This Post is Actually About Bikes and Playgrounds

This evening, we did something we didn't do much this summer: we hopped on our bikes and went to a playground. Sure, the eldest child was whining about leaving, about being drug out of the house on a beautiful fall afternoon to get outside, but once he spotted the playground, his mood improved.

We headed for Park Place:

No trailers, no trail-a-bikes. The kids all want to ride their own bike these days, though that limits our range pretty significantly.

Park Place has a great spiderweb net to play with:

While the kids played on that, I chipped the dried mud off Henry's bike:

At Sam's soccer practice last week, Henry was practicing mud bogging in part of the field, and the mud had packed around his fork and brakes. When Henry asked what I was doing, and I told him, he said, "Oh, try to get the back too." There's gratitude for you.

No mud on my Cheviot, even without fenders:

The Cheviut rides quite well, but I'm just not warming up to the whole mixte frame thing. It doesn't match my world view of what a bike should look like.

While I pondered bikes, the kids played the monster game, with Henry hiding in a tight spot:

We packed up and left Park Place, and stopped at Wyndham Park on the way home. Kate made a beeline for the monkey bars, and Henry was right behind her:

From there, we had a quick ride home. We have to enjoy these days while we still can.