Riding Around

At the end of August, Grandma and Grandpa Chickens paid a visit to us for about 10 days, and we went out and did some stuff, but mostly just relaxed. They wanted to check out the Orange County Great Park. 

So they rode the carousel and   

 finally got a ride on the hot air balloon (it's closed a lot). 

 Labor Day weekend, a friend watched our sleeping kids and we went to a concert there featuring a New Orleans-style Jazz band. It was pretty cool. I've decided I prefer outdoor concerts to indoor ones, they are not as loud. This time I rode the carousel too. 

Ben missed his bike while we were on vacation, and was back riding as soon as he could be. He rides with a group of guys who refer to themselves as "The Doughboys." It's mostly a middle-aged group of men who ride together for fun and fitness. On Saturdays, they'll do a long ride usually (30 miles or more), and stop somewhere to eat.

On a recent ride, they stopped at this breakfast joint up in Huntington Beach somewhere, and enjoyed a breakfast like this. You've got to replace those calories, right? 

In cycling, when you ride 100 miles in a day, it's called a century. Ben did his first two weeks ago. He was kind of nervous about it, and I wasn't sure how his body would hold up. It was a ride from the Irvine Amtrak station to the station in San Diego, 100 miles south.

Of course, for the first time in months, thunderstorms rolled in that morning. Some cyclers got pelted with penny-sized hail. Thankfully, Ben's group took off a little later, missed the hail and got only rain.

We drove down to San Diego in the early afternoon to meet him at the finish line, along PCH, near the Maritime Boat Museum in the harbor. Gordon got bored and was trying to wrestle Jilly. 

 Yay! He made it, and he was smiling. His group came in with the first few hundred riders. It took him a little less than 9 hours to complete the ride. The event organizers had 3 rest stops over the 100 miles. Ben wasn't very sore from this event, and had fun, so I see more of them in the future. 

We're all proud of Dad!  

 While Ben changed and got a massage (100 miles on a bike would make me stiff in places too), we crossed the street to check out the boats. The kids wanted to walk on and check them out, but time and money held us back. 

Afterwards, we found a Red Lobster to eat dinner at, with some giftcards we received from Grandma and Grandpa Chickens. 

This is how Gordon rides sometimes. He can ride Jilly's bike now,  so I'm needing to find a bigger bike for Evelyn and bump the younger two up a bike. They all enjoy riding bikes, just like Daddy!