Bicycle Birthday

On a regular Monday, I get to work just before 7am, teach two classes in the morning, prepare for the next day during my prep, teach three classes during the afternoon, and usually attend at least one meeting. Generally the students and I are a bit slow and sleepy from our weekend, but we get through and the week is off and running. Mondays are not usually my favorite days, but they are not terrible or depressing either. However, this Monday, was quite a bit different from normal. Thank goodness for Presidents.

Small Niece turned seven (seven!) about a week ago, and she decided to have a bike riding birthday to celebrate. Now many seventh birthday parties probably involve bikes, but that usually means a few turns around the local park. This was a SERIOUS bicycle birthday, and we estimate that about twenty miles were ridden. It was a wonderful sunny day, and we had a marvelous time.

We started out at my brother's house and spent some time arranging everyone on their bikes. There were two tandems, one bike with half bike on the back, and one mini-bike for the mini-grandma to ride. All in all, we made quite a picture going down the road. Our first stop was Gasworks Park where we met up with a few friends (and some people also took the opportunity to run up and down the hills). The next trip took us to a cupcake shop in Wallingford. We each got to choose our own flavors and a special topper for each little cake. M got a really horrifying bride and groom with badly mis-painted faces.

The last leg of our journey took us through the Olympic Sculpture Park. Now I am not a huge fan of the sculpture choices they made for that park (I think I am an art Luddite), but it does have two fantastic features (aside from the eraser of course). Any park that takes you along the water and gives you such an incredible view of the mountains has to be good. Finally, we made our way to The Old Spaghetti Factory. This was the perfect dinner destination for a huge group of hungry bike riders. We wolfed our food before heading back out to do the last bike stretch home. It was a wonderful day, but my posterior has still not returned to normal. Hats off to my brother and to my friends C and R who have the guts to do this kind of thing on a daily basis. Also, happy birthday once more to Small Niece!