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 even though we followed the news and anticipated what was going to happen it still hit us hard. Mainly when Neil’s daycare closed down with no return date in the foreseeable future. Community centres, ice rinks and pools have all closed. Ski season ended a month early, just when the mountain was covered in fresh powder and the days got sunnier and longer. Playgrounds became forbidden and soon enough a yellow or red tape was around all the infrastructure, other public spaces closed, as well as provincial parks. It felt like all the walls were closing in. We were told to stay home, or stay close to home. Luckily there was still one thing we could all do – ride our bikes. So I knew that as long as we’d be able to ride our bikes we’d be OK.

We are used to long bike touring trips, up to a few months long. We are used to being far away from friends and family (not to say that we don’t really miss them these days). After the first weekend of the new reality we almost felt like we were on a bike trip, just without the trip part. Early on I made a pact with myself. Not to plan. Live each day on its own. And just like on a bike trip – to take each day at a time.

It’s like each one of us found our happy place on the bike. Neil has endless energy. With no daycare, no playgrounds and no children his own age to play with, bike riding seemed like the best way to burn off his energy. So we’ve been doing lots of it. Long rides, short rides, all over Vancouver.

Kai luckily started riding his balance bike over two months ago, and now he is mastering gliding, and is completely obsessed. He is literally not willing to leave the house without his bike. We’ve been taking him out daily and now that all the flowers are out his favorite thing is to zoom around, making many stops to smell the flowers. In a way he reminds us all how good it is to slow down and smell the roses, or tulips or any other flowers, leaves or rocks he finds.

Gili was at first worried that perhaps he’d be doing less riding now that he doesn’t commute to work anymore. He loves working from home (despite all the challenges), but he missed the biking portion. Luckily we’ve been doing so much riding over the weekends and he takes the kids riding once a week by himself on a longer ride so I can get a couple of hours of quiet. He has also been doing all our grocery shopping with Big Bird (AKA our yellow Bike Friday cargo bike). One of the big advantages of grocery shopping with the cargo bike is that he can actually bring the bike in, loaded, right into our kitchen. Try to do that with a car 😉

As for me, I realized quickly that it would be almost impossible to put Kai down for his nap with Neil and Gili at home. So I started riding with him during his nap time. Some days I just walk with him, and try to run some errands when he naps, but most days I’m riding. I found very quiet routes and I have a few favorite loops that I do while he sleeps.

Then some really good things started to happen riding wise. Things we’ve been dreaming about for years like banning cars from Stanley Park and closing half of Beach Ave. to car traffic and opening it up for cyclists. Needless to say we’ve all ridden around Stanley Park a few times now since the car closure. First I went just with Kai during one of his naps. I was so amazed, I had to bring everyone so the week after we went all of us. The new route does involve more climbing so we weren’t sure how Neil would react. Of course he climbed it like a trooper and loved seeing the Lions Gate Bridge from all different angles. It feels so magical to ride in the ancient rain forest on a wide road with lots of room for other cyclists to pass without getting too close. Riding with views of the ocean at times and of the forest at others and after the long(ish) climb to Prospect Point and the dramatic views a fun descent right back to sea level. 

I learned so much from my kids during this time. Neil adapted fairly well despite all my worries. He loves his daycare, and after our long trip in Asia this fall all he was waiting for was going back to daycare and playing with his friends. Then one day he was going to daycare with 24 other children more or less his own age and the next day his only playmate is his 16 month old brother… But they magically get along very well and being with the two of them together wasn’t so hard for me as I first expected. They keep each other busy and entertained and always find somewhere to climb or something to do.

At first I was worried – how would I ever be able to take them out like this? We live in a great area with about five playgrounds within short walking distance. At any other time this would be a huge advantage. But now? Wouldn’t they just want to go to the playgrounds that are off limits? I quickly discovered that no, they were totally fine with the fact that playgrounds were closed and it just gave them opportunities to find other things to play with, climbing trees, drawing with chalk, climbing other structures, playing with mud, jumping into puddles, riding through puddles, and running around.

