31 Aug, 2008
End-of-summer cram: a bike ride of unexpected proportions
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Ottawa for kids|Easy ways to make kids happy|Ottawa
This morning we thought it would be fun to check out the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday, for two main reasons: (1) it was the last one of the season and (2) we’ve never ever been, even though I’ve written about it, talked about it, and thought about it for YEARS.
Today was going to be the day.
We ate a small breakfast, laced up, and left. I grabbed a small backpack and stuffed my camera inside. At the last minute I decided to grab my wallet. My first thought wasn’t about cash, it was about the girl’s health cards. What if we had a wild wipeout and needed them? (Ha, such an optimist!)
As we biked towards Westboro Beach (at which point we’d access the Parkway) I wondered if we should have packed some water. Or a snack. Or a basic first aid kit. I dismissed the thought. What could possibly happen? We were only going to go for a short time! Just there and back! No biggie, right?
Well, I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that there was no horrific accident. In fact, it was gorgeous, see?
The bike ride, which was meant to be a short one, unexpectedly turned into an unplanned 20km (that’s over 12 mile) bike ride, which would have been fine, except for the fact that Sarah was struck by a sudden headache at the mid-way point near the War Museum. Here we are, after having taken a little detour to peek inside the window…Â
… but by this time I was cursing myself for not bringing some quick snacks and/or Tylenol.
A lack of water wasn’t an issue. There were quite a few strategically-placed water fountains along the route:
We hadn’t had a proper breakfast and the girls were running out of gas, fast. We stopped and bought them each a full-size chocolate bar… something hitherto unheard of in our family. (Seriously.) They didn’t know what to pick. I steered Sarah towards a Hershey bar with almonds. Emma chose Hershey with cookie bits.
The influx of sugar helped. Sarah’s headache disappeared and we made for home.
I still can’t believe we did 20km! We’ll have to do it again, this time, with a picnic lunch.
p.s. the route we took was eastward down the Ottawa River Parkway towards downtown, down the bike path past the locks by the Chateau Laurier, past the NAC, down the canal past Landsdowne, past Dow’s Lake, across Carling Ave, down Sherbourne Ave to the Byron pathway and home. Phew.
