Gowanus Expressway into Brooklyn

  We had crossed the Pulaski Bridge and were cruising right along. There were really great connections through Queens and Brooklyn until we got caught up in traffic on the Gowanus Expressway. There were a few cycling crashes which caused quite a backup. It was sort of sad and also ironic, the vehicular traffic in the other direction was crawling along too and folks in their cars were taking pictures of us.
  A lot of the time we were clear sailing though. At times, we were cooking along and pulling out my little point and shoot camera was a little ominous. Then you have Kevin with his Nikon having no problems using his camera to click like crazy.
  Susan and Kevin are making good time as we head towards Staten Island. THe next roadway is Interstate 278 which you can see on the right hand sign.
 

The last photo is a family and I thought about Abby and Amelia and bringing them on this ride. Susan has concerns about safety, but I think it would be okay. Maybe when they are a little older.

Manhattan from Queens

 
This is the sort of picture that we made the trip for! What a view of the Big Apple. ON bikes no less!

Susan on the Queensboro Bridge

 
I wish this would have come out a little sharper, because I can't recall a picture when Susan looked like she was having this much fun! I snapped another before that and the second one came out like this.

Bike Traffic on the Queensboro Bridge

I thought this was a bike ride, not a walk!   Recreational bike rides would be a great opportunity to research the riding styles of various populations. There are some pretty terrific lapses of attention to detail when you think about the merging and when you think about it cycling requires quite an amazing array of human characteristics of balance for carrying it out.
  Stopping on the bridge did give us a good chance to get some fun photos of the group and the people stacked on the bridge. It seemed like we were making good time except for these little delays that occurred all too often. We were 2 1/2 hours into the ride and 14 miles complete. I guess that isn't too good after all, but what do you expect with all the rest areas and traffic :)
 

Upper Eastside Freeway Riding

  We were cruising down the road on our way to the QueensBoro Bridge and the rest stop fueled us up with Larabars and Snapple20, the best stuff in NYC. At this point, it seemed like we were going to get away without rain on us as they had predicted clearing up throughout the day.
  I guess all those positive sun thoughts had worked.
 

Third Avenue Bridge

 
 
Leaving the Bronx quickly on the Third Avenue Bridge, about 10 miles into the ride and the legs are just starting to get warmed up!

Madison Avenue Bridge

 

At about Mile 9, we crossed our first bridge which crossed us into the Bronx. Our stay in the Bronx would be short, I was happy to be free from Yankee territory (being a Red Sox Fan!).

  We pulled into Central Park just before 9:00 AM and right before had just come out of a big bike jam as we entered the park. With all group rides, it is impossible to stop and start the group and expect to have any ability to limit delays. The stops and starts are exacerbated by clipless pedals that folks seem to latch into even when they should'nt.
  Susan looks confident as she cruises in the pack. We lost Kevin and Heather at the intersection, or at least we thought we did. We caught up to them at the first rest stop in Harlem.
 

Five Boro Ride, 8:26 AM

 
We were making okay time as we kept on 6th Ave at 31st Street. The bicycle signal on the left wasn't all that important to the mass of cyclists cruising the street this morning. The buildings make our group look small, but we overwhelmed the streets.

Five Boro Ride, 8:01:40 AM

 
We started our 42-mile ride through New York City's boroughs walking behind the mass of people huddled on 6th Ave. It was an awesome site. The morning was cold and misty with thick fog that is common in New York. The chance of rain was 40%, so we thought we were going to get wet, little did we know what an awesome day there was in store for us!

Five Boro Ride 2008

The website for the ride has a great interactive map. I will make my own with all the photos that we took along the way.

http://www.bikenewyork.org/rides/fbbt/interactive_tour/map.html

080503 New York Trip - Look no Bikes!

 We visited New York City with friends Kevin and Heather. They were great travelling companions, it seemed they got tired as we got tired and they did not want to stay out all night either. I wasn't sure if us older folks could keep up with the newlyweds, but we did quite well. We did a lot of walking throughout the few days including walking from around City Hall in Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge over to Grimaldi's pizza. There was a 35-minute wait for pizza. The pizza pies were good, but not that good. Brooklyn's downtown was a little sleepy on Saturday, I guess sort of like the financial district across the river on the weekends.
  Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, we had a nice stop for photo opportunities and Kevin kept clicking with his camera. All told, I think I got about half as many photos as he did, he had a lot of fun and I look forward to getting his pictures.
 
Susan arrived late (originally at 3:45), so getting into downtown was a little tricky with all the commute traffic, but it worked out okay. We raced over to the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for the pay-what-you-wish Friday. We got there at 7 after taking a cab through central park, which only allowed us about 30 minutes. Luckily that was all we needed as the exhibit was a bit odd and while it was good, I am glad we didn't pay the full pice admission of $18.

On Saturday - we went down to get our bikes and then we biked up the Hudson River waterfront path which was great. We then took the subway so we could walk through Chinatown and over to the Brooklyn Bridge and the South Street Seaport which encompasses a cobblestoned historic district.

After lunch we made our way to the the Brooklyn Museum of Art which was free 5–11pm the first Saturday of every month.

Sunday
The RIDE!
Monday

Eat somewhere for brunch (we found a good place that's open on Monday near the bike shop, so we biked down to return the bikes and then ate a breakfast).

We tried to stop by the Empire State Building, but the line was longer than we wanted to wait, so we ended up walking through Central Park back to the hotel so we could take the Subway up to Penn Station for Train to Newark Airport.

