Confession: We Got a Car

Confession to the Riding Phrius readers: We now own a car.  In fact we got it seven months ago.  It has been an identity adjustment, especially for this writer of Riding Phrius.  I have some explaining to do on how we got here.  With our car saga of the last few weeks, I have even more to share.  But first we need to catch you up on the decision to get a car.  Read on.

I got a call from Hillary over a year ago in November 2012.  She was breathing hard, biking the Roo to pick up one of the boys.  The tone of her voice mirrored the temperature outside, cold.  The message was crisp, "put on the list for 2013, get a car."  I took note, knowing it was just a matter of time before the kids' growing bodies and growing number of activities would push us to get a car.  But I also recognized the emotion of a tough moment. Yes, that day was a heavy dose of winter weather. But the rough winter conditions might ease up. Plus, Hillary's mom would be here for Christmas soon, giving us access to a rental car for two weeks.  But, I got two similar requests from Hillary over the next few weeks.  I started to reconcile myself with the idea that we might have to start looking for a car in 2013.  But as we headed into the new year, a Christmastime loaner car from friends and a break in the rough winter conditions paused the determined calls for a car.

Then we got a tempting offer a few months later in May.  Hillary's sister's family was moving back to Seattle from Washington, D.C. and did not want to take their 15 year old VW Passat Wagon with them.  It was actually the same car that punctuated our car-free decade while they were living in Copenhagen for one year in '04-'05.  It had 127,000 miles on it and was in pretty good shape.  It wouldn't make sense to pay to truck it, nor put the wear and tear on it by driving it to Seattle. They were ready to just buy a new car out in Seattle. And time was limited for selling it in D.C. So they offered it to us gratis.

Hillary immediately wanted to accept, but it took me many days to get on board. I thought of those beautiful mornings of biking the kids to school in the Roo.  Biking a trailer full of fall harvest fruits and vegetables home from the farmer's market.  Playing the games of tag with the kids while waiting for a bus connection. Enjoying reading together on the bus, and the unique perspectives on the city offered by public transit. Those moon-lit crisp nights biking back from a friend's house after dinner through freshly fallen snow. The kids asking, "are we going to take the bus or ride our bikes?", with cars never even on their radar.  Of course, just because we have a car wouldn't mean we couldn't experience those moments, right?  We know how special those moments are, even when sometimes suffering those really tough times when the bike was extra heavy with kids or the bus was missed. Surely after 10 years of experiencing them, we wouldn't stop seeking them out.  The problem is, having a car sitting right in front of your house makes using it way too convenient.  One's impulse to save 10 or 15 minutes on an errand often wins out. Rain or cold offer easy excuses to drive rather than bike. Then choosing the car over bike or bus becomes a habit. So, it was hard to think of letting go of our car free life. Ultimately, knowing it was just a matter of time before we needed a car and that this was a unique offer, we didn't pass it up.

Last June Hillary summed up so well what she's learned from our years without a car and announced our changing status.  She wrote this post on her Facebook page: "After 10 years without a car in the Twin Cities, here is what I've learned. You need to be stubborn. You need to be flexible. You need stamina, studded tires, and good winter and rain gear. Patience is important, and planning. I could use more of those last two. A garage full of bikes, a high frequency bus route, and a community of friends willing to give rides or loan you a car helps immensely. Even then, it's still not easy. You can't be afraid to ask for help, and should accept all offers. So when your sister offers you her car, for keeps, you don't say no. Come August, it looks like we'll be a car-light rather than a car-free family. Until then we will enjoy another summer of Riding Phrius, and then strive to keep the car parked as much as possible."

Birthday Butter-Butts in the Bike Lane

The snowy Minnesota Capital Grounds scene along my commute.

A major perk of my early May birthday is its concurrence with the migration of warblers and other songbirds from their tropical wintering grounds to their northern breeding grounds. I try to make the most of this timing and get out for a little birthday birding.  This year it turned out to be by bike the day before my birthday.

Despite a morning commute snowstorm, I chose to bike to work today and take the 12 mile route home along the Mississippi River. There were a few dedicated bike commuters in St. Paul's Summit Avenue bike lane this morning. By the looks we were giving each other, we all seemed surprised that our commute included a full-fledged, cheek-biting snowstorm.  But along my Mississippi River route home, I had the bike trails and bike lanes to myself...and the "butter-butts", the colloquial name for the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, aka "Butter-butt" (credit: www.science.smith.edu)

I was mostly excited to do my favorite Mississippi River route home for the first time since late fall. I actually didn't prepare for birding in that I didn't bring my binoculars. But in St. Paul's Lilydale Regional Park I spotted the first "butter-butt",  It was hopping and foraging on the ground along the bike trail.  Then I spotted a Palm Warbler on the ground a few feet from me.  With these birds, no binoculars were necessary. 

"Butter-butt Bike Lane" - the birds were too quick to catch in a pic!

But these sitings in Lilydale Park paled in comparison to the profusion of butter-butts I flushed from the bike lane along Minnehaha Avenue.  It was really incredible as I flushed 5-8 at a time. In fact I was surprised that I didn't run one over. I really wanted to get a picture to show you, but like any warbler, they move fast. 

I wasn't the only one noting the profusion of Yellow-rumped Warblers in the neighborhood.  I got home and Henry said, "Dad, we saw this really cool bird right next to the Roo near my school".  Theo had also spotted them and had looked them up with Hillary to identify them.  But they had not heard the nickname "butter-butts". For two young boys, that nickname produced giggles and made these birds all the more cool, and memorable. 

Family Outing to the PBS Kids Writer's Contest Celebration

Who could resist a celebration of kid writers with Word Girl? Let alone a celebration at St. Paul's newly restored Union Depot? Better yet, Theo got an invite and certificate for the story he entered into the contest. So the whole family caught the 21A bus and took it to what is probably the bus system's most stately station, the renewed Union Depot.

The 40 minute bus ride provided kids and adults alike a nice little nap (Henry continued his nap through the whole celebration and half the bus ride home).

Author of the Monkey with a Toolbelt books, Chris Monroe, gave a big congratulations to the young writers and offered some great writing advice (use experiences from your own life, create a good writing space, sit down to write at least 10 minutes every day, stick with it!).

The space is beautiful. We can't wait 'til Amtrak trains and the new Minneapolis - St. Paul light rail begin to use this station.

What are those girl's in the photo above looking at?  The Guinness Book of World Record's largest Lite Brite! 

Thanks to TPT and PBS Kids for organizing the Writer's Contest and celebration! 

Finding the Birding Groove at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

I have never experienced such a good place to introduce birding to kids as the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Sanibel Island. This was our third spring break visit to Sanibel in four years. Every year we bike half the Refuge's wildlife drive loop. This year coincided with a time when T was showing even more interest in birds. He is six, way into nature, has a growing interest in birds and just got some kids binoculars that work really well for him.

Osprey on nest platform along the Rabbit Road area bike trail.

We picked a morning that would include low tide.  Thus many of the wading birds would be feeding in the exposed mud flats and shallow waters. Our full group went- Hillary, her mom, me, T, H, and Hillary's sister's family of four. The place we stay is an easy 1.5 mile bike ride from Ding Darling. So we warmed up on bird watching by stopping and watching the Ospreys and their nest on the nesting platform along the bike trail. It takes a while to successfully look through binoculars and get the desired bird in your view. So this was good practice for all.

T watching the birds at the first stop on Wildlife Drive.

Once we got to the refuge we biked right onto Wildlife Drive. We passed a Little Blue Heron just off the drive.  I didn't announce its presence as parents and kids were busy chatting and I knew there would be plenty of birds ahead. Sure enough we got to the first viewing area and saw scads of birds on the large open water and exposed mud flats. After viewing a few herons and such, we made our way over to the spotting scope that a Refuge volunteer had set up. While H was looking through it, T somehow saw a different bird flying far away along the edge of the mangroves. He said, "there's a Roseate Spoonbill!" He had been looking at the bird book before, so I assumed that he recognized it from the book. The Refuge volunteer glassed the flying bird and said, "you're right, that is a Roseate Spoonbill!  I haven't seen one of those for several weeks."  T, of course got a quite a thrill out of that, mentioning it several times over the next few days. 

