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I'm always surprised at how much I enjoy riding my bicycle after extended periods of Not riding...the wind in my face, and the smooth gliding along with the wheels on the paths. Even the rougher rides like when I explore the hiking trails on the south side of the our "meadow" walk (*earlier post, above the old golf course). This morning I covered what would have been 4 or 5 different "walk" routes in one bicycle ride. 5.9 miles in 1 hr and 4 minutes, including photo stops and an energy bar: 1 - I crossed the bridge and rode south down towards Blyth Park, 2 - turned back N and looped back to the Sammamish River Park parking lot and headed out towards Woodinville, 3 - cut East at the path going to UW Bothell Campus , and 4 rode back W along Beardslee Blvd and Bothell Wy NE to home.

One trade-off is that I don't take photos.

I did take this photo though. The first one is a crop of the landscape one. The landscape one is what happens when you try to make a temporary lens cap and it ends up smudging your lens. Dumb dumb. It looks like what I'm seeing with my right eye now. I did get my first shot on Tuesday, and I'm optimistic

I like looking at my FB Memories most mornings, mostly because I have never organized my photos and folders like an Organized Individual. I think these 2 shots were from a Georgetown/4th Ave S walk quite a few years ago. I didn't notice the orange Push Pin right away, and I was smiling when I pushed the shutter button on my camera. The motorcycle was on the same block.

The temperature got up around 90 degrees on Monday, and the twins came over with Mommy and Daddy to try out our swimming pool. They were having fun with Ray (with the black hat). I looked over at the clubhouse, and I noticed some white clouds gliding into the blue sky. I thought we left the blue sky and white clouds back in Cebu. Nope. Very nice afternoon in Bothell...

Yesterday's excursion was Fun! We road the Link Rail from the Sodo Station, where we found easy parking on 6th Ave S, and we got off at the Pioneer Sq Station. From there, we walked down to the Waterfront, and walked N along Alaskan Wy to below the Pike Place Mkt. We climbed the stairs up to Pike Place and walked towards Westlake Ctr, and en route, we walked along behind the crowds watching and cheering Seattle's Pride Parade on 5th Ave. We took the Monorail over to Seattle Center, sat by the fountain and enjoyed the music, costumed people, etc for awhile. Lots of Color... Following that break, we went into the Arena for the Charity BB game, which was great fun... After the game, we reversed our day's trip steps, and arrived back home around 7pm. Perfect for a senior citizen day on the town. All in all, a good day, but with few photos.

I haven't laughed so hard and so many times in a long time as I did yesterday. Inday and I attended the "Champions of Change" celebrity basketball game at the remodeled Climate of Change arena. The organization is lead by former NFL Champions Doug Baldwin, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril https://championsofchange.org

https://championsofchange.org/benefitting-partners

The coaches for the two teams were Sue Bird/Marshawn Lynch and Gary Payton/Shawn Kemp...'nuf said, and the lineups for both teams! The play-by-play announcers were Kevin Calabro and “Community” star Joel McHale, and Michael Bennett joined them after Halftime. Bennett was one of the highlights for me, as was Lynch. Lynch was really having fun, so much so that Sue Bird sat on the bench most of the time, and enjoyed the show with the rest of us. Joel McHale's play-by-play commentary was hilarious!

The whole day was an extraordinary excursion. I didn't take many photos because I was just soaking in the experience. Just one of the high points was when we were navigating our way from the waterfront and Pike Place Market to the Monorail Station at Westlake, and we merged with the Pride Parade crowd on 5th Avenue...

I like doing Loop walks, walks where I don't double back and walk along the same route. Yesterday morning, I started out at the former Wayne golf course parking lot and walked on the Burke Gilma Trail through the pedestrian/bike tunnel and over the river bridge leading to Blyth Park (going straight). There, I walked down a wood terraced path to a riverside bench, where I ate a Larabar and drank some coffee.

Walking through Blyth Park, I came out on the part of the golf course that was on the East side of  96th Ave NE. A very cool path used to go under 96th bridge to the other part of Wayne, what the golfers used back then (?), but it was blocked off a few years ago. The photo with the tree and shade covered path is where you walk back up to the 96th Ave and then walk back along the road to the parking lot. The last shot is looking West over the main former golf course, what my wife and I refer to as our "meadow" walk...

ps - I used my old iPhone SE today.

:) my MapMyWalk app says I walked 16.95 miles today. I forgot to turn it off after I returned to my car. Up until our departure for Cebu in Nov, we lived right across the street from the Landing Park where that foot bridge is located. I wanted to get on the trail right away instead of using 15-20 minutes walking from out new apt.

It feels So good to be getting up earlier, between 4:30 and 5 today, drinking some coffee, doing my computer routine , and heading out to walk. I was on the trail by 7am. Joy... I still haven't pulled out my Canon, and these shots were taken with the Samsung phone I bought in Cebu. Not bad, but not an SLR...

More Cebu photos while riding in taxis...

My 3 brothers and I had planned a bicycle ride meet-up for tomorrow morning, but we had to cancel it. We will re-schedule later, but we had fun texting back and forth when we were coordinating our plans. JR decided to refer to me as "Uncle Roy" (Mom had 5 brothers, and 3? sisters). Our Uncles theme ended up as follows:

Me - Uncle Roy: the oldest brother, who lived in Alaska, and I Never saw him without a cigar in his mouth, all through my childhood and into my early adult years.

Pat - Uncle Homer: he was a Square-dance "Caller", and all of our Johnson family reunions had full scale square dances, where the kids joined in with the adults. Fun!

JR (John) - Uncle Elmer: he was an Air Force pilot who flew in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. He lived/retired in San Antonio, Texas.

Mike - Uncle Bill: Uncle Bill was always my favorite, but I'm Uncle Roy because I'm the oldest. Sigh...

Uncle Larry didn't make the cut, but maybe Jimmy would have been Uncle Larry. Uncle Larry was a Contractor in Las Vegas who traded in his Cadillac every year for a brand new Cadillac. He showed up one morning when I was in Vietnam. I was sleeping on my cot because I had been on all night Guard Duty, and I had the morning off. Uncle Larry was on there on a 1-year government contract where he worked for really good money, with no taxes. I didn't know he was in Vietnam.

John just sent me this photo, with the text "cr giving me a ride on his bike" Ha Ha. That's actually Uncle Roy with John sitting behind him. But it was my motorbike. ps - notice the cigar in Uncle Roy's mouth?

Taxi shots: More Cebu photos while riding in taxis... I'm slowly getting out my camera stuff, my flash drives etc, from Cebu, and I will mix in Cebu photos posts with ones I take here in Bothell.

Joy # 82... I finally got out on the trail with my bike today, a beautiful NW morning. I was enjoying the "ride" a lot, but I stopped a few times to shoot photos with my cell phone. My good ol' Schwinn was the star. The last photo was when I cut through downtown, and the three life size portraits are of real Bothell individuals. I posted a FB Memory shot of these characters here recently.