Memorable ride on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, my family got together at my brother's house an awesome BBQ dinner. And do you know the best way to work off fab food like Teriyaki Burgers, baked beans, and punch? Go for a family bike ride.

So Emma and Ellie (nieces), Bri (sis), Adam (bro-in-law), and lil' Maggie (niece)--remember our fist bike ride together?!--grabbed our bikes and hit the Legacy Parkway trail right behind my brother's house. Mother Nature was nice enough to provide a cool breeze and beautiful lighting courtesy of the sunset.

Our merry band of misfits

Acting natural as I take a gazillion photos.

Stopping to smell the horses

Me and my shadow

Ellie and the mountains

Maggie and her boomerang. Why a boomerang? The girl wants what she wants. 

Bri rocking the pink stripes

Ellie and her trusty steed. She loves her bike. Even her shirt says so.

"J'aime ma Bicyclette." Guess who bought her that shirt?

Thumbs up from Emma

Emma heading home

An honest to goodness panda shot on Libby

And of course, Adam had to show off his mad bike skillz. Who would let a baby carrier slow them down? Not Adam.

So yeah, a great Memorial day. Because there's just something extra memorable when you can ride bikes with some of your most favorite people.

One happy aunt!

PS--Tomorrow is the Little Red Riding Hood ride. Wow, that came up fast. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I will be sure to post all about the ride in the next few days. In the meantime, wish me luck!

Critical Mass for Bicycle Month

So I seem to be a Group Ride Groupie lately. To celebrate Bike Month and to honor fallen cyclists, SaltCycle organized a special edition of their Critical Mass ride (there's one every month). And since I had such a great experience at the Tweed Ride, I decided to give this one a go.

Hi Felix!

So after Felix, a few hundred cyclists, and I gathered, we all hit the roads of SLC.

Overall, I found it to be a respectful ride--just loads of bicyclists sharing the road with cars as nature intended. It really was a lovely night to be a bicyclist in Salt Lake City.

Tweedy Birds

So I feel the obligation to make note of my sporadic blogging of late. Do I have a good excuse? Not really. I think I just needed to take a little breather. But I think the break has been broken and I will be back around these parts more often.

On May 12, Salt Lake City had their first tweed ride. And you can bet your sweet bippy that Adelaide and I were there. Don't worry, Betty Foy wasn't left home to sulk, my BFF Jaimi rode her to the event. So I had all my favorite girls there.

Photo by Andrew Smith

And then more fabulous friends arrived. First off, Felix...

Photo by Andrew Smith

And Brooks and his dapper boys...

Photo by Felix

Photo by Me

And new friends from SaltCycle.org...

Photo by Zachary Pina

Photo by Andrew Smith

Then came the most important part of the evening, the ride. About 60 of us hit the streets of downtown SLC as fabulous Tweedy Bike Brigade.

Photo by Andrew Smith

Photo by Andrew Smith

Photo by Me

Photo by Me

Photo by Felix

Photo by Me

Photo by Felix

Photo by Felix

We definitely caused a stir downtown. People did not know what to make of us. But they got out their camera phones to record this Old Fashioned Bike Flash Mob and we just rang our bells. 

All in all, it was a grand ole time full of fashion, friends, and of course, bicycles. Looking forward to when the Tweed-ites hit the streets of SLC again. 

Photo by Felix

Photo by Felix

Oh, and PS...I may have won the best-dressed lady award.

Photo by Felix

Just may have.

Many thanks to SaltCycle.org for hosting one lovely event. See you in the fall.

Most pictures in this post are taken from the Tweed Ride flickr set created by saltcycle.org. Attribution of the photographer is acknowledge below the photo. I do not own those images.

She stitched it again.

So you might remember my mom, the wonder stitcher, and the gorgeous Paris pillow she stitched for me. Well, she has done it again! This time to commemorate our girls' trip to NYC last fall.

How amazing is this? This is better than any souvenir you could ever buy.

And as she did with the Paris pillow, she included many little personalized details, like the plays we saw, the apartment we stayed at, and the places we shopped.

Just relish in the amazing details...

Oh, what an amazing trip it was and now I have this pillow full of its memories. But there's one thing I don't need a pillow of to remind me: that my mom is my hero.

I am officially a marathoner (on a bike)

Saturday was Salt Lake's Marathon. As we know, one of the great (or annoying, depending on where you're standing) things about the marathon is that the 26.2 mile course consists of city streets that have been closed to car traffic.

What's even better is that before they release the runners, they let the bicycles have a go. Car-free streets? Bicycles ruling the road? I am so there!

So sporty, have a number and everything.

So my friend Heidi and I got up for the oh so early start time of 6am. In fact, it was so early for Heidi, that she could not manage to put on matching footwear. (Don't worry, she had her appropriate and matching shoes to clip into her pedals.)

Heidi realizes she is a mess on the train. 

Excitement or nerves or tiredness?

We started from my place, road a couple of blocks on our bikes to a trax stop and took the train up the hill to the University of Utah. This was great because it dropped us right off at the starting line. And when you have a starting line on a "bench," or foothill, the first bit of the ride is all down hill. Whee!

Starting line.

At first, things were a bit crowded. I felt a little claustrophobic as so many bikes zoomed by. If one cyclist fell down, it would have caused a massive domino effect. But eventually the paces were set and the bicyclists evened out.

During the ride, I kept thinking how cool this experience was. By removing cars from the situation, I was free to just enjoy the ride, soak in the sunrise, and experience new neighborhoods by bike. I sincerely loved it! I don't have any pics while on the ride, which I am a little bummed about, but stopping periodically to take pictures just didn't seem thing to do.

There were definitely some hills I had "moments" on, but you know what? Somehow I powered through and moved on. And that is a great feeling. Although there is was one at the mile 26 where I thought I might die. But I didn't. Instead I finished and got a cool medal.

The champs.

You know, sometimes the victories come in knowing you are not the worst. Heidi and I finished in about 1 hour and 45 minutes, averaging about 13 mph. Apparently were were solidly in the middle of the pack. I am very pleased with being average.

And one other thing...can I just say how nice it is to have a bikey friend? I have grown used to doing bike activities by myself. But since Heidi and her sister, Haley, have signed up to do the Little Red ride with me, we have been training and going on rides together. Not only does it push me, but it does make rides super enjoyable. So thank you, Heidi! It is nice to being able to experience this ride with a friend. Especially one that I have known my whole life and like a whole lot. 

Heidi is awesome. That is all.