Sabine Cafe[coffeeneuring, bicycling]
Dec. 30th, 2025 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterOn Sunday, I went on a wonderful Coffeeneuring adventure with annikusrex and her son F. One of the most exciting things about the adventure is that F is now old enough to do these things with us! He was a trooper and rode all of 19.7 miles.
Our destination for the day was Sabine Cafe in Ballard. Since AKW lives on Capitol Hill, for the first stage of our ride we rode down through Interlaken Park.
Here's a short video of F cruising down the hill (he doesn't yet seem to be a "bombing down the hill" sort but maybe in time?), while I sing some nonsense:
From Interlaken, the generally preferred route over to and across the Montlake Bridge involves ducking down to Boyer Ave, then taking 26th and some other back roads. However, I wanted to spend more time on the newish path in the Arboretum, so when we reached the 24th Ave crossing, we went straight instead of making the left towards Boyer. In all my years growing up and living in Seattle, I don't think I've ever gone straight across. I think I assumed the road would lead to a dead end! Much to my surprise and delight, it was a lovely meandering and quiet lane that took us across a small bridge and basically right over to the path in the Arboretum! A-plus for pleasantry, just don't go that way if you're looking for a fast, direct route to Montlake.
Part of the reason for taking the Arboretum path was to learn how/if it connected up with one of the newer crossings over the renovated 520 bridge. We did have to do a tad bit of road riding on Lake Washington Boulevard, but it was worth it for the fantastic new views of the Foster Island trail from the newest bike/ped 520 bridge crossing:
This sign is basically directly above the old site of the Museum of History and Industry. While I might feel some nostalgia for the old MOHAI, their newer location in South Lake Union is far better for the museum overall, so I'd say things have worked out well in this region. It is very satisfying to experience the conclusion of the entire construction nightmare in this pinch point. The area should now serve people well for the years to come, at least up until the next time it's time to replace the 520 floating bridge.
Our ride wasn't completely without mishaps. While riding, we arranged ourselves such that AKW rode in front, leading the way, followed by F, and then I stayed in the rear. When we reached this particularly narrow and hazardous spot along the Burke-Gilman trail near Fremont, F got just distracted enough that he lost control of his steering and crashed head-on into that "Businesses Are Open" sandwich sign:
While his crash made some spectacular bicycle crash noises, he managed to escape largely unhurt. When I righted the sign and candlestick cone, I repositioned them so they will hopefully be less of a hazard for future path users. I can appreciate that the hair salon in the building to the left wants to make the hazard of crossing pedestrians clear to the path users, but the narrowing effect of the candlestick cones was egregious.
By the time we reached the Fremont Bridge, F's energy and enthusiasm were starting to flag. But lo! There was a market set up underneath the bridge, with food trucks and everything!
An egg and cheese crepe did the trick of restoring F's motivation, and we were able to continue our quest to Ballard.
As it turns out, Sunday is also the day of the Ballard Farmer's Market!
Thankfully, our destination still had yummy food and treats and places to sit, in spite of the crowds.
We were delighted to discover that, in addition to serving up an excellent Affogato, Sabine's menu has lots of Turkish breakfast delights: AKW enjoyed the shakshuka, I relished my Turkish eggs, and F had some excellent avocado Turkish toast to go with his hot chocolate.
For us, the highlight of the farmer's market was watching the donut machine make mini cider donuts:
They tasted delicious, too.
Then, homeward.
From my adventures around Seattle so far, it looks to me like most of the homeless people in the region have relocated to Ballard. The concrete blocks in the above photo are one of many passive methods that people and places now use to prevent homeless encampments, but at the moment in Ballard, that is just pushing homeless folks into other nearby spots. In the U District I noticed that some of the former sites of tiny house clusters have been cleared of the tiny houses, and there were only a small number of people sleeping in doorways directly along The Ave.
I don't know the extent to which this means that efforts to actually house the homeless in Seattle have been working, or whether what I'm seeing is the result of just trying to move people and shanty towns "elsewhere." The sanitation issues around shantytowns are a real concern (to say nothing of so many other concerns related to human suffering). I continue to think that discourse and actions around homelessness reveal a lot about individual and societal priorities, and it's all certainly something we haven't collectively figured out yet.
