10 days, 2 kids, 1 car trip = 2 miles

My plan for the month was no car trips for work and I'm having no trouble with that.  All my projected car miles were for weekend outings with the kids.  So on Friday night I tried to think if there was a good way to get two adults and two kids to our friends house 1 mile away for the evening without using the car.  My wife worries enough if I ride my bike alone at night, so taking the bike trailer with two little boys was not a good choice.  Taking the bus would involve walking about two thirds of the distance any way in addition to spending an unknown amount of time standing on a street corner with 4 and 6 year old boys who don't like to hold still for more than about 10 seconds at a time.  Walking would be an option except that the boys are often asleep by the time we head home and I've no desire to carry 100+ pounds for a mile.  I did that once with a dumbell set I bought.  The guy at the store was going to help me carry them to my car and thought I was nuts when I told him I just planned to put all the wieghts on the bars at once and carry them home on foot.  I did it the way I planned and survived the trip but don't have any desire to repeat the experience.  Besides, as my father always says "everything in moderation", so I had already budgeted for 2 miles by car every Friday to visit with our friends and a few miles on weekends for shopping trips or taking the boys to visit my parents.  So we loaded four people in the hybrid and used about 5/100th of a gallon of gas.

On Saturday I was ready to take the boys and run some errands, but decided to take the bike and trailer instead of driving as previously planned.  So I got the boys loaded up and off we went up over the hill and up Solano Avenue to the post office to pick up a package (train tickets for our upcoming trip).  Our next stop was to get gelato as a treat for the boys who tried hard not to drip or spill any when they crammed themselves back in the trailer to resume our trip up Solano.  Next stop was Solano Cyclery where they each picked out a bell for their bikes.  I probably made more stops than I ordinarily would because going slower gave me more opportunity to notice places I'd like to go, and finding parking for a bike is pretty easy on a street where car parking can sometime be a challenge.  Then we continued on to my parents where we had lunch and the boys stayed to play for a bit while I rode my bike home (without the trailer) to fill out some preschool paperwork before going back to my parents' to hook up the trailer and tow the boys home.  The bike trips were lots of fun and certainly good exercise since I work a lot harder towing the boys up a hill or even a long gradual incline.  I credit the extra biking over the weekend with helping me reach my lowest wieght in years, which is about 20 pounds less than in December.

 So far I'm meeting my goal and even doing slightly better as I challenge myself to make more effort than I had anticipated.  Being more healthy is certainly an added benefit!