Labor Day

Today was another fantastic day. Spent two hours this morning frying up chicken in the cast-iron skillet that my co-author, Dan, gave me years ago for just this purpose. It took two hours and was very messy (but great fun while listening to Dixieland jazz on the radio), but I was rewarded when the folks we met for a picnic -- Suzanne, Steve, their daughter Lila and baby sister Eva -- oohed and ahhed over our contribution to the meal (chicken and chocolate chip cake). Eva mostly lay on the picnic blanket, cooing and smiling -- she's only 7 months old -- and Lila and Rachel, after some initial shyness, went straight to the play structure. The had a blast, bouncing up and down on the rubber bridge, trying to climb up the child slide (and not quite making it), swinging on the tire swing when some bigger girls swung them (Rachel actually fell through the tire and got scared, so she was reluctant to try it again). Suzanne and I chatted for a while while the men took turns watching the girls play, then they took them to the fountain where both got completely wet. At one point they were both lying down on a towel and Drew wrapped them up together like a burrito, which they thought was hilarious.

After they left around 2, we decided to stay; the weather was so perfect under the shade of the trees (it was quite hot in the sun), that I fell asleep on the blanket while Drew played with Rachel. Then he accompanied Rachel while she biked home and I took the car with all the picnic stuff.

Yes, you read rigtht: Rachel BIKED home. Unbeknownst to me, she has become quite the biker! She skipped the tricycle stage altogether and went straight for the two-wheeler with training wheels, which she now pedals expertly (and quite fast, as Drew found out while trying to keep up. This is on the bike that Constance found on the street one day while she and Rachel were taking a walk and she snapped it up). Rachel can bike all the way from our house on NE 24th to the park on NE 33rd. She still needs a little help with stopping and turning (tonight she repeated Drew's adomintion to "stop at the curb and look" before continuing on) but we can definitely see the day (perhaps next year?) where the training wheels will come off and we'll all be able to BIKE together! Yay! Drew notes that this is even more remarkable considering that he didn't figure out how to bike until he was at least 5.

While Rachel napped I cleaned up the chicken and Drew went grocery shopping. When he got back I hopped on my bike and took a nice, long ride through the Pearl District, along the Eastbank Esplanade and back home. It took me longer than I thought it would -- 90 minutes -- but it was oh, so worth it. Really need to get out more on my bike before the weather turns nasty, which I hope won't happen until late November.

Then we grilled steak, which Rachel ate a lot of, and headed out for a surprise dessert -- ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Rachel and Drew ordered chocolate; I had s'more-flavored ice cream with chocolate chips, and as we were finishing up, Rachel exclaimed, "Happy holiday weekend!" It truly was.