Biking Along The Lake.

I never had a bike ride as I had on Saturday! The weather was stormy for several days before that, and it was raining non-stop. Saturday was the first day when it finally stopped raining, and Boris and I went on a bike ride.

When we were close to the Navy Pier, we saw a police barricade across the bike path. Since we saw the bikers and runners passing it, we figured out it was not indicating any immediate danger (and we were right, it was removed on the other side of the stretch, and when we were heading back, this first one was removed as well).

On that stretch of the Like Frnt Trial, the water often comes very close to the bike path, but this time around, the waves were running over the bike path all the time!. We saw huge chunks of seaweed on the asphalt, so thick that we had to dismount and walk the bikes. Then one of the waves reached Boris, and he was wet up to his knees! His breaks lost traction, and so did his feet, so the next time we had to stop by the crossing, his bike ran into the rear of my bike, and he fell off (no injuries). Our final destination for this ride was the Field museum (I will blog about it separately), and he had to walk around in the wet shoes.

Sometimes, life is fair, and I was covered by another wave, with a similar effect on the way back. I thought that if somebody took a picture of bikers covered by the waves, it would be very impressive!!!

You can’t really see the waves here, but that’s the only picture I took, other times I was busy fighting the heavy wind

So It Was The Last Summer Weekend

That’s – last weekend. I am so glad that after returning from Finland I still caught several summer days. It was 47F when I left the house this morning, and I believe it’s the first day of the season when the temperature would stay in the 50s for the whole day. So, a week later – my last summer morning of 2021 🙂

Biking In Helsinki

While in Helsinki, I try to combine work and doing something interesting together. Until today, the weather was great, sunny, and not as cold as everybody told me it was going to be, so we went on long bike rides every day, including the very first day I came.

Boris discovered several new bike routes, and each day, our ride was different and very scenic. Boris often reminds me the story which happened to me on one of my early visits, when I thought that if I needed to get from one point on the shore to another point on the shore, I could do so by walking along the shoreline:)

I am not making this mistake anymore, but all three of our rides were along the shoreline (for my love of it :)).

I forgot again, what’s the proper name of this sport, but it looked pretty cool

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Let Summer Run Forever!

To be honest, I do not want summer to run forever. I do not want to live in Florida or California. But I love that summer lasts through the whole month of September!

This week, I finally gave away my early morning biking, but I have been devouring these last biking mornings for the past two weeks. I had an amazing long ride on Labor Day, and I finished my early mornings seasons last Sunday, watching the sunset on my way back.

I’d just say – living by the lake in September is priceless 🙂

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Biking With My Girls

Anna brought her cargo bike with her (she ended up driving a truck because of that), and although driving a truck in the city is not the most enjoyable activity, the presence of a cargo bike made a huge difference! We could go anywhere on bikes! Both Sunday and Monday mornings, we would head to the Lake Front Trail to explore the playgrounds – thank you, Chicago Park District!

We biked to the Edgewater Art Fair on Sunday evening (because Nadia really wanