Whether you have kids or not, having to listen to other people drool over how wonderful theirs are can be a stone drag. I'll try to spare you that, but would like to share a ride I took with my 7 and 10 year old sons yesterday.
We road from our home at Oak street near Otis to Bay Farm via the bike bridge where we followed the trail around Mount Trashmore on San Leandro Bay to the model plane field. There we took the creepy crossing of Doolittle where the crossing button doesn't give you a walk signal if you don't get to it before the light change and you can't see the west bound signal of the folks screaming in from Oakland. But we made it safely and proceeded all the way around to the bridge again and home. Previously we have transported bikes by truck to near the Harbor Bay Country Club for shorter rides but never have we done this complete circuit before. (It is my ususal solo ride for excercise.) It was an incredible confidence boost for these kids and they were really able to master gear shifting and other skills for the first time. We only passed about twenty people total on the Bay Farm portion! It is too bad that getting to and from the bridge is such a nerve racking hassle.
Having taken this ride many many times it is not exactly exciting but still never boring, and always beautiful. When I look south to the San Bruno mountains I always think about how their silhouette is the same as it has been forever, since before the indians built the shell mounds on the East End and probably had a relatively great life here. Bike riding gave me my first whiff of freedom as a kid and getting to share this ride with these boys made me really glad we picked Alameda to raise them.
posted: Wed, 17 Sep 2003