We are re-discovering our neighbourhood and our city. I always knew Vancouver is a green city, but only now did I realize how much it’s true. There’s so much green space around us. On our bike rides I am amazed how many huge green public lawns we pass. So much room for everyone while still keeping social distancing (or physical distancing as I prefer to call it). Now almost two months into this we watched the season change from winter to spring and almost summer. We’ve enjoyed the beautiful cherry blossom covered streets, sometimes riding in a tunnel of pink trees.

So where have we been in these odd times that we were told to stay home and stay put? We almost haven’t left the city, the city that we’ve been living in for 13 years now and yet we discovered or rediscovered so many places new and old. We rode to:

Fraser River Park – A huge park just at the end of the Arbutus Greenway.  There is so much space there. It’s right on the Fraser River and it’s great for boat spotting and plane spotting (although these days there are less of the latter). It can also get windy so it’s great for flying our kite, but still has wind-protected spots for a picnic, with a view of the river.

Along the Fraser River – We rode south east almost till Boundary Road and found nice trails by the Fraser River.

Ambleside Beach – One of the very few times we actually “left” the city in the last few weeks. Ambleside Beach is just on the other side of the Lions Gate Bridge in West Vancouver. In normal times there is also an awesome playground and a water park there, but these days the beach was just perfect.

UBC via the beach – We rode to UBC via the beach, but we didn’t stop as Kai was sleeping. The campus was basically empty so pretty much perfect right now.

Kits Beach – A very short ride from home, but we usually meet there after I’m done with a longer bike ride with Kai. Lately we’ve been going there on Friday evenings and having a take out dinner on the beach (usually from Thai Basil just across the road). Such a nice way to start the weekend.

Granville Island – Who knew there are trees to climb and weird structures to explore on the now deserted Granville Island and of course the fun water park to ride around.

Steveston – That was our longest ride recently (around 50km) and we were happy to discover that Pajo’s, the fish n’ chips booth at Garry Point, was open for take outs. We rode there via the Railway Trail and back along the dyke. Both weren’t very busy. In Steveston we also found the perfect wind for more kite flying, a great activity for physical distancing.

Trout Lake – I was hesitant about our trip to Trout Lake, since it was on the long weekend and were worried it would be too busy. But with the closure of the parking lots around community centres we were almost by ourselves on the south beach, overlooking the snow capped North Shore mountains.

Queen Elizabeth Park – Even in QE Park we found a big piece of lawn with no one around (except for a few geese). We overlooked the gardens from above and the kids loved smelling the flowers, but we skipped going down the narrow trails. The views from QE Park cannot be beat.

Central Park in Burnaby – The plan was to ride there and have a picnic, a place we’ve never been to before (or so we think), but the kids got hungry on the way and we realized that we should probably eat and let Kai nap. So we stopped at a random park in South Vancouver and had a picnic on the big lawn there just in the middle of the running track. It reminded us a lot of our many nights camping at elementary schools in Taiwan. Then we rode to Central Park but didn’t stop there (Kai was asleep). We were in Burnaby for about two minutes, and we joked about how good it felt to “get out of the city”.

Stanley Park – As mentioned we’ve ridden the new route around Stanley Park a few times. The first time we went with Neil we stopped at Kits Point on the way back and tried to fly our kite. The wind was not predictable so it didn’t fly very well. Instead Neil entertained us by doing flip flops. He clearly still had energy after riding over 20km and climbing to Prospect Point by himself.

New Brighton Beach – Another hidden gem we haven’t been to before. The area is a bit industrial but the views from the beach were still nice and gave Neil and Kai an opportunity to play at the beach, throw rocks into the water and explore. Nature is still around us even in the city. 

Pacific Spirit Park & Spanish Banks 
The huge forest by UBC used to be a favourite of ours when we lived on campus. Now we don’t get there very often, but when we do it feels like a different world. It is so disconnected from the city and there are so many trails to explore and tall trees to look at. Neil loved riding those trails even on his balance bike as a toddler and he had a blast riding them now on his pedal bike. On the way back we stopped at Spanish Banks where the kids got to explore a lot of seaweed (it was low tide) and to ride through the empty parking lots and especially riding into every puddle on the way.