 

Amelia wants her Sesame Street Workshop

 

Amelia is becoming a computer hog. She is constantly asking to play on Susan's laptop in the kitchen. Is it better than television because it is somewhat interactive?

Planning for Summer Fun

Amelia said this morning: I am going to get my blue bag, I will be right back.
She is really putting some great words together into sentences.

Abby was at grandma and grandpa's this weekend and had a good time.

*******
We did the math and figured out that we need one more week in the summer to fit everything in. So we're going to Bend on the week of July 21st and missing out on a preschool class with the neighbor kids Katie and Dorie. We're on the waitlist for the Pirates class... Arrrrrgh!

We did register for the summer preschool at the Community Center during the week of 7/28 and 8/11 and in swimming lessons at 1220 pm during the 2nd and 4th sessions. On the last week in August we're headed down to Reedsport to go see the Wildlife Safari in Winston and Coos Bay. I have never been down there. I was sort of hoping to hit Baker City, maybe Susan and I will do that ourselves...

Breakfast with the Hugharts at Fat City

 
We enjoyed breakfast this morning with the Hugharts. It had been a long time since we had gotten together with members of the Breakfast Club for Bfast. Peter had been in Baltimore to hang out with Kevin & Heather, but no breakfast there!
Karen is expecting their first, so she had her share of questions about baby stuff. Susan enjoys giving advice as a professional on the subject.
 
The breakfast we pretty good, although Mia's (my side order) of pancakes were wickidly cold. Susan had a "Benny" that was pretty good (Eggs Benedict) and I had a Fat City Omelete.
 
 

Amelia gets her Cake and eats it too!

  We celebrated a belated birthday because many of us were sick on the actual day. It turned out to be a stroke of luck when the following weekend we had one of the nicest days weatherwise that we've had in 2008! It was very pleasant and the party turned outside to the backyard to a messy patio that hasn't really seen much devoted care.
  Amelia loved her cake and did a fine job of jumping right into it as you can see. She even reached for the remainder of the cake as Susan was cutting it. She got a lot of lady bug themed gifts and Debra went a little crazy getting the girls these great wood toys that flapped their wings. The kids really enjoyed those.

In the background, Dakota plays badmitton with the older boys that were there, including Grandpa Koonce who is always game to play with kids of all ages.
 

Nana and Grandma Chris enjoyed the day, Nana was happy to have such a successful cake (as always).

Amelia's Birthday

 Amelia enjoyed everything lady bugs and Nana made two wonderful dresses that included lady bugs! Amelia had to put them on as soon as she could. She wouldn't wait and was very persistent, so since it was her birthday we felt inclined to oblige.
  One of Mia's favorite people in the whole world is Emma. She enjoys the special times she has had with Emma while Mommy is out shopping at Trader Joe's. I think she likes showing Jack how to do things since she is just a touch older and she knows that Emma is Jack's Mommy.
 
Abby lead the kids in finding animals in a block of ice that Susan made. All of the kids enjoyed the various activities that Susan had planned for them including the frozen animals in various layers of a yogurt container that were attacked with water that would help the ice melt. It took awhile for them to decide that enough was enough and that they could do a quicker job by taking the ice out and smashing it on the patio.
 

Amelia's cake was a work of art and it tasted great too. Nana always makes such creative cakes, we're pretty lucky to have such an artist to construct whatever the girls ask for. Abby asked for a Dragon, so that should be interesting. So much for those standard old cakes that you can buy a form for!

New Year's Day 2007

Sitting at home with the kids. It is a cold crisp day outside and dry, which appears to be a rare thing for this week. Susan felt like a little headache was coming on, so she is up in bed. The kids are eating a little snack and enjoying coloring and snacking in the New Year. Sheila just called and they are on their way back home from the beach after celebrating their anniversary. A rare day off for me and I am enjoying the holiday a little by reviewing the ITE Traffic Signal Operations Specialists Certification Program Refresher Course.

Susan and I called it a night shortly before midnight. There were fireworks from downtown? last night or some of the neighborhood folks that hept us past 12.

We were going to participate in the Bike Gallery New Year's Day ride, but with Susan not fully up to speed and us recovering from being sick and my taking antibiotics, well I guess we can wait to try out the new bike windscreen we got for Mia.

It is great to watch Amelia emulate Abby in many ways. Abby knows it now and starts to do things like kick the table and then Amelia is Monkey See Monkey do, which can be very good and also a bit challenging. I am listening to some of the best songs of 2007 from NPR. Well, the early football Bowl games are nearing completion, so I had better go check to find out if I am still leading the Pool.

070812 Bridge Pedal

What a great annual tradition! The Providence Bridge Pedal is one of my favorite Portland events. We rode with Dad and Chris and had an awesome time. One of my favorite memories will be Abby on top of the Fremont Bridge saying that she wanted to be finished with the ride. We coaxed her to continue by offering rubber snakes and ice cream. When we asked what flavor she wanted she said in a very emphatic way.... Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I don't think I knew that she had ever had that before, so that was a bit of a surprise.

I was actually on the news because James was filming at the start line where the Bite is in progress and he was working with a cook to get people to come down to the Waterfront Park that afternoon for lunch or dinner. It is also the end of the ride.

We made 15 miles on the day which was pretty good for both kids.

A funny highlight was meeting Dave from Dave's Killer Bread... we love that bread.

http://picasaweb.google.com/peter.koonce/070812BridgePedal?authkey=tfbRK0rgpOw