"Squishing" for fiddler crabs along Wildlife Drive.

Once again the rest of the group got ahead of me as I scanned for more birds.  T was hanging with me and his six-year old attention span was reaching its limit. I was little surprised, actually, but the bumpy road turned out to be his chief complaint.  He proclaimed he was not going any further. So we took a break.  After various attempts to take his mind off the road and how far we were from the rest of the group, I suggested he go search for fiddler crabs long the water's edge.  He walked down to the muddy area and quickly delighted in his ability to drive fiddler crabs out of their burrows as he stepped along side them.  He walked back and forth a few more times and was ready to go with  his attitude and attention rejuvenated. 

From here on T was really getting in the groove of wildlife watching.  I was teaching him more about recognizing key field marks for identifying birds.  What size is it? What shape and color bill does it have? What color are its wings, its belly, legs, etc.  As he was already studying the different parts of birds in first grade, he was really primed to recognize field marks.  Plus, his young eyes mean he can see really well.  The sign posts of birds commonly seen along different sections of Wildlife Drive were helpful too. 

Of course it was the alligator sighting on our way back that was especially exciting.  T asked for my phone and took about twenty pictures of the sunning alligator, a spider on its web, and his alligator-mimicking dad. 

Finding an alligator was of course a major goal for the kids.  So I called Hillary and H who were already at the visitor's center.  They rushed back to see it much to the delight of H. The pressure was off now, we saw an alligator. 

A long time (1 hour? maybe 1.5 hours) after T proclaimed he was not going any further, we made it back to the visitor center near the beginning of Wildlife Drive.  At that point T realized that he left his helmet back at the cut-off trail where we saw the Pied-bill Grebe.  Without a better option handy, I told him to wait for me at the bike racks while I took the 20 some minute round trip to retrieve his helmet.  When I returned I found him recording what we had seen in his journal.  What a wonderful scene to return to! 

Thinking we were mostly done for the day, we headed back to our place.  But T was completely in the bird watching groove by now.  We stopped again to watch the Ospreys on the nesting platform for about 10 minutes.  We watched a few of them circle overhead and got a great view of the distinct shape of an Anhinga flying overhead. Then we spotted a Great Egret and a Night Heron (yellow-crowned, if I remember correctly).  From too tired to go any further, to totally grooving on finding birds, it was a morning to remember.  What a treat to see T experiencing the rush of bird watching that birders live for. 

Neighborhood Youth Ski League

Theo and I raced the Winther Kangaroo trike the five blocks from our house to catch the #7 bus to Theodore Wirth Park for today's Minnesota Youth Ski League (MYSL).  Just as we locked the "Roo" up, the bus passed.  Bummer.  No MYSL for us this week.  Theo was a good sport about it.  By this point the snow was really coming down.  He said, "I'll just ski home".  I rode behind him as his sag wagon.  Really enjoying the novelty of skiing through the neighborhood in the beautiful fresh snow, Theo skied on to his friend's house where we stopped to say hello and then headed back home.  He probably got just as much skiing in without any car/bus time.  Nice! Back home, he reported to Hillary that he practiced his star turn, pizza stop, and "shuffle, shuffle, glide".  Call it the Neighborhood Youth Ski League for us today.

Freeze, thaw

My bike got marooned in my bike locker at work when the sub-zero temps froze the upper Midwest  over a week ago. I put my bike on the bus last night to get it home and happily awoke to a "balmy" temperature of 16 degrees F.  So I went for the bike commute.  It was fantastic.  And I still got words of disbelief from co-workers, "whoa isn't it way too cold?"  "Yeah, but it's over 20 degrees warmer than it was two mornings ago," I replied. 

Here are a few images of the the frozen Mississippi as I crossed it this morning.  What a cool pattern showing the ice chunks from the last thaw all frozen in place.  Compare these photos with the one in the post from two and a half weeks ago. 

