This evening was Spoke & Food, an event in which participating restaurants give 15% of every cyclist’s bill to Lettuce Link. Dan came home early so we all rode together to Blue Star Pub in Wallingford. Brandt was very excited for the sea anemone (calamari) appetizer. Baby Rijder liked them, too. Not sure if fried squid is optimal baby eatin’, but the little one wants to do everything the big one does.
We took the balance bike down to the lake this afternoon. Brandt is getting pretty fast on it. I can’t wait until he goes continuously. He’s got a weird habit of laying it down periodically to sprinkle gravel on the spokes. I have yet to figure out what he’s thinking, but I’m sure there’s a hilarious explanation. We saw a guy doing bike tricks at the community center and Brandt was very intrigued. He hopped up on the planter (on foot, the bike stayed on the ground) and ran around, probably plotting his future bike stunts.
Baby Rijder and Brandt rode together in the double trailer for the first time. Baby Rijder was not a fan of the bike helmet, but Brandt was very helpful and fed him snacks until he fell asleep. Unfortunately I didn’t have the foresight to pack baby-friendly snacks, so Baby Rijder got his first dose of Trader Joes schoolhouse cookies. He likes sugar.
Our first stop was CounterBalance Bicycles to get the road bike’s gears fixed. In the past I would have just walked to Gregg’s in the neighborhood, but after a $100 tuneup on the city bike during which they didn’t even fix its gear issues (issue they built it with!) I decided I’d rather bike half an hour to a real shop. And it was so worth it! They were incredibly nice and fixed it for free, immediately. Not immediate enough for Baby Rijder to stay asleep, but our second stop was University Village, just down the hill so he didn’t have to deal with the bike much longer.
Both boys fell asleep on the ride home. BR cried a bit and Brandt fell asleep during the noise and then Mini conked out shortly thereafter. So not a completely successful outing. The solo road bike rides will have to wait a bit until BR can better tolerate the helmet.
Brandt’s on his new bigger Kinderbike now. It’s a much better fit than the Mini was. He’s mostly been riding it on the path around the lake, but this afternoon he took it up a ramp of the community center. He didn’t want to ride back down the ramp, but rather carry the bike down the stairs. Go, little cyclocross guy! I ended up being the one to carry the bike down, but some day he’ll do his own heavy lifting.
We rode to Ballard for the Second Ascent Twilight Criterium this afternoon. It was so cool! The boys were both very taken with the caution tape separating the spectators from the course, but they also liked watching the bikes zoom by. I wanted to set Brandt up on the podium in first place, but he insisted on standing on third since three is his favorite number now. Mini wasn’t too interested in being first place, either, because he’s recently figured out backing down stairs and that’s all he wanted to do.
Family Ride 