Fremont Solstice Parade 2014, and a smoothie

Blueberry-mango version

The first day of summer in Seattle was uncharacteristically warm and sunny — perfect weather to start the new season. Blue skies, sunshine, 77 breezy degrees, and the annual Fremont Solstice Parade all promised to make the day special. I started the day with my current favorite smoothie.

Into the Vitamix goes one banana (not frozen), 1/2 cup of frozen cherries OR blueberries, 1/2 cup of frozen mango OR pineapple, two tablespoons of chia seeds, 1/2 of a small organic lemon, a handful of almonds and one cup of filtered water. All of the frozen fruit I used was organic fruit that I found at Costco. As you can see there isn't any kale or spinach or chard, but if that's what you want, just add it. I like fruit.

The Solstice parade starts out with the nude bicyclists, and it's a joyful jolt of hilarity. Most of the riders are thoroughly and creatively painted, but some are just ... naked on a bike.

The riders seem to be having a lot of fun, and they interact with the appreciative crowd. There's lots of shrieking and cheering, and sometimes verbal exchanges.

One beautifully decorated woman asked as she went by, "does riding a bike make my butt look big?"

Some of the costumes involve more than paint, as you can see in the turtle, above. I only take photos part of the time because I get so caught up in just watching.

What parade would be complete without a wizard or two?

Or a specialized costume.

After the nude cyclists — and there are hundreds of them — the bands, floats, singers and dancers take over. None of the floats are allowed to be motorized so they have to be pulled and pushed by people.

There are gigantic, spectacular creatures made from paper, as well as more "traditional" rhythm bands and musical groups. There are always pointed political performances as well.

Did I mention the dancers of every stripe?

And the fabulous singers?

I gotta tell ya, the sixties live on in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle!

Solstice weekend: The Fremont Solstice Parade, and a birthday dinner

Not your ordinary marching band-members.

Every year the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle hosts a Solstice party. Fremont, otherwise known as the Center of the Universe, is not your ordinary neighborhood — it's a little weirder than most places.

One of the big events at the Solstice Fair is the parade. I've written about the Fremont Fair nude bikers, and the floats, in the past so I won't go into too many details here, but I'll tell you that the parade is not your ordinary public event.

The parade starts with about 200 nude bicyclists, and continues with a couple of hours of bands and floats. The floats must be manually pulled because this is a very ecologically-oriented event — no motor vehicles allowed.

You might think the ladies on the left are wearing bathing suits. They're not.

Most bicyclists wear costumes made from paint — some so clever that you might not notice the rider is stark naked — and others choose to ride au naturel, or with polka dots or hearts, or something. Although their costumes weren't the flashiest, the two women wearing "bathing attire" were among my favorites this year. Their painted-on suits were hilariously realistic, though you probably shouldn't try this at a public beach.

Many of the costumes are quite complex and require props.

And I noticed at least two dogs riding in this year's parade.

This was the first time I've been to the Solstice parade when it wasn't drizzling and cool, and it was much harder to get good photos in the blinding light. The parade was moved to 3 p.m., and the sun was high in the sky, creating difficulties. Miss E, a true child of the PNW, was complaining about the heat — a blistering 75˚. Ha.

Miss E's brother, Little E was attending his first Solstice Parade, and was quite amenable to both the heat and the commotion.

Eventually, though, he needed a little nap to refresh from the hard work of watching the parade.

The parade goes on for a couple of hours but we needed to leave long before it ended. The fair has lots of interesting booths and events that you can read about on the Web page. I've barely scratched the surface of the three-day event.

The parade was on Saturday, and my husband's birthday was on Sunday. This year, our middle son and his partner hosted the family birthday celebration. It was a delicious affair with everyone contributing food. Taryn brought a delicious tapenade with crackers, and a great salad with homegrown lettuce. Kate made a wonderful dal and Aaron made irresistible roasted cauliflower. I brought cake.

I was so into eating the terrific food that I completely forgot about taking photos until all that remained was a little bit of dal in my bowl.

I made the cake — a gluten-free chocolate chip cake — and my oldest son gets the credit for photographing it. If you think the candle doesn't look quite right, perhaps you can remind me to buy some birthday candles. The cake is one I make often because it always works, and Miss E likes it. It's covered with a simple ganache made by heating 1/2 cup of almond milk to a low boil, removing the pan from the heat, then adding 3/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips and stirring until they are melted. I let it cool for 10 minutes then gently and slowly poured the chocolate over the cake, in thin layers. I put the cake into the fridge to solidify the chocolate.

If you would like to see more images from the Solstice parade, here are a few links to earlier posts:

Father's Day | Birthday | Fremont Solstice parade (nudity alert) -2010

Simple GF pancakes | Naked Solstice fun -2012

The Vegg | Cookbook love | Solstice parade part 2 -2012

Simple GF pancakes | Naked Solstice fun

I used to enjoy making breads, and things like pancakes and waffles — before I started eating gluten-free. I had it down pretty well, and could whip up credible baked goods without recipes, if I wanted to. Now I'm so intimidated by all the flours and starches that go into GF goods, I often avoid  baking, except for special occasions, or if I'm testing a cookbook. One day recently I got a craving for pancakes that had me running to my well-stocked, but usually avoided, GF pantry. I just wanted to throw together some pancakes — sheesh — is that too much to ask? I chose four flours (four!) and a starch and threw them together as I've learned to do from months of reading cookbooks and blogs, and ate pancakes. I thought they were delicious, and I hope I can remember that and feel a little freer to experiment more often. I mean to try them out on Miss E Sunday morning to see if she notices a difference from her usual pancakes.