Bussing it to MN Youth Ski League

Both boys are doing Minnesota Youth Ski League this year at Minneapolis' beautiful Theodore Wirth Park.  Being 7.7 miles away from home and involving skis, poles, boots, and winter layers, it presents some logistical challenges for our car-free family.  The biggest challenge is getting all four of us there.  Only Theo did ski league last year meaning that he and Hillary or I could often get a ride with friends.  But that is not so possible to do with four of us going.  Fortunately the #7 bus leaves 5 blocks from our house and ends at the park's ski chalet!  Alas, the full one-way trip takes about an hour.  For those accustomed to getting there within 15-20 minutes by car, an hour may seem absurd.  As usual, we are doing our best to make the most of the bus time.  Here are a few shots from last week's and this week's trip to the MN Youth Ski League at Theodore Wirth Park.

 The crew on the #7 bus with skis and poles stashed aside the seats and Theo's tongued stashed in its typical response to the camera.

 Theo taking advantage of the time on the bus to do some of his math homework.

 Our bus arriving at the Theodore Wirth Chalet. It is amazing that we can get to this bit of winter wonderland on a bus!  Yes, they even make snow for the slopes and trails here.

 

 Henry toughing it out in today's single digit temperatures today.  He hauled his skis up the steps and the slippery hill. 

 MYSL emphasizes fun.  That includes bending over to pick up stuffed animals as you ski. 

 Theo's group today.  Doesn't it look cold?

 Theo skiing the loop back to the Chalet for the well-deserved hot chocolate.

 Hillary with her ski buddy. 

The perks of the bus:  Henry called it quits after 35 minutes in today's cold.  Instead of waiting for Hillary and Theo to finish, Henry and I caught the earlier bus home.  He got in a 25 minute nap and I got to read the newspaper.  Now that's Riding Phrius.

Winter Commuting on New Wheels

Today marked my second day of winter bike commuting since the big 11 inch snow fell on the Twin Cities about a month ago. I'm feeling a little out of shape in the legs but loving the cold temperature invigoration and thinking space my bike commute provides. 

This view of the Mississippi River Gorge along my commute route is a far cry from the one taken during the autumn picture below!  Ahh, the joys of experiencing the seasons from the bike lane.

All this has been made possible by my new 16-year old Specialized Hardrock mountain bike that I got off Craig's list.   Its condition is a far cry from my previous 18-year old Specialized mountain bike, I.N.D.Y. (It's Not Dead Yet). With its terribly rusted gears, worn out bearings, and its propensity for large maintenance bills, it now ought to be named, I.I.D.N. (It is Dead Now).  I will strip some parts of I.I.D.N and donate the rest to a great new organization called SPOKES where hopefully its frame will be renewed as the core of a new bike.

Holiday Light Tour (aka last night with the borrowed car)

Hillary was determined to drive around with the boys to see neighborhood holiday light displays. Between that and it being our last night with the borrowed car, we were off on the drive after a quick cheese and bean quesadilla dinner. We ended up driving along Saint Paul's stately Summit Avenue which also serves as my bike commute route to work. We saw some impressive lights but only one light-choked, somewhat tacky yard. By that time both kids had fallen asleep. So we suspended the tour to stop by the nearby Whole Foods and pick up a few critical groceries, namely the cereal bars the boys apparently like so much. Hillary shopped like a seasoned car-free mama.  She got a whole case of the cereal bars at 10% off.  We should be set for months.

The unexpected perk of the tour was that I got to assess the condition of the Summit Avenue bike lane. Some chunky icy/snowy sections persist, but otherwise it was pretty good. After over three weeks without bike commuting due to an 11 inch snowstorm, I am itching to ride again.

After Summit Avenue we drove through our south Minneapolis neighborhood and saw some fine displays, especially this great arrangement of ice lanterns.  As Hillary took photos from the car, the homeowner waved through his window as she waved back.  Home sweet home. 

Lucky for us, the kids transferred right into bed without waking up. 

Home for the Holidays...with a car

For the first time in our 12 years in Minnesota we did not travel to spend Christmas with our families. We avoided the expensive airline tickets, the hassle of holiday travel, the two-way lugging/shipping of gifts, the wonderful yet sometimes exhausting visiting with friends and family.  For the first time in our lives and in our kids' lives, we could stay home and begin to nurture our own holiday traditions.    We hosted our third annual Christmas party, we got a full-size Christmas tree, we went to the family Christmas Eve service at our church, we figured out where to hang the stockings, we addressed the challenge of Santa getting into our chimney-less house (thanks be to the "Santa Key").  We took advantage of the perks of "FaceTime" to share our Christmas experiences and favorite gifts with our family members in Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Canada. We also got to do more things around town.  We went as a family to see the fantastic "China's Terracotta Warriors" exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  Hillary and I got to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Guthrie for the first time.  But best of all, we just got to hang out as a family.  Theo was busy making his own Christmas cards and making and wrapping gifts.  He and I got to play carols on the piano.  Theo is mastering "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" and "Jingle Bells".  I loved just watching the kids play with their new toys, games, and puzzles for hours on Christmas and the days after.  And of course we got to play too.

 All of this would not have been the same without having some family with us. We were blessed to have Hil's mom and her partner John with us for our first Christmas in Minnesota.  They helped so much in making this a special time for us and the kids.  And they helped us get some time away from the kids.

We also have a loaner car for about ten days.  With the cold weather and snow it has been a great gift!  Thanks so much to Jim and Emily who graciously loaned us their car while they traveled for the holidays.  And thanks to everyone else who similarly offered the use of their car while they were away during this time. On those bitterly cold day and nights around Christmas it was nice to not be waiting at the bus stop after a Guthrie show, or able to run up to Matthews Park so Theo could try out his new snowboard. We even managed to avoid the common pitfall of trying to do too much just because we had access to wheels. Many days were still spent just hanging out with each other at home. And that was the greatest gift of all.

 

Putting the Christmas Eve star on the beautiful Advent calendar made by our friend Martha Z. 

Theo sporting his snazzy Christmas vest at the family Christmas Eve service at church.  

Mormor gave the boys tickets to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at the Children's Theater Company. 

Hillary gave me these awesome Batman super hero boxer shorts.  Yes, they even have a cape behind!  The boys got quite a kick out of them, especially when their powers allowed me to zoom them around the house on my shoulder. 

Studded tire at last!

It was such a mild winter last year that we squeaked by without a studded tire on our Winther Kangaroo. But with the 11 inch dump last weekend, there is no skirting it this year. After many late night public meetings for work this week, I took this morning off to winterize the Roo. Henry's trike helped out nicely.

First Snow Ride

There is nothing like the first snow to get two young boys excited. By the time Henry and I left for his pre-school, nearly an inch had fallen and sun and blue sky made for a beautiful winter one-mile bike ride to pre-school. Henry marveled at the beautiful scene and giggled as I gave him the"wiggly-ride". The "wiggly-ride" consists of quick, small left-right swerves down the sidewalk, all made safe with the benefit of the three wheels of the Winther Kangaroo.

Here's Henry and our "sleigh-dog" Moxie at school.

Morning Commute: No Eagle Today, Maybe Tomorrow

Late night errands with a Cargo Bike

As a car-free family we have a lot of bikes for various uses. But sometimes they're spread around at various locations, or in need of repair. I had concert band rehearsal last night and expected to use my wife's bike "All Sass No Gas". But I forgot it still had a flat tire (second one in two weeks :( ). Then I figured I'd use my commuter bike "The Italian Stallion". But it was in my bike locker at work since I took the bus home yesterday afternoon. So I went with our family cargo bike, the head turning Winther Kangaroo. It was no big deal biking the cargo bike the 1.75 miles to rehearsal. Then I had it to pick up the 33 lbs of dog food and some sale item storage bins. Go Twin Cities cargo biking!

A Delightful Fall Color Commute

I heard the distinctive crunch of leaves as Theo steered his bike through the crisp fallen ash leaves on the road to school. It brought back memories of past years biking with him in the fall. To kids in the back yard it is the joy of jumping in a pile of leaves. To kids like Theo biking, it is riding through the leaves that get whisked to the side of the road by passing leaf blowers, whoops, I mean cars.

