So we had passed this park about 3 times and it looked perfect for our family to go biking in. Most of the paths looked flat and although it didn't look very shady, we were headed into fall and the need for shade was no longer as strong as it was a couple of months back. So finally we decided to go! While my husband got our bikes prepped (it had been a while since we had been biking), I got a lunch together for us.
We aren't very good about leaving much before lunch so by the time we get to where we're going, we're usually ready to eat. So while I made sandwiches and ants on a log, my husband pumped up tires, adjusted seats and got the bike rack on the Trailblazer. Finally, we were off. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at our destination, pulled into the parking lot and payed the $4 parking fee. We found a nice table under a tree nearby and sat down to feast on PB & J, Capri Sun and raspberries. After a few minutes my husband asked me if I had remembered our son's bike helmet....."No." I said. I then asked him if he had remembered HIS bike helmet. He said "No." I didn't think much of it since the paths seemed flat and I didn't think we'd be doing anything death defying. So we finished our lunch and headed back to the car to get on our bikes! My husband gets his and my bike off the rack, gets my son's bike out of the back and starts to set up the bike trailer for the girls. Easy enough if you don't have three super antsy kids waiting to get going, in a parking lot no less where I am trying to keep them from getting run over. As he's getting the trailer hooked up to his bike, he asks me if we have the pin to connect it to the bike.....??? "Isn't it on there?" I ask him? Apparently not. So after a few fruitless attempts of trying to figure out how we can keep the bike trailer connected to the bike, we come to grips with the fact that after all this, we're not going biking after all! Seriously, sometimes its like the harder you try, the more fruitless your attempts turn out to be. ugh!!!!!!
We then spent the next few minutes convincing the kids that walking will actually be better than biking! They didn't believe us at first but you know, we saw a lot more walking I think than we would have biking. At the first bridge the kids of course had to look at the creek and of course there were fish! My son is an avid fisherman and has declared in the past that he wants to be a "fish taker" when he grows up. So of course the fish fascinated him.
We kept walking and after a few minutes, saw a couple of deer grazing under the shade of a huge tree! I'm pretty sure we would have speeded past them on our bikes and not even noticed they were there.
What we saw next was really cool. We kept hearing a the rap, rap, rap of a woodpecker. It took us a few minutes, but we finally found him pecking away at a tree covered in holes. It was so cool to see his resplendent red head. Our two oldest were able to glimpse him as well, but I think my two year old wasn't quite sure what she was looking at. Maybe in a couple more years.
On our way back, we decided to deviate from the paved path and take a dirt path along the creek. There were a couple of places where we heard a waterfall type sound, but couldn't actually see the water flowing over rocks because there were reeds that hid the creek. I know it sounds weird....
So about 2.5 hours later we were back at the parking lot. Totally exhausted, but glad to have spent such a glorious day outdoors. We will so go back this time with our bike helmets and pin for the bike trailer and maybe we'll be able to get deeper into the park!
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