God Lives in P.O. Box 67

Not a Front Door Adventure, but tons of fun none-the-less. Jen and I spent the rainy Seattle weekend in sunny San Francisco with her family. Our nephew Caleb and I rolling the Presidio in style.

The best sock in the world. Rivulet Industries is a blog/magazine run by of a friend of my neighbors Aaron and Tracy. Not only do these socks rock, but for each pair purchased, $4.00 goes to Donate Life Today, an organization dedicated to saving and enhancing lives through the recovery of organs an tissue for transplant.

Puddle jumping; perfect year-round recreation in Seattle.

Oh the rain in great Pacific NW.....but it is pretty nice to look at flowers...

and ponds....

...and maple saplings...

...and Rododedrons on steroids,

...and guilt free water structures.

God lives in Suite 67 at 1425 Broadway, Seattle WA, 98122

There is no prize for being the first customer of the day at the Hopvine on Capital Hill, but a beer and coffee while waiting out a downpour is prize enough for this guy.

Beer is proven to be a better beverage than water for hydration after strenuous physical exercise.

Gray day and stone roads in Seattle.

Memorial day 2010. Pause and be thankful for the sacrifice others have made, we live in a wonderful country full of good people and many have died defending it.

One meaning of the word sacrifice is to 'accept short term loss for long term gain.' Is it possible that if we all accepted a little short term loss, such as driving less, living in smaller homes, and recreating closer to where we live (aka consuming less) that others may not have to march off around the globe carrying weapons and 'sacrifice' their lives to defend our exorbitant way of life?

Fay Bainbridge State Park. This future Front Door Adventure destination was named after Temple S. Fay, a prominent Seattle Neurosurgeon and UW instructor who introduced the use of hypothermia in medical and surgical illnesses and developed rehabilitation procedures based on analysis of phylogenetic movements.

Well worth a ride in the rain to sit at empty beach and talk to a local guy named Kevin.

The Port Madison Bell at Fay Bainbridge State Park. The bell was brought to the area from San Francisco in 1883 by Captian Jeremiah Farnham to be used as a town crier to announce important community events to the citizens of Port Madison.

While riding the Wenatchee from Bainbridge back to Seattle, a young man approached me and asked "How fast you think we are going?" "A lot faster than I could pedal my bike across the sound", I replied.

The Emerald City from the Sound. One of the many rewards of a good rain ride.

It's funny how three weeks or a month can slip by without having the opportunity to get on my bike for recreation. I mean a busy week of work will get me 80-100 miles of riding coming and going between jobs, but the whole idea of a Front Door Adventure is to slow down and see what happens.

Fresh back from the Vitamin D clinic in San Fransisco, I awoke on Memorial Day to a nice steady downpour and 55 degrees; perfect riding conditions. My 6 am start turned into a 10. I stopped by Erbeck's for a motivational coffee and was gifted a pair of the best socks in the world by Aaron. Seriously, if you buy a pair of these and don't think they are rad, send to me and I will eat them.

Many of you may be unaware of a little know fact that I am an Ordained Minister in Universal Life Church Monastery. I have actually spent a little time on the Church website and like what the organization stands for. Being an Ordained Minister and member in good standing, combined with the fact that the ULC Monastery is headquartered in Seattle got me thinking that I better pay my church a visit.

A Seattle park tour though Cowen Park, Montlake Park, up Interlaken and through Volunteer Park, and Cal Anderson Park found me at the QFC at the corner of Republican and Broadway. After nosing around a bit, the clerk at Retail Therapy informed that 1425 Broadway is the UPS (United Parcel Service that is) store. The attendant at the UPS store was none-to-excited to entertain my questions about where the free church coffee was, but did point me the direction of "Suite 67", otherwise known as post office box 67. While a little disappointed that I didn't get to talk to anyone from my church, it's good to know that God lives in a small house just like me.

Thoroughly soaked, but feeling revived after church I made the quick decision to scope out a future FDA on Bainbridge Island. Fay Bainbridge State Park offers beach camping within striking distance of home for a car-free weekend get-away for Jen and I. Down through the city to the Ferry Terminal where I met a guy named Jeff on the second day of his Journey home to Vermont via bike. RAD.

What started as a rain soaked morning had me pealing layers as I pedaled north in the sun on low traffic tree canopied island roads. At Fay Bainbridge Park I took a rest stop and chatted with Kevin, a local I met at the beach and I was off again heading back to Seattle.

When your bike is your main form of transportation, every day is a bit of adventure. But just getting here to there in a hurry doesn't leave much time to slow down enough to take a look around and notice some of the small things. I think there is a lot of good stuff to see and do right out my front door, maybe you should see what is just a bike ride away from your front door as well?

Kla-Ha-Ya

Matt