Here are a few pictures from the second leg of my commute, from Theo's school to work.

Bikepool for Saturday Soccer

This is Theo's first real year of soccer. Real in that they practice one night a week and have Saturday morning games at various parks. Last week a friend commented to Hillary that with Theo's interest in soccer, soccer mom-dom (and thus a soccer mom car) are in our near future. Yes, it is a matter of when. But so far we are managing well.

First, thanks to our friends Rolf and Renata, whose son plays on the team, and gave Theo and Hillary a ride to last week's game at a park far away from our house.  Today's game was at Minneapolis' Sibley Park which is within easy Kangaroo biking distance at just 2.3 miles away.  We even did a "bikepool", picking up another one of Theo's teammates.  This bikepool doubled as a daddy Saturday morning "spin class".  This spin class was less a cardio workout and much more a leg strength workout.  With the help of the 1st graders' budding math skills we calculated that I was pedaling about 380 pounds.  Whoa.  

Theo showing his friend the gears and the hydraulic brakes of the Winther Kangaroo before their soccer game.

The bikepool ride seeded some questions.  On the way home from soccer Theo's friend Hanif asked, "why your family hates cars".  A bit surprised by the impression that we hate cars, I responded that it's not that we hate cars, in fact we use cars often, especially when they are the better way to get around.  He had noted that his family uses cars everyday to go most everywhere.  I acknowledged that many people need to use cars because their work is far away and not conveniently reached by public transportation, for instance.  But then said that our family doesn't need a car for most of our trips.  Then Theo chimed in with the distinctive stream-of-consciousness style of a young kid, "We can take a bike, a bus, a taxi.  Cars create pollution.  Look at all these cars just parked on the street, sitting here, nobody is using them.  If we want to go camping, we can rent a car.  If we need to go farther away, we can take an airplane."  Gotta love hearing your 6-year old make such a rational argument for not owning a car.  Admittedly, this is the same kid who also occasionally asks, "Why can't we get a car?".

But the big news of the day is that the Brackett Rockets won their soccer game.  They dug out of a two point hole and won 3-2 to remain undefeated.  Go Rockets!

Thanks Nice Ride!

This summer Nice Ride Minnesota came to St. Paul with its unmistakeable green Nice Ride bikes. Better yet they put a station right in front of the Department of Natural Resources building where I work. After passing the station daily as I walked from the bus, I finally got to use it today.

Mission: Meet a friend/colleague in Minneapolis for Happy Hour
Trip challenge: get some work done to compensate for my early departure

Leg 1: Work to Town Hall Brewery
3:00 pm Walk from 6th floor office to Nice Ride station at Lafayette and Grove

3:04 pm Depart Nice Ride station

   --Enjoy bike ride--

3:11 pm Arrive at 10th and Robert Nice Ride station

   --walk one block (and start this blog)--

3:23 pm Catch 94B Express Bus

   --work on bus (editing report) while the bus passed much traffic--

3:53 pm  Arrive at Metrodome Mpls Nice Ride Station

   --Enjoy bike ride (Washington Ave. wasn't too bad)--

4:00 pm arrive Town Hall Brewery

Leg 1 Summary:
Total time: 1 hour
     Travel time: 50 minutes (30 mins bus, 14 mins bike, 6 mins walking)
          includes 25 minutes of productive work on the bus
     Waiting time: 10 minutes  (I started this blog!)

Leg 2: Town Hall Brewery to Home
5:33 pm Head home on Nice Ride bike

5:51 pm Arrive at neighborhood Nice Ride station (about a 2 mile ride)

5:59 pm Walk 6 blocks to home, for the first time a little sweaty. Ready to change into shorts and a t-shirt.

Before Nice Ride this journey likely would have taken me 50%+ longer due to less than ideal bus connections.  Here's to the fantastic bike-walk options that Nice Ride has brought to the Twin Cities.  Here's to Bike-Walk Twin Cities and their many partners for the great improvements they have brought to bike-walk infrastructure.  Here's to many, many more who are making the Twin Cities an even better place to get around without a car.