Yesterday I bussed into the city with my bike, where I met up with Cheryl at Gasworks park. We rode on the beautiful Burke-Gilman and Sammamish trails, from there to Redmond Town Center and back, a total of about 55 miles. Cheryl has just returned from a bike tour and I was really panting to keep up with her.
Cheryl offered to drive me back up to the ferry, but I wanted to do the environmentally responsible thing and take the bus back. After a 45 minute wait the bus finally arrived, I loaded my bike, and went to the front door, where the driver refused to let me board. The bus was FULL, and I do mean that every available place to sit or stand seemed to be occupied. Driver told me to try the back door, where I was just barely able to squeeze in. Apparently folks returning from a mixture of the Mariner's game, HempFest, and every other variety of summer festival imiginable.
The HempFest contingent made for a fairly mellow 20 minute ride. However, we got to the transfer station about 5 minutes too late for me to catch the bus to the ferry, so... another hour's wait, where I had a talk with a nice young gentleman returning from HempFest; he said it was elbow-to-elbow crowded and, of course, smokey.
Made the 10pm ferry with about 30 seconds to spare, home in time for about half a beer before collapsing into blissful sleep.
I do believe the middle weekend of August is the summer's pinnacle of outdoor festivals. This weekend is not only HempFest, but Bite of Edmonds, Fresh Paint, the Island County Fair, and I'm sure many others I'm too tired to even think about. Everyone's in a frenzy, trying to soak up the good weather and sunshine, as we all know it will be gone in a month. Already, although sunset isn't until 8:30, it's noticeably dusk-like by 7pm. Right now I'm about on the fence between "Oh, Summer, please don't go!" and "Enough with the sun already, bring on the rain so I can hibernate f0r awhile".
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