Car Free Day: Two Thumbs So Far Way Up

The City of Seattle shut Rainier Avenue to car traffic from Orcas Street to Alaska Street this afternoon. It was a little weird at first: deserted streets, too many cops... you felt like the The Bomb had been dropped or something. But then little by little the street filled up with strollers, bikers, balloon animals, lawn chairs, barber chairs, bubble-blowers, whiffle-ball games, persian carpets, pedicabs, and more. The band started up. There were free smoothies, made with a bicycle-powered blender. There were hula hoopers in hot pink wigs. There was a booth where you could get an Undrivers License. People pulled tables from the Bakery out into the middle of the street and sat there drinking lattes. We heard rumors of high-tech GPS Whack-A-Mole down by Alaska Street. There was a bicycle rodeo. There was lots and lots of sidewalk chalk.

It was remarkable how quickly the kids acclimated to this novel experience of our busiest arterial:


After a while Mikala put on her skates and headed south to Hillman City -- the hill was tough, but it was so much fun coming back down that she repeated the journey several times. It turns out rollerskaters flying down the hill in the left lane do register on the the radar speed-check sign at 42nd Street -- the one that flashes your speed at you to remind you to slow down. (It had rather the opposite effect on Mikala and Laura, who clocked in at 14 miles per hour on their last run.)

Our main contribution to the festivities was the giant labyrinth at the Ferdinand Street intersection, which attracted quite a few police officers on various wheeled vehicles. We got all excited when Ariadne from the Bakery came by, what with her being named after the princess who helped Theseus escape the original Labyrinth and all. She said she'd rather do cartwheels than walk it, and we thought that was a dandy idea.



The kids enjoyed the giant craps game -- even though everyone was a little vague on the rules, it was a lot of fun just throwing the dice around -- and everybody loved the historic peach basket hoops game.



Did you know basketball was invented in 1891, the same year lots went on sale in Columbia City? And that it's called "basketball" because the guy who invented it couldn't find any boxes and settled for peach baskets instead? And that it took them ten years to figure out that they should cut the bottom out of the basket so they didn't have to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball every time it went in? We didn't. Thanks to Shelly for putting the historic hoops together.

And BIG thanks to whoever dreamed up Car Free Day, and to the soulful bureaucrats who made it happen. You all rock, more than you'll ever know.

(P.S. Joanne took some great pictures! Here are some:





And there are more here.)