Find a place to park your bike and set your calenders

   Whether you're in Shoreline or Seattle or Lynnwood, or... Let's not play name-that-northwest-city, if you're reading this you love bikes, right? And let's face it, without the Seattle Bike Expo your calender is lacking in bike events overall. If you're anything like Frank & Sadie Doyle of Thrilling Adventure Hour fame, you love a good auction, right?
   The Bicycle Alliance of Washington, aka WAbikes, Annual Gala & Silent Auction is November 8th! At the Marriot Waterfront Hotel. Silent auction starts at 5:30pm, dinner and live auction starts at 7:00pm. What's up for auction? How about:

• A custom weekend bicycle tour for six. 
• A gourmet vegetarian dinner prepared at a unique location from a VW Campervan. A coveted RAMROD entry. 
• A flat of organic raspberries picked and cleaned just for you. 
• A mountain bike vineyard tour and private wine tasting with the winemaker for four.

Find out more at http://wabikes.org/events-rides/auction/

    Of course times are hard, but we can all do what we can to support bicycle advocacy. Especially the effective kind. If you aren't bidding you can volunteer, folks are still needed for all kinds of spots. Find out more by contacting their Auction Volunteer Coordinator.

    If you missed my coffeeneuring update, Bridge Coffee House is talking about installing a bike rack! I contacted them through their Facebook page, and they responded warmly to the idea. Shoreline residents, speak up! Be reasonably polite, but let businesses know if they want to keep you they need to put a rack in. It is perfect that the banners down Aurora depict a cyclist riding in silhouette when that is exactly what people do, they just ride through. Why stop when there's no place to park?
    Have a favorite local business that you'd love to bike to, but can't without parking at another business further away, or worse to some makeshift post? I bet we have a few in common.

• Gyro House & Grocery, great food, but you end up parking by the dumpster if you arrive by bike, what an appetizer. 
• Broiler Bay, good burgers sure, but the milkshakes are the best I've found in Shoreline. They do $2 dollar cheeseburgers that beat anyplace else, but I recommend parking at Safeway if you go.
• Master Hair by Top Tobacco (incidentally, also a good place). Actually all the shops in this area are great, but not a single place to park. Oh sure you can sorta lock up to the railing in front of the watch shop, but the owner really doesn't like that and its thick railing, so large U-locks only.
• Shoreline City Hall isn't a business, but I went by there the other day and lo and behold it is still the worst. Competition for worst bike rack, anyone?

    What's your favorite local place that doesn't have a rack?