President's Day bike rack: now at the White House

In honor of President's Day yesterday (I know I'm a day late - come on, it was a holiday! Even though I was working...) I am using a trump card of a photo and allowing all of you to share in the glory.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Bike rack - lots of it - laid out in front of the home of our own President. (Give it up to C.Welker for spotting this beautiful expanse for us.) Simple, elegant, sleek black bike rack. Just marvelous.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and don't forget - keep those photos coming!

For matching the holiday to a post where bike rack is concerned: A solid THREE bicycles out of four.

Bright and sunny Chicago Bike Rack

The weather in San Francisco right now (which is where I am currently located, albeit not for long - I don't have a blog that is somewhat about travel for nothing!) is pretty terrible. Rainy, cold, windy. I know people in the midwest and east coast are shaking their fist at me, but hey - I live in California. Sunshine is a birthright.

Which is why I'm posting photos of Chicago from last fall, where it was bright, sunny and mostly warm. Bike rack glinting gloriously in the sun, looking absolutely at home contrasting with the bright blue of the sky. Holding its own against the tall glassy structures whose verticality only complements its horizontal nature, yet accompanying the never-ending stretches of asphalt and reflecting light back to its source, elongating the day into dusk.

I admit, I was wondering what this bike rack was doing here, lining the streets as naturally as the trees that populate downtown Chicago. Turns out, there was a race the next day, and this helped the runners stay on course. I've run a few races, and I don't remember whether the bike rack was there to help guide my way. Sad. I like to think they were there, keeping silent, yet strong, company. 

Waxing poetic about bike rack: THREE bicycles out of four. Keats I'm not. 

Super special Nobel prize-winning bike rack from Norway

It's the Super Bowl (tm) of bike rack.

So simple in its design, yet intimidating in execution. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: bike rack fit for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

There may be nothing special about the actual bike rack - it's got the basic design of bike rack that we all love so much - but damn, that is some awesome barricade. NO ONE is getting through that without some serious hopping around. You can't push it over, you can't easily swing yourself over it in one foul swoop. 

This was spotted by D. Ceasar some time ago in Norway, and truthfully, I'd been hanging on to it for a special occasion. Seeing as how I've been slacking on my bike rack duties (sorry people, I've been busy, m'kay?) D. rightfully pointed out that I need to come back in a big way. And, he's been trying to outdo C.Welker for bike rack bragging rights. (She's got at least four more in the hopper!) 

So, here you have it. Bike rack is NOT dead in 2011, but here to stay. And make a very, very bold statement in a country that I can't imagine is super unruly when it comes to....the Nobel Peace Prize. Don't you find it odd that they needed to construct such a super fortress? For what? Do the Norwegians make like Laker fans and riot and set couches on fire? (AHEM, D.Sams) I mean, do tell. 

Anyway. For bike rack that probably needed a blue print to set up - FOUR bicycles out of four. Well played, Norway. Alfred Nobel would be fucking stoked.