The day after Valentine’s Day, we vowed not to keep the kids cooped up inside! Plus, it was still gorgeous outside! This time, instead of just dragging them on errands, we took them to the newly paved paths in nearby Arana Gulch.
Arana Gulch is a pretty big swath of land adjacent to the harbor. Jenny and I have cut through there on some of our distance runs and Dylan and I did a biking day there last summer.
It apparently used to be a dairy farm!
Well, there are now 2 bridges, one on each side of the gulch, allowing for bikes to easily go back and forth between harbor sides. The bridges are unequivocally awesome…the paved paths I am more conflicted on, but when we think about people in wheelchairs, parents with young kids in strollers, young and new bicyclists, I realize it is overall a good thing to have these paved paths.
Dylan’s initial reaction was, “I liked the dirt better.” But, I think maybe he changed his tune after he biked the paths with T. and K. this past weekend!
Anyway, we took the kidlets through the gulch, past the boats in the harbor and down to the beach (at least a good mile and a half of walking!). We stopped for lunch at Cafe Palomar (a beachside fave!) and then made our way back.
We were so proud of all of the kids. They all ran/hiked/skipped the entire way! And the loved it!
On Monday, since there was no school, H. and I took the kids back to Arana Gulch (she’d never been there before) and the big kids rode their bikes while the littler ones chased after.
This time, instead of heading left towards Harbor Beach, we broke right and crossed the other bridge and headed towards the park.
We used to take Dylan to this park all of the time when he was Chloe’s age!!! This was maybe the first time that Chloe has been here, though. The little playground has been redone–although, this little ride-on-thingy is a holdover from the Dylan days!
We saw some friends there — one of T.’s and Dylan’s Mandarin classmates and another Dos Alas kindergartner….
It was so sweet to see all of them enjoying the play structure and the bike paths!
Without even knowing it, Cameron became a master of the monkey bars! I’d actually spied her on the bars at school easily making her way across–but I was surprised when I saw her! I had no idea she could do this!
We stayed for a good long time before we decided we should head back before the kids got too tuckered out to make it back home! It was a great way to end the long weekend!
