Sunday, July 09, 2006

Squid On Wheels

I have decided that since Female Child is really not so much a child, that all of our names, for blogging purposes are changing. We will now be: Mama Squid, Papa Squid, Squidette and Little Squid.

Today your friendly Squid family took to their wheels again and ventured up to Central Park. We have been talking about this ride for a while and I admit to being a bit concerned about the kids being able to handle the hills -- the Central Park loop is all about the hills. Silly me, the kids thought the hills were easy! The four Squid set out from our usual starting point in Chelsea at the Hudson River and rode north to 96th Street where we hit the streets to get to Central Park. Papa Squid grew up with Central Park as his back yard so the he was riding the loop as soon as he was off training wheels. Papa Squid is also a major cyclist -- the 6 mile loop is nothing to him.

We did the loop from 96th street (west side) to 102nd (east side) as two pairs -- Papa Squid and Squidette and Mama Squid with Little Squid. We tend to pair up this way because Mama has a bit more patience with Little's slower pace. Periodically, Papa and Squidette would stop and wait for us and then at 102nd street we really split with Papa and Squidette taking the Great Hill and Mama and Little Squid taking the shortcut. We were supposed to meet at 96th Street but Little and Mama blew past it and exited at 91st street, riding Central Park West back to 96th. Before we knew it, Papa and Squidette were coming toward us from downtown -- when they did not see us waiting in the Park they continued down to 91st and followed us uptown. Great minds think alike. We then persuaded the kids to ride downtown through the park to 57th Street where we walked to 57th and rode back to the Hudson River and home.

We all had a great time and the smaller squid felt a huge sense of accomplishment. The best line of the day: Mama to Little "you can do it!" Little in response (in a "silly mommy of course I can" tone) "I'm doing it." O.k, it does not translate well in to print but it was funny.

Later, I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the playground and the response I got was along the lines of "leave us alone, we're tired!"

Total mileage: 17 miles (a bit more for Squidette and Papa Squid)

Tomorrow Mama Squid is off to Orlando, Florida for the GE / Brandeis College Bound conference -- and some time at the theme parks before the conference starts on Wednesday. The blog will probably be on hiatus until some time on Saturday -- after a bike ride, of course!

I am in a panic as to how much and what kind of knitting to pack. I just wound a ball of dye-o-rama reject yarn for another pair of "plain" sockettes if I finish the Leaf Edged ones. I think that the Leaf Edged sockettes (now on the all stockinette foot) and the Child's Sock should be my plane knitting but CeCe is calling out to fly in the cabin instead of as luggage. And what if my luggage gets lost? CeCe is being knit out of my precious hand spun yarn ...

1 comment:

Ann said...

Have a terrific time at the concert and with your extra days. Take lots of photos to share.

Ann