By the time we all got back to Montlake, it became clear that F isn't quite ready yet to tackle the challenge of the big climb home back through Interlaken. Thankfully, Seattle has an excellent bus system, so after a rest he and AKW were able to make their way home.
annikusrex and her son F. One of the most exciting things about the adventure is that F is now old enough to do these things with us! He was a trooper and rode all of 19.7 miles.Our destination for the day was Sabine Cafe in Ballard. Since AKW lives on Capitol Hill, for the first stage of our ride we rode down through Interlaken Park.
Here's a short video of F cruising down the hill (he doesn't yet seem to be a "bombing down the hill" sort but maybe in time?), while I sing some nonsense:
From Interlaken, the generally preferred route over to and across the Montlake Bridge involves ducking down to Boyer Ave, then taking 26th and some other back roads. However, I wanted to spend more time on the newish path in the Arboretum, so when we reached the 24th Ave crossing, we went straight instead of making the left towards Boyer. In all my years growing up and living in Seattle, I don't think I've ever gone straight across. I think I assumed the road would lead to a dead end! Much to my surprise and delight, it was a lovely meandering and quiet lane that took us across a small bridge and basically right over to the path in the Arboretum! A-plus for pleasantry, just don't go that way if you're looking for a fast, direct route to Montlake.
Part of the reason for taking the Arboretum path was to learn how/if it connected up with one of the newer crossings over the renovated 520 bridge. We did have to do a tad bit of road riding on Lake Washington Boulevard, but it was worth it for the fantastic new views of the Foster Island trail from the newest bike/ped 520 bridge crossing:
This sign is basically directly above the old site of the Museum of History and Industry. While I might feel some nostalgia for the old MOHAI, their newer location in South Lake Union is far better for the museum overall, so I'd say things have worked out well in this region. It is very satisfying to experience the conclusion of the entire construction nightmare in this pinch point. The area should now serve people well for the years to come, at least up until the next time it's time to replace the 520 floating bridge.
Our ride wasn't completely without mishaps. While riding, we arranged ourselves such that AKW rode in front, leading the way, followed by F, and then I stayed in the rear. When we reached this particularly narrow and hazardous spot along the Burke-Gilman trail near Fremont, F got just distracted enough that he lost control of his steering and crashed head-on into that "Businesses Are Open" sandwich sign:
While his crash made some spectacular bicycle crash noises, he managed to escape largely unhurt. When I righted the sign and candlestick cone, I repositioned them so they will hopefully be less of a hazard for future path users. I can appreciate that the hair salon in the building to the left wants to make the hazard of crossing pedestrians clear to the path users, but the narrowing effect of the candlestick cones was egregious.
By the time we reached the Fremont Bridge, F's energy and enthusiasm were starting to flag. But lo! There was a market set up underneath the bridge, with food trucks and everything!
An egg and cheese crepe did the trick of restoring F's motivation, and we were able to continue our quest to Ballard.
As it turns out, Sunday is also the day of the Ballard Farmer's Market!
Thankfully, our destination still had yummy food and treats and places to sit, in spite of the crowds.
We were delighted to discover that, in addition to serving up an excellent Affogato, Sabine's menu has lots of Turkish breakfast delights: AKW enjoyed the shakshuka, I relished my Turkish eggs, and F had some excellent avocado Turkish toast to go with his hot chocolate.
For us, the highlight of the farmer's market was watching the donut machine make mini cider donuts:
They tasted delicious, too.
Then, homeward.
From my adventures around Seattle so far, it looks to me like most of the homeless people in the region have relocated to Ballard. The concrete blocks in the above photo are one of many passive methods that people and places now use to prevent homeless encampments, but at the moment in Ballard, that is just pushing homeless folks into other nearby spots. In the U District I noticed that some of the former sites of tiny house clusters have been cleared of the tiny houses, and there were only a small number of people sleeping in doorways directly along The Ave.
I don't know the extent to which this means that efforts to actually house the homeless in Seattle have been working, or whether what I'm seeing is the result of just trying to move people and shanty towns "elsewhere." The sanitation issues around shantytowns are a real concern (to say nothing of so many other concerns related to human suffering). I continue to think that discourse and actions around homelessness reveal a lot about individual and societal priorities, and it's all certainly something we haven't collectively figured out yet.
By the time we all got back to Montlake, it became clear that F isn't quite ready yet to tackle the challenge of the big climb home back through Interlaken. Thankfully, Seattle has an excellent bus system, so after a rest he and AKW were able to make their way home.
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Date: 2025-12-30 07:46 pm (UTC)