A Mini-Guidebook to Cycle Touring with a Baby/Toddler
Recently a few people asked us about cycle touring in general and more specifically about cycle touring with a baby. Since the questions keep piling up we figured we’d put together a blog post about our recent experiences of cycle touring with our son Neil. Neil turned two in February and we have cycled with him in four overseas countries and have also done some short trips close to home, in British Columbia, and the nearby Washington state. Every time we go on a cycling trip with him we are amazed by how easy it is, and even though the worries keep on building up before the trip, once we start…
New Zealand: Cycling the Wild Far North
Some people know how to take a vacation. They book a week or ten days in a resort or a hotel, spend some time on the beach, eat well and have a good time. Or they travel in style to Europe, hopping between ten cities in ten days, seeing all the important sights. For some reason we are not those people. Some years ago we became addicted to cycle touring, and having a kid hasn’t seemed to change it so far. There is something about travelling slow and into the unknown that just appeals to us. So I guess when we chose New Zealand as our winter travel destination we…
Victoria: A Wet Ride and a Warm Stay
On the last weekend in November, literally hours before selling our car, we headed to Victoria for the weekend. Of course, the car only served us to reach Tsawwassen – from there we were on our bikes, as usual. We had about 7 km to ride to the ferry terminal and our mission was to keep Neil awake so he would fall asleep on the other side. That included leaving his trailer open and it was very cold. He wasn’t the happiest camper, but once we arrived to the Kids Zone on the ferry everything was better again. Those Kids Zones have proved themselves to be very useful. After getting…
Family Cycling Journey to Brittany, France (Video)
In September 2016 we set off on a three week cycling trip in France with our 18 months old toddler and his balance bike. We explored Brittany from the capital Rennes along canals and greenways to Roscoff and then along the north coast to Brest. We all had an amazing time and enjoyed the French cuisine and wonderful bakeries.
Seattle: Post Election Weekend of Urban Cycling Exploration
It was a stressful week with the US elections taking over everything and everywhere. For some reason, not in my worst nightmares, did I ever think Donald Trump would become the next president. I followed the elections a little bit (because how could you not), and after the second debate I just decided that there was no way this bully was going to win. I guess I am still an optimist inside, but sometimes you just fall on your face. We still decided to go ahead with our plans to go to Seattle for the long weekend. So the atmosphere on the streets wouldn’t be as cheerful as we hoped, but…
France: Cycling in the Place Where You Can’t Go Wrong
We heard from several people that “you can’t go wrong” when going to France. However it seemed that in the beginning everything was going wrong. We arrived early in the morning to Paris after hardly getting any sleep on the flight. The flight was long but went well. We had an extra seat for Neil so it was a lot easier than to hold him on our lap the whole time. I discovered a while ago (or rather, he discovered) that stickers keep him busy for a long time, so I bought a dollar store worth of stickers to take with us on the flight. I think that by the…
Pacific Spirit Ride: Balance Bike in the Forest (Video)
Back in August we took Neil for a ride in Pacific Spirit Park. He is getting quite good on his balance bike, but it was his first ride in the forest and he had a great time. I created a short clip of the ride.
Yellow Aster Butte: 24 Hours Car-to-Car
Sometimes everything goes smoothly. After a few ordeals on trips this summer, this is not something to be taken for granted. After we got our car back from the mechanic in Whistler, we both felt it was time for a weekend hike, and we decided on Yellow Aster Butte, a place we had been to a few years ago. We left Vancouver pretty late, ensuring that we all got a good night’s sleep. There was a lot of traffic, a bit of a wait at the border and then we took a long break at the ranger station in Glacier to pick up a parking permit and blue bags (to collect our poo).…
BC Day ‘Short’ Weekend (Mis)adventures
Our car is a weekend warrior, pretty much like us these days. We don’t use it at all during the week since we get around by bike or by walking, but on weekends, especially in summer, we put it to good use mostly to get out of the city. I don’t think we had any problems with it in the five years we owned our old beat-up Subaru Legacy, but on the previous long weekend one of the rear tires blew out. In fact, the long weekend before that we also weren’t off to a good start as Neil threw up all over himself ten minutes after we left home and we almost…
Welch Peak: Uncomfortably Numb
We had spent the last few hours scrambling along a narrow ridge. The rock was rotten, every boulder seemingly just waiting for one of us to free it, such that it could roll down the mountain side. Every now and then we came across a snowy section, where we took out our ice axes, which we hoped would allow us to arrest a fall. I was tense and nervous. Images of my friends who had been hurt or died in the mountains in the last few years were haunting me. I noticed my stress levels rising, and took a few deep breaths. Why was I here, in this place where…
