“And he lives in Seattle”
“It rains nine months a year there”
“I know…”
— Sleepless in Seattle, one of my favorite movies

I don’t think it rains that much in Seattle. We mostly get cloudy days and showers. We rarely have “rain”. That’s what I think, anyway. Living in Seattle really makes you appreciate sunny days. When the sun comes out, so do Seattleites. We get out of hibernation. People just want to get out and soak up the sun while they can before it disappears again. But, we have to be careful because Seattle weather is sort of bipolar. Sometimes it looks so nice out with a clear blue sky and sun shining through your window, and when you step out the door, you freeze your butt off because it actually is 49 degrees outside. Sometimes we get cloudy sky and showers in the morning, then it burns off, and we get sun in the afternoon. And sometimes, it’s sunny for a few hours, then it rains again. Friday was one of those days.

We decided to go out to a new pizza place in our neightborhood, Ridge Pizza. It was nice out. The sun came out since early afternoon. So, I suggested to Drew that we should ride our bikes there since it’s less than 2.5 miles away. I put on a fleece and a pair of mid-calf cowboy boots — the boots are my go-to pair of shoes lately because they are so darn comfortable — and we headed out. For the record, cowboy boots are not made for riding up hill. They are NOT made for running for a bus either. Anyway, we made it to the restaurant.

Ridge Pizza is a beer and pizza kind of place. The pizza is more of an American style pizza with thicker, breadier crust. I’m more a fan of thin crust pizza. We got the 18 inch Firefighter with spicy peperoni, onions, black olives and sliced tomatoes. It was alright. The restaurant was lively and loud. Drew and I were seated near the front of the restaurant in a 2 person table, and we had to yell to each other. It was almost 8:30 when we were about done. I looked out to the street and it was pouring. “Holy crap! It’s pouring outside”, I said to Drew and laughed. How are we going to ride back home with a box of leftover pizza. We didn’t bring our paniers. We had no bungee cord.

By the time we got our check and paid. The rain turned to a drizzling shower. We planed to go to Ace hardware store next door to get a bungee cord, but they were already closed. So, we walked over to Ken’s Market next door and asked if they had a butcher string so that we can tied our small box of pizza on the bike. They were so nice and cut off a 2 foot string of the spool from their meat department and gave it to us. We headed home.

By the time we got home, I was cold and wet. The boots were soaked. Drew didn’t think to wear his gloves because it wasn’t cold when we left the house. His hands were numb. We were laughing the whole ride home. It was a fun night out ..in a chaotic sort of way.