I got the greatest bike bag today: the $6.99 Trader Joe’s insulated zippered bag. It fits perfectly in my rear basket when sideways:

And look at how much stuff it holds:

Note: these are extra-tall 500ml cans (also $6.99, by the way).

I’d like to also point out that our bag purchase was part of a four-store shopping extravaganza. An activity that would have been hellish by car, but was perfectly fun by bike. To be fair, it was only three dismount/remounts since the hose from Tweedy & Popp was next door to the vitamins from Pharmaca. And I would have been loathe to negotiate the busy one-way block between toothpaste at Super Supplements and beer [not all for us! It’s block party night] at Trader Joe’s in a vehicle.

In the afternoon we took the balance bikes down to Gas Works Park to do some hill riding. We usually ride ’em to the closer destination of John Stanford International School, but soft grassy hills sounded better than concrete ramp with sharp turn at the bottom (the big one gets going too fast and endos a lot at JSIS). I was lazy and drove us down, but I’ll get into the habit of carting the trailer around.

I brought a basket left over from raspberry picking last week and twist-tied it to the big kid’s balance bike. It seems the perfect size for his little bike, yet still holds plenty of rocks, as you can see: