Weekend on Wheels

It was my first weekend in NYC in far too long, and it was a wheely fun one (I know, I know, lamo pun). Alex finally ordered his blades and on Saturday we set off on his maiden voyage on the West Side Highway. Though he was just learning how, he'd already taken care of thehardest part of learning how to rollerblade, so it was pretty much a breeze to hit the streets. We cruised up the WSH to Riverside park and stopped on the way back down for a drink at Pier i. By the end of the ride, Alex was hooked: "Wow, I feel like I just got admitted to this new awesome club." Yes, Alex, you have. We are planning to train for rollerblade marathon by end of summer. woot woot!

Sat afternoon Daph and Paul came in for the 5 Borough Ride on Sunday morning. It was pretty rad-- well, except for waiting at the starting line from 6:30 to 9 with 32,000 fellow cyclist fanatics. Luckily I can sleep anywhere. Seriously.

It turned out to be a pretty cool event. We got to bike across tons of bridges (wish I knew geography better, no idea which ones they were) and through all 5 boroughs of the city (duh). There were all kinds of people out for it. Including several families with triple cycles and trailing kids and dogs! Less costumes than I would have imagined, but I guess I'm not in San Francisco anymore....The ride was 42 miles but we put in another 18 getting to and from the start and finish. Here we are at the finish on Staten Island:

And here's a family photo we took on the boat home:

What can I say? It was a long ride....