I had been wanting Boris to get a better bike for Chicago for a while, and he found a bike shop on the Near North, with a great selection and some discounts. Since he won’t be here until the end of August, I suggested he talk to Anna and delegate her to choose a bike for him from his list of preferences.

It all sounded very reasonable (after all, we had nothing planned for the weekend), but it ended up being a near disaster. I think at least half of the disaster was that the girls were still tired from Friday, but woke up on the inertia of early rising during the week. Boris and I thought that Anna could take the bikes into her van, but the girls said they wanted to take an L-train. There were a couple of minor disasters in the morning, the most significant of which was that Anna realized she had forgotten one part of the equipment to attach Kira’s bike to hers in a tandem manner. While she was figuring this out, I took the girls to the Artisan Market at Jarvis Square. We ended up leaving for the bike shop later than planned, and when we arrived, we found out that they were not allowing us to have an actual test ride; we could only use the mount on the shop floor.

Next thing, when we settled on the models for both me and Boris, the associate told us that they will assemble the new bikes for us (we could not take the bikes we tried), and it will take about an hour. I was ready to go home and come to get the bikes later, but Anna suggested we go for lunch somewhere close by, and then pick up the bikes.

The girls where already tired and acting up, and when we came back to the shop, the bikes were still not ready, and we had to wait for another half-hour. Retrospecitvely, I should have bought both bikes online, and we should have taken a van to pick them up when they were ready. That way, the girls won’t be so tired, and we could have some beach time.

The good part of that day was that later in the evening, Naida and I went for a bike ride. She is doing absolutely amaizing for a eight-year-old, especially for city biking on a Saturday night! My phone reported the 9.1 – 9.3 Mph speed! and she was excellent in following me at all turns and navigating the streets in general.

I rode my new bike on Sunday early morning (all the way to Monroe Harbor)

It is faster than my old one,and less bumpy, but somehow it looks like the seat post is too short. I can adjust the seat to the hight I need, but it goes below the “minimum” line; this is pending me calling the shop.

We walked to the Common Cup for breakfast, and then to the market, and made sure to show Anna new Rogers Park murals (the girls already saw them when they stayed with me earlier this year)

And finally, we had a couple of hours on the beach.

Next time, we should do more beach and more biking!