The Solstice Parade in Fremont on Saturday featured lots of folks on bikes. I arrived too late for the famous Painted Bicyclists, but did catch this 4-wheeled Scorpian. It's definitely best to see this festival by bike.

Pictures of painted cyclists from this year's parade can be found at irishking. You can check out pictures from last year's parade.

I shouldn't gloat, but ... While most of my neighbors were surviving another gloomy, wet, cold, overcast weekend down around Seattle, I was bicycling under sunny skies in the San Juan Islands.

Here I am on Saturday at the Lime Kiln State Park lighthouse on San Juan Island. People had gathered there to try to catch a glimpse a recently returned pod of orcas with a young calf. We could see the whale-watcher boats, but the orcas never got close to shore while I was there.

What brought me up there was a bike-a-thon fund-raiser for the Stanley Stamm Children's Hospital summer camp. The camp has been held for the past 41 years for children with disabilities who can't attend most other camps; this was the 21st year for the bike-a-thon. It was the first year that Dr. Stamm, who'd broken his arm, couldn't ride his bike in it. ...   more »