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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Family Biking Portland Style

As part of our vacation, we rented a Nihola bike from our favorite local bike shop Clever Cycles. We bought my Electra Amsterdam there when I was pregnant for Cora and my how I love that bike. It is consistently wonderful to have such a knowledgeable and family focused bike shop in our back yard and riding my bike has always felt really wonderful while pregnant. (Full disclosure, Clever Cycles in no way solicited or otherwise sponsored this post). 

My beloved Electra who is known to us as The Copper Penny
The Copper Penny

I have had my eye on this Nihola Family Bike for several years now. A Danish company, their products were not available in the US until recently and even then sparingly. I could not believe my luck when Clever Cycles started carrying them and again when I discovered you can rent one for the day!

We loaded my Electra onto the car and headed down to the bike shop (being 7 months pregnant and only having one bike at the moment meant we were driving there). We rented this beauty and took a few minutes to secure Cora and our picnic goods in the ample basket before taking off.

Nihola,Cora


Then we were off and pedaling. When we stopped at our first light a bike commuter and new father rolled up and asked Scott how long he had been riding the Nihola and if we liked having Cora in it. We had to fess up it had only been a total of four minutes but we were in love. It was so much fun to watch people's reactions as we made our way around Portland's waterfront loop. Just about every biker who passed us turned back to look over their shoulders and a few people shouted out "that's awesome"!

 
Riding with the flow
Nihola,Cora



Scott reported that for the most part it was a comfortable ride, a bit of work to get it rolling as you might imagine but handled quite well. Cora is 18 months old now and rode in it like a champ. We did roll up a blanket and place it under her feet as they barely reached the bottom of the basket and we didn't want them dangling the entire ride. We did a loop from the Hawthorne bridge up the West side of the river, over the Old Steel bridge and down the East side of the river, over Hawthorne again then settled in for a little picnic.


Mama Time


Mama time



Happy Family Happy Bikes!

Picnic,Cora



Photobucket


Loving some apple


After our picnic it was a quick tour back over the Hawthorne bridge. The bridge was raised to let a boat through so we waited in good company for the all clear.


Waiting for the bridge to lower


There are occasional moments in life when I become aware that I am taking a mental picture, that I am living a moment that I will always remember. Today was one of those brilliant days, biking with my family in our beautiful city I will always remember this as a great day, a day frozen in time right before our family of three becomes a family of four. I wish we could have ridden farther and longer but given my third trimester status and Cora's first Nihola ride we thought we would keep it short and in hindsight that was a good idea. I am a bit sore tonight but so, so happy.


I believe Cora's pose captures the feeling our day...Huzzah!

Picnic,Cora