• Overseas,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    New York: Dinosaurs, Trains, and Harry Potter

    Over spring break back in March Neil had two very different weeks. On the first week he attended a nature camp in Pacific Spirit Park. It was a very wet week to be outdoors all day, including biking there and back but he still had a great time. On the second week we flew to New York.  New York, New York! It’s been over three years since I had last been to New York, but Neil kept asking me to take him. He still remembers that I took Kai when he was only two months old and he stayed home with Gili. Ever since then we talked about one day…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Metro Vancouver & North Shore,  Sea to Sky,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    Bike Parks in Vancouver and Nearby

    Our kids love going to our local bike park (Vanier Park) so in the fall we decided to explore a a few more bike parks in metro Vancouver (and Squamish). Both kids love this activity and never seem to get enough of it. We love it too, it’s fun, free and gets the kids to be active and tired (which is our goal at the end of the day). There is also an element of risk taking and risk management that is so important for kids. If possible we also try to combine it with a longer bike ride, so that we get some exercise too.  We have a (now)…

  • Random Thoughts,  Urban

    COVID-19 Days, Not So Bad, After All?!

    Biking through old growth forest in absolute silence, not a car in sight. Stopping to pick salmonberries, arranged like gems in my hand, bright orange, yellow, red. Young kids and seniors (and the rest of us) biking right on the road, no worries of being run over by a car. Grinding up to Prospect Point to an awesome view of Lion’s Gate Bridge from above, and then zooming down the hill to Third Beach and downtown. This is Stanley Park in the time of COVID-19 – it has been closed to cars almost completely for three months or so, and it ain’t so bad! I feel only slightly guilty writing…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Metro Vancouver & North Shore,  Random Thoughts,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    Keeping Sane by Biking During COVID-19

    We were sitting down for lunch the other day and Neil suddenly said “we still haven’t ridden our bikes today!” That needed to be fixed so we got ready and went on a bike ride. Yes, that’s what we’ve been doing lately, a lot of bike riding. People ask us how we manage during this time with two young children at home, and in a way I feel like we’re doing just fine, and a lot of it is thanks to our bikes. The beginning wasn’t easy. It started with canceling our two week trip to Israel to see our family, a trip that everyone was looking forward to. So…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Travel,  Urban

    How to Pack Your Haul a Day in Two Regular Sized Boxes

    Recently we bought a Bike Friday Haul a Day cargo bike and cycle toured with it in Greece for five weeks. We flew with United Airlines, which wanted to charge us $200 per bike, per direction. I knew that the Haul a Day frame can be dismantled, so I was curious if our bike could fit into two regular boxes or suitcases. This would allow us to avoid the outrageous bike fees. When we ordered our bike from Bike Friday, I asked them if they could ship it to us in two regular sized boxes. As I have experienced in the past, they make an effort to help their customers…

  • British Columbia (and nearby),  Overseas,  Random Thoughts,  Travel,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    2018: Recap of a “Peak Year”

    I have a theory that every few years you have what I call a “peak year”. Most recently I would say that 2013 was a peak year for us in which we crossed Central America on our bikes and then started our lives back in Vancouver. Next up, 2015 was definitely one with Neil being born, the start of Kids on Wheels, moving into the co-op and then our three month cycling trip in South Korea and Japan with baby Neil. Most recently I realized that 2018 is getting up there among the “peak years”. Although we didn’t do any “big trips” this year, the shorter ones we did were…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids,  Urban,  Vancouver Island

    Victoria: A Three Year Old Pedaling the Bike Trails

    Spring seemed to finally arrive to Vancouver just on the week before this trip, but alas on Saturday morning we woke up to rain. We contemplated what to do, not too excited about a whole day of riding in the rain. In the end we decided that it would be an important lesson for Neil, not to cancel the trip because of the rain… Neil started riding his own pedal bike about a month and a half before this trip, and we wanted to see how far he’d be able to ride on his own. A few days earlier Gili bought a trail-gator, a pole that connects a child’s bike…

  • Crosscountry Skiing,  Downhill Skiing,  Metro Vancouver & North Shore,  Random Thoughts,  Sea to Sky,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    Activities with an Active Toddler with a Toddler’s Fracture

    December brought some extra challenges into our lives. It happened on December 2nd, when Gili took Neil skiing on their second day of the season. Neil was excited about skiing and was keen to go. I wasn’t able to go with them and was home when they returned. It seemed odd to me that Gili was carrying Neil to give me a hug and then he told me that Neil had injured himself and can’t put weight on his leg. I would never have guessed, since Neil seemed to be in a good mood… Since it was a few hours since the fall and he still couldn’t put weight on…

  • Trips with Kids,  Urban,  Western USA

    Seattle: An Unexpected First Taste of Winter

    We decided to head over to Seattle on the first weekend of November. Friends from Israel moved there for a one year sabbatical and we arranged, very last minute, to stay with them for one night. Last minute usually works perfectly for Israelis.  We didn’t have big plans for the weekend, just some relaxing, but then another thing worked out. Our apartment was due for a floor replacement and we were told that they could do it on that weekend – perfect. On Friday night we moved all our furniture out of the living room, and on Saturday morning greeted the two guys from the flooring company and off we…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Metro Vancouver & North Shore,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    Steveston: Along the Arbutus Greenway and the Dike

    The ride to Steveston is one of our favourite local rides, but it just got a whole lot better. Now, with the new Arbutus Greenway we can leave our place and to ride all the way to Steveston, 25 km away, almost all on designated bikeways, aside from a short section in Richmond. It’s been a while since our last ride there, and so we decided to make it into a day trip, which was also good preparation for our longer cycling trip starting the weekend after. Neil also enjoyed riding a long section of the Arbutus Greenway. The opening of this Greenway is one of the best things that…