wide, straight road. But just when I thought my troubles were over, I realised that this was the same road I started on, and I was in fact back at the bus stop. Before despairing completely or recrossing the highway, I decided to follow a hilly street that said "Dead End. No Turnaround". Turns out, this was just the place to go (why oh why are there no "fietsen uitgezonderd" signs in Seattle?). I made it through to Lake Washington Boulevard and was on my way to Kirkland. Just two things about Kirkland: one, it's much less like a giant Costco than I imagined, and two, there was a street where there was an official yellow-and-black street sign that said "Deaf Child". On the one hand, being deaf would be awful. On the other, having a street sign dedicated to you is pretty cool. But what will happen when the child grows up? "Deaf Adolescent"?
Soon enough I was in Juanita, where I noticed there was a Juanita Bay Park. Thinking that this probably is not the same thing as Juanita Beach Park, I continued onward. Soon the road began to climb and I realised something was amiss. I resolved to ask the next person I saw. However, since the street had no sidewalks or crossstreets for some time, I went a couple miles before this happened. The man I ran into told me to go right back where I came from (in a nice way!). The beach was apparently down that road and he told me "you can't possibly miss it. It's impossible". I didn't have the guts to admit I did just that a few minutes back. Then he told me that it's "all kinds of fucked" right now because of construction, so I might not want to go there anyway. Undeterred, I sped back down to the beach (which I noticed this time. And it's true, you'd have to be an idiot to miss it. Well, guess what? Check!). My watch said 9:01. I was only late by one minute! However, there was no outdoor screen or crowd of moviewatchers anywhere around. After about a quarter hour of unsuccessful searching, deeply disappointed and now in the dark, I began the return journey. I stopped at Kidd Valley for fries, which were very delicious. The atmosphere of listening to Sweet Caroline while being all alone in a large, bizarrely coloured fast food building in the middle of the darkness was somewhat surreal, though. I dropped by my lab to pick up shifter cable I had stashed there, only to find an unknown man sitting in my chair. And at 10:30 on a Saturday! He turned out to be the husband of one of the undergrads who works in the lab. I told J. not to work so hard, felt guilty for slackery, and left with the shifter cables. Next, I stopped by a Fred Meyer, and enticed by the prices, bought way more than I could reasonably carry. And so it was that, with a bottle of detergent under my toque and a cereal box stuffed down my shirt, I stood around picking groceries off the ground on the corner of 22nd and Market. The almost preternaturally nice people of Ballard didn't say anything. A bike that was dressed up to look like a shark, followed by one made to look like a police car rode by (the latter made siren-like noises). And then, just like that, I was home. Checking the SIFF website, I saw that the Triplets of Belleville screening had been cancelled.
Total distance biked: 40k
Total time: just over 4 hours
Total triplets seen: 0
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