What, you haven’t been to an afterparty since before you had the kids?
Lucky for you, our buddy Ryan, AKA Go Means Go, is throwing down his a 3rd-annual Pedal Party, an essential post-Expo opportunity to shed your Cascade-mandated yellow jacket, helmet and clicky shoes to slip into some sexy partywear (or at least some clean skinny jeans with a rolled up right leg) and SHAKE IT. Continue reading
Posted in beer, bikes, dates, seattle
Tagged afterparty, beer, bike expo, bikes, pedalparty
Yesterday I began a post about our summer bike tour. As the post progressed, I realized it was becoming bigger than just recounting our trip. It was more about the lessons we all learned. As parents, Tim and I want to teach our kids about character and grit, and bike touring is a great way to accomplish that.
(continued)
…How many of the character traits have I covered so far?
With two kids along for the ride, bike touring is even more challenging. Because bike touring involves some suffering and grit and our modern-day, middle-class kids aren’t accustomed to that.
Karen Fierst, a teacher who oversaw the character program at Riverdale, reflected in the aforementioned NYT piece:
“Our kids don’t put up with a lot of suffering. They don’t have a threshold for it. They’re protected against it quite a bit. And when they do get uncomfortable, we hear from their parents. We try to talk to parents about having to sort of make it O.K. for there to be challenge, because that’s where learning happens.”
Yes! I completely agree. Suffering is OK, it’s where learning happens. Continue reading
Posted in bigger than here, bike touring, bikes, family cycling, San Juan 2011
Tagged bike touring, family bike touring, grit, success, suffering
Too many months have passed since we returned from our family bike tour last summer to justify a trip report. But I think just enough time has passed to allow me to reflect on the experience and look forward to the next one.
Last summer we loaded up Tim’s Big Dummy (with most of our gear), the tandem (equipped with 3 Ortliebs and a bucket pannier) piloted by Anne and the 8-year-old and the 10-year-old’s bike (toting her clothes, sleeping bag and thermarest) and pedaled away from our house on a sunny Saturday afternoon in August.
We ended up in the San Juan Islands 5 days later.
The family spent 5 more days camping, relaxing, reading, playing on the beach and enjoying the tranquility of Lopez and San Juan Islands. We then hopped on the Victoria Clipper and motored back to downtown Seattle (covering the same distance on the passenger ferry in a few hours that took 5 days on the bike).
The trip came to an end after a 5 mile ride back to our house in North Seattle on a quintessential Seattle summer evening.
Sounds nice, huh?
Recounting the trip in that manner makes it seem like a piece of cake. We pedaled, arrived 5 days later, hung out on the Islands for 5 days and took a ferry back to Seattle.
Truth be told, there was plenty of suffering mixed in as well. And some grit and definitely some character building.
This NYT education piece about education, failure, building character and ultimately success reminded me of bike touring.
(stay with me for a bit). Continue reading
Posted in bigger than here, bike touring, bikes, kids, San Juan 2011, sustainability
Tagged bike touring, character building, family bike touring, grit, kids
Tim and I have a difference of opinion when it comes to Bromptons.
When he rides the Brompton, Tim forgoes toting around a heavy U lock and frequently chooses to take the bike with him when he arrives at his destination. In a shopping cart, in the corner of a restaurant or in a waiting room at the doctor’s office, Tim’s choice is usually to tote and stash the bike. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, Commute
Tagged bike racks, Brompton, difference of opinion, folding bikes, lock?, stash?
Tim makes hauling large items look so easy
Posted in alternative transportation, BIG Loads, bikes, cargo bikes
Tagged bikes that haul, ski, snow, xtracycle
All of us at Car Free Days would like to wish you a Happy New Year. We hope for all the best in 2012.
And while we’re not big on resolutions, we do like stats and top 10 lists.
For your reading pleasure, Car Free Days top 10 posts (with the most page views) of 2011. Continue reading
Tree Haulin Track Stand
Thought we’d post some photos of our 2011 Xtracycle Tree Haulin event. We won’t bore you with another retrospective of all of our tree-haulin adventures, you can read the one we wrote last year if you’re interested. Continue reading
Mother/Daughter Panda
We’ve been getting some flak these days from our 10.958 year old about our lack of car. She’s entering those tween years: asserting her independence and trying to blend in with everyone else. And this whole bike thing sometimes cramps her style.
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but you kind of stick out when your family rides bikes instead of riding in cars.
Posted in bigger than here, bikes, dates, extravehicular activities, family cycling, kids
Tagged bikes, mothers and daughters, tweens
I followed a cyclist down Eastlake the other day. We yo yoed for a few miles as we both climbed and descended all the hills heading North. He passed me, I caught up, he pulled way ahead, I caught up again.
The only reason he kept getting so far ahead of me is he was running red lights. As in, not–even–a–question the light was red, it was R E D. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, xtracycle
Tagged basket, bikes, decoration, Fall, seattle
Julian posted details for November Kidical Mass over at Totcycle. The ride includes the opening of the Ship Canal Trail and ends at Fremont Brewing.
What’s not to like about that route? Continue reading
Posted in beer, bikes, Events, extravehicular activities, family cycling
Tagged beer, bike events, bike food drive, Kidical Mass, seattle, weekend
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
We LOVE to share our work, but the number of commercial sites using our photos (of our kids!) without permission, and/or non-commercial sites not following Creative Commons use and attribution terms is getting out of hand.
If you have questions about: allowed use of our content, need help understanding the Creative Commons link and license terms, want permission for another type of use, or need a quick refresher on the etiquette of photo use-and-reuse, please contact Carfreedays.com. Seriously, just ask. We're happy to help.
Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 