Back in the saddle

Colin and I used to be avid cyclists. Two or three times a week, we used to head out for rides of fairly significant length- 25km, 40km, sometimes even 60km on a weekend. We loved it. Our favourite ride was always Friday evening after work. We'd get home, get changed, grab a bottle of wine and head up the Iron Horse Trail (a great rails to trails conversion in our city). First stop would be Vincenzo's, for gourmet sandwiches and other treats. Then we'd bike up to Columbia Lake and have a picnic. Kind of romantic, and a nice way to end the week.

Then, along came Ethan, and the romance died....well, not really, but it did put a bit of a kink in our bike rides. The first year, he was too tiny to fit in a bike seat or even in a trailer, and frankly, we were too tired to even contemplate dusting the bikes off. Year two, we bought a bike seat and went out a couple of times. Ethan seemed to enjoy it but only for 30 minutes or so. And still, we were tired and unmotivated, or maybe just old! Last year, he was too big for the seat and we invested in a bike trailer. Now that he's 3, he's really into it. Today was a beautiful day, and we did a big ride, for the first time in 4 years, and we both have the sore butts to prove it! But, it was great and we're so glad we did it.

We headed out this morning, sans wine of course, and followed the Iron Horse Trail up to Waterloo Park and beyond to the Laurel Trail, eventually looping around for a brief stop at Columbia Lake (where Canada Day festivities were just beginning) and then Waterloo Park (where we had to visit the zoo and the playground). We were happy to see that recent development hadn't obliterated our favourite part of the Laurel Trail- the part that winds through the farm fields.

Ethan loved it and was content to sit, greet other cyclists and walkers, and generally urge his dad to go faster, for a good 2-3 hours. Now we can't wait to plan some more trips.....