We biked along the Midtown Greenway, Kennilworth Trail, and Cedar Lake Trail down to the river and back. About 11.5 miles for the kids and they did it without complaint!
Bike Ride to the River
bike riding
Ada still can’t make it up the hill
She has a new bike and isn’t used to the gears yet. Maybe by the end of the summer.
Biking to Ben and Jerrys
Bike to School Day
Beautiful morning for Bike to School Day.
Bike Ride to the Elf House on Lake Harriet
We took some of the beans from Ada’s garden and gave them to the elf that lives in the tree on the bank of Lake Harriet. The kids enjoyed the new playground there and throwing rocks in the lake (trying to skip them, but it was windy), but they especially liked a dog that was in the water chasing ducks. He never did get one, but the ducks still weren’t very happy about it.
Oh, and good news. Calhoun Cycle found where the leak was occurring in Helena’s bike tire. There was a piece of glass embedded in the tire itself that nobody could find (until now). I think I have replaced the tube five times.
Liam Tries Out a New Bike
I had Liam try out a bigger bicycle at the local K-Mart. He was skeptical that he could ride it because he felt it was too big. Well, he rode it
fine, but dismounting was a little difficult. Helena and Ada’s friends were with us and after Liam took off we all heard a very loud crash. There was a large display of stackable plastic coolers that Liam had knocked over while stopping. You can see that he was a little embarrassed about it at the time, but he was soon laughing with the rest of us.
First Bike Ride Around the Lake
(for all of us)
Get out of my way, lady.
First Bike Excursion
Helena’s bike has a perpetual flat tire. Last summer we had a new tube put in four times.
Today, we’re walking it to Calhoun Cycle where we hope that they’ll figure out where the leak is.*
Liam and Ada were told that they could ride around Lake Calhoun after we (Helena and I) walked down there on foot and Liam and Ada rode their bikes. Liam was about to say no but Ada was already off yelling “Okay!” so he took off after her. It took them longer than I had hoped to get around, but they made it back safely, and, surprisingly, not too tired.
*They didn’t
Punky and her flat tire.
Our (still) frozen lake
Punky looking at the spring trash that has washed up. This year the Earth Day clean ups had to be pushed back because of the snow.
Finally!
Ada’s First Day on “the Road”
Punky’s bike gets a flat tire every other time she rides it, it seems. So we walked it down to Penn Cycle and asked them to look at it again to find out what is going on. They still swear that nothing is wrong with it.
After that, we put a sign on Ada’s back and went down to the Greenway, where she rode without incident. She was cheered by many other riders and despite being worried at the start, she was quite proud of herself. After today, she asked many times to go bike riding.
We also went to Punch for pizza (our destination) and to Barnes & Noble where Ada was fine with talking to herself in the middle of the kids’ section.
