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! 

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.

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.   

Car-free by the Numbers

What do we mean by "car-free"?  No, we have not completely sworn off cars.  We simply don't own one.  Our car-free (or car-lite) life includes many modes of travel.  For about a year and a half in 2009-2010 I dutifully recorded every one of our trips away from the house to see how much we used each of the many modes of travel.  I call it the Riding Phrius Data Project.  It is a pretty cool dataset.  Like many cool datasets, it has yet to be fully explored.

Below is a sneak preview into how many miles we traveled by bus/light rail, bike, rental car, visitor's rental cars, etc. for the 9 months from March - December 2009.  It does not include air travel, the Achilles heal of most people's carbon footprint.  In this 9 months we traveled a total of 7176 miles, 58% of which were divided equally between public transportation and bicycle.  I look forward to sharing some more gems from the Riding Phrius Data Project. 

Busing and Triking it to Church

A few years ago, like many parents with young children, we started attending church. While not in our neighborhood, we were drawn to Plymouth Congregational Church on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. It offers probing, progressive preaching, a deeply engaged congregation, wonderful music and youth programs and much more.  Theo and Henry really like to go to church school and Hillary and I get a peaceful, reflective hour together in the service. 

So how does a car-free family get to a church that is 4+ miles away?  Usually by bus. Two buses actually.  We can hop on the #21 heading west and pick-up the #18 heading north up Nicollet Ave.  If we are lucky it is a 30 minute trip.  If not it can be 40 minutes.  Sundays aren't great bus days, with lower frequency even on busy routes. Luckily, if the bus connection is bad, we can usually find a taxi waiting in the K-Mart parking lot and get a $5 ride the last mile, a convenience that's especially helpful in the winter.

And as of yesterday, we added a door-to-door taxi ride to the mix.  Yes, we are usually pushing the bus schedule.  Yesterday was the day we completely missed it.  In frustration Hillary suggested we just go home.  But Theo's tears over missing church school, as well as our own desire to go, led to Plan B.  So we called a taxi and $14 later ended up getting there earlier than if we had caught our bus.

Here are some images from a recent Sunday when we took the bus.  And then an earlier Sunday when we biked.

Train-obsessed Henry checked out The Polar Express from the church library to read on the ride home. The library is a favorite stop for the kids.

One advantage of a bus and kids- no car seats!  They love looking out the windows and always want to sit "up high" for better views. Sometimes one or both fall asleep on the way home.  The bench seats can be an advantage in this situation. Another perk of the bus, Hillary and I can take turns reading the Sunday paper.

On mild spring and fall Sundays we will occasionally bike to church.   We can cruise westwards on our nearby bike highway, the Midtown Greenway, and then do the last mile or less on Nicollet Ave.  A few weeks ago when Hillary had to work, I did my first solo trip to church with Theo and Henry in the Kangaroo. 

Theo looking ahead on the Midtown Greenway.

"Stop it with the camera" he is probably thinking.  Soon he was blocking my camera view with a book.  This was a beautiful day to do this ride. 

A favorite destination after church school- the church courtyard with its fountain.  Theo and Henry love chasing each other through the bushes and jumping off walls.

Ok, solo church dad looking a little disgruntled, but all in all this was a great church outing with T and H via the Kangaroo.