My husband says it may be the second most active Sunday, but I argue that the day he is thinking of occurred on a Saturday. So what in the heck am I talking about?
Last Sunday, my family and I hit the Alameda Creek Trail here in the San Francisco Bay Area for a 14 mile bike ride. It was our first-ever family bike ride. Absolutely hard to imagine since my oldest is nearly ten and my youngest is nearly four, but the reality is, we are not the kind of family I had dreamed of … hiking and biking and playing together in the midst of mother nature. Sadly, my partner hates driving. And more than his hatred for driving, he hates waking up in the morning making it tough for our family to do anything completely worthwhile in terms of long luxurious outdoor activities that are more than 30 minutes away from home.
But I digress.
My two sons have been asking daddy to go on a bike ride with them. Daddy has been busy. I had the grand idea that perhaps daddy could tune up the tandem and the trailer and we could bike as a family.
I miss the days where my partner would come home and I’d pack us a few nibbles and we’d go off for two hours and race home just before it got too cold. But those were pre-children days. Repeating those days would probably bring on cPS; these days you can’t leave children home unattended let alone let a ten-year-old walk to the park alone.
Anyhow, my partner pumped up the tires. Tightened whatever needed tightening. Played around with gears. Fixed breaks. Duct taped a few holes on the trailer. And finally, we were off.
My oldest was on his Ninja Turtle bike and mostly stayed ahead of us. We were on the tandem pulling the trailer. In the trailer sat our five and three-year-old kiddos. They sat snuggled up inside screaming and crying that someone was hitting someone and so-and-so was touching so-and-so. I honestly expected the cops to pull us over and ticket us for disrupting the neighborhood.
Oh yes … and strapped to the top of the trailer was our five-year-old’s bike. We weren’t comfortable with him biking throughout the streets and being safe in our little caravan of bicycles; so, he was delegated to the inside of the trailer until we hit the trail.
Two long arduous, and very noisy miles later, we reached the creek trail.
freedom!
We hit the long trail with our bikes and we pedaled toward the beautiful San Francisco Bay and almost straight into the setting sun. The wind was just right. The trail was full of people walking and biking an d enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Our five-year-old hopped on his bike and vigorously pedaled his heart out for about five of the 14 miles we biked. We went under bridges. We passed ducks, deer, goats and even a horse. We smelled flowers and the salty bay. We saw trees changing colors. The sun setting. … And it was a good day to be out and about.
When we returned home, I do believe we all were happy and fulfilled. And the best part … the kids have asked that we do this more often!
Signing off for now,
Bay Area Blind Mom
Bay Area Blind Mom 