My 9 year old only wanted to go for a 15 minute ride, as he's not a fan of bike-riding (only because he still struggles to be confident with it). So equipped with our Camelbaks, I suggested we should just go... and go we did!
Instead of going directly to the beach, we took a couple of side streets a bit further up Sandringham before we hit the beach on the Sandringham/Hampton border. As usual, it was my 11 year old up front, then my 9 year old and me tagging behind... just so I can keep an eye on them. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the ride seemed effortless. I had no complaints from the little one as we peddled past our last ride's turning point - Brighton Beach station and worked our way up to the iconic Dendy Beach, passed the Brighton Baths with its adjoining dog beach (and pedestrian madness!), along the Golden Mile (Melbourne's most expensive real estate), towards Elwood.... Passed the Elwood Lifesaving Club, over the Elwood Canal bridge towards Riva and St Kilda Yacht Club till we hit Luna Park! Absolutely NO COMPLAINTS the whole ride. 13 kilometres (8 miles).
I was so proud of them, that I said they could have a ride at Luna Park as a reward. We arrived at the entrance of the 100 year old amusement park to see a line meander outside the gate and around the corner (at least 100 people waiting outside to buy a ticket). The boys made the decision that it wasn't that important to have a ride. So they opted for McDonalds for lunch instead.
They ate their lunch, then we embarked on our trek back home. We jumped on our bikes and, oh no, we had a head wind. (No wonder it was so easy to get so far!) About five minutes into the trek, my 9 year old started complaining... "My legs are sore, I have a stitch, I want to walk" WALK! Who wants to walk 13 kilometres home? Our really really long trip home was a combination of stopping at an ice-cream van...
flaking out on the grass, walking up hills, riding down hills, bribes! (I said that if he gets on his bike and doesn't do any more walking, then there will be no homework today... I've been setting 4 pages of homework for them over the holidays just for them to keep their brains working and give them a head start in the New Year) and pointing out the trip in short steps just to make it seem quicker to get home.
So what I estimated as being about a 45 minute trip there, turned out to be an hour and 45 minute trip home. At least we made it! A 26 kilometre round trip (16 miles).
We came home, and literally walked in the door when a friend called. We had been meaning to catch up over the past week, but circumstances just hasn't allowed it to happen. She was handing her kids to her ex-husband today for a week, so this would be the last time we could catch up for our kids to play. She suggested we go to MSAC (Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre... where they had the Melbourne Commonwealth Games). I told her about our trek, and she was happy for my boys to have an hour or two rest, before the next physical exertion.
My nine-year old fell asleep instantly on the couch, while my 11 year old enjoyed some quiet time playing Wii by himself. At about 5pm, my friend picked us up and we drove a little beyond our bike riding trek to Albert Park to MSAC. The boys were excited about being with their friend and getting to go to a different swimming facility. They were so excited, they ended up in the wishing fountain out the front!
It was such a great time to go, as the crowds had gone, and they had full rein of all the facilities. And I mean 'full rein'... hardly a person in sight.
After about an hour and a half in the pools, they were closing and it was time to go grab some dinner and head home.
We dropped the boys home, grabbed some fish n chips, my friend and I had a glass of bubbly at True South, the local Tapas bar while we waited for our fish n chips to be cooked, then headed back to some very wary, and slightly sun burnt kids (as we were only supposed to be gone for 15 minutes remember!)... you can see the t-shirt tan on the 9 year old doing his bomb into the water!).
I'm not sure how the boys are this morning... They have been awake for 15 or so minutes and I haven't heard any complaints of sore muscles... and I'm dreading getting out of bed to feel how my muscles will react (as they were agonisingly sore last night)... but that will be another blog tomorrow... as the New Year comes in!
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