This morning I am really tired and am wondering how I will manage to stay on the bike. But, the ride instantly wakes me up (yes, I still am walking part of Alaska). When I get off the lower bridge by the ship yards, I watch a man reel in the teeniest fish and place it in a bucket with his collection of similar fish. It makes me wonder what they are for. How does one eat fish that small? Does he do it because he needs food? Do you need a permit to fish off the dock there? I keep riding and as I pass the ever so smelly section adjacent to the Coast Guard warehouse, a police officer waves me across the street since there are so many big rigs and a ton of construction. The construction is being done to replace the viaduct (currently the most dangerous transportation structure in America ready to collapse and crumble at the next relatively small earthquake).   There are so many orange shirts striped with neon yellow, hard hats, and beeping trucks and rumbling machines. I wish I could wear ear plugs, but it only lasts a minute. Yesterday when I ride through this short section of SoDo, I wonder what on earth I’ve stumbled across. There are all of a sudden a ton of people on bikes and walking. The walkers look mostly like bums. It was like a greyhound bus just pulled away and offloaded this crowd, but I didn’t see a bus. I weaved in and out of the crowd trying to get back to a bike lane. Today, I continue down by the stadiums and the waterfront on the nicely paved path. Every morning I’ve noticed the homes and shelters of about five to ten homeless men (mostly men I think) along the way. I always wonder about how they have gotten into their situations, but mostly a lot of them look like mental illness was a key factor. I ride the elevator and continue among the cars downtown until I get to the path at the newly built South Lake Union Park. As I round the corner towards the houseboats, I watch a seaplane being prepared and a couple men building a deck. I arrive early today and prepare for the reading I’ve selected to share with the class.

On my ride back, I’m still feeling good. The sun has been out all day and it’s really nice out. We walked around campus all day participating in a Writing Marathon. Now I am recalling the rose garden, the roman columns tucked away in a forest where Herons are nesting, the modern building of the business school, and the amazing Jazz music we heard from the music building as I ride. I also have a few teeny feminine style burps of my yummy veggie burrito and guacamole from my Agua Verde lunch. I ride past the men building the deck and was surprised at how little progress they seemed to have made. I see more people fishing on Lake Union and see frenzied people begin to set up for the Wooden Boat Festival that begins tonight or tomorrow. I ride down by the cruise terminal (I did not cheat and take the elevator down today). I hear the huge horn blast from a Celebrity cruise ship and hear a loud speaker, announcing their departure. Up to Alaska they go. Over to West Seattle I go. Today the restaurant smells don’t seem as strong. Perhaps it’s because there is the smell of summer in the air. I cross the bridge and begin the long slow ride up Avalon’s hill. My favorite part of this whole ride is reaching the Junction and feeling so accomplished. It’s a similar feeling that I got after running my first 5K and run/walking my first half marathon. And now I’ve done it twice this week! It’s 4^th of July weekend, so I get three days off the bike for recovery. Hopefully I can bring it in for a tune up.