Simple GF pancakes - serves two (or one really hungry eater)

• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 5 drops liquid stevia
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup quinoa flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1. Mix the vinegar and milk in a measuring cup and allow to sit for a few minutes until slightly thickened, while you combine the dry ingredients in the next step. Mix in the stevia.
2. Combine the rice flour, quinoa flour, almond meal, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda and xanthan gum in a dry bowl, and whisk together until well-combined. 
3. Mix the wet into the dry.
4. Heat a cast iron pan until water hisses when dropped onto the pan.
5. Spread a thin coat of oil on the pan.
6. Cook the pancakes on one side until bubbles form and the edges start to dry. Carefully turn pancakes over and cook the second side until done.
7. Serve with maple syrup or the topping of your choice.

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Naked Solstice fun

O.K., now that we've got the pancakes out of the way, here's what you're really looking for, right? We attended the annual Fremont Solstice Parade held in the Center of the Universe, the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. There's lots of unusual stuff in Fremont, but perhaps the strangest and most fun is the annual  parade with its nude bikers. This is our second experience attending the parade.

Perhaps no one ever feels they have quite enough to offer

The parade is the highlight of the annual Fremont Fair, which was started in 1972, and now draws 100,000 people. The parade opens with a nude bike ride. The original riders back in the 70s were either arrested or threatened with arrest, but not any more. There were 800 to 1,000 riders this year, painted in every imaginable way.

Some riders wear only paint while others incorporate strategically placed clothing items or other props like hats, to enhance their costume theme.

Captain Hook has a scarf, hat, cuff, belt, and hook paraphernalia, but the rest of his attire is paint. Some of the paint jobs are so amazing, it's hard to tell they're not really clothes, though there are some telltale signs, ho ho.

The woman perched next to me on the guardrail told me she had never heard of the parade before. She was in Seattle accompanying  her husband, who was attending a  conference, and had convinced him to play hooky and come to the festival.

She said she was a very conservative person, but found the nude bike ride quite acceptable because the riders were so cleverly painted you never look at their private parts. She told me this about 10 times, and while I agree it's not a sexual message the riders are spreading, can I claim I never look? Noop, sorry, can't say that.

I will say that I laughed hysterically and clapped my hands in appreciation along with the rest of the crowd, through the whole parade.

I can't print all the photos I took, but here are a few more to give you an idea of the fabulous, crazy event.

Thing one and thing two!

The nude bicyclists are only the opening act of the parade. There is a whole parade full of floats, crazy bands and assorted costumed revelers that follows, but I'll save a few photos for my next post. In the meantime, Happy Solstice!

Father's Day | Birthday | Fremont Solstice parade (nudity alert)

The weekend was full of action with the Solstice, Father's Day and our youngest son's 25th birthday. Our oldest son and DIL hosted a Father's Day/birthday brunch with lots of good food.

Here's the dad and his three sons, smiling for the camera. The birthday boy is the second from the right.

Our middle son (second from the left in the photo) made pita bread, and hummus and baba ghanouj. He made the pita from a Peter Reinhart recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and the dips were based on recipes found here. Of course, everything was amazing.

The birthday boy brought orange juice and grapefruits, and our DIL made a tofu quiche from The Urban Vegan, and roasted potatoes and garlic. I forgot to photograph the quiche until there was only one piece left in the pan. Never got to the potatoes in time.

I also forgot to photograph my plate until it was mostly demolished. I was really hungry and the food looked and smelled so good. Tasted good, too.

I made the cake but it was more of a brunch cake than a traditional birthday cake. It was apple-cranberry cake but with 1-1/2 cups of fresh, organic blueberries instead of cranberries, and one large chopped apple. I also added a teaspoon of cocoa to the cinnamon-sugar mix but I couldn't really taste it in the cake.

Here's a happy, well-fed party guest.

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Fremont Solstice ParadeOn Saturday we attended our first Fremont Solstice Parade. I'd been hearing about this parade for years — crazy inventive floats, outrageous costumes, and nude bicyclists. That's right, the parade opens with a mind-boggling number of irreverent bicyclists (and a few walkers) wearing only body paint, and perhaps a few accessories like shoes or hats. (A very few, less bold participants, wear thongs or bikini bottoms.) The paint is extremely creative and the crowd is ultra enthusiastic. I debated whether or not to post my photos, and decided that yes, I would share a few of the more modest shots. But not that modest. You've been warned. I also want to mention that floats are not allowed to be motorized and must be pushed, pulled or peddled by humans. After the bikers go by, the parade continues with dancers, musicians and other participants in bathtubs, on floats, in peddle-powered submarines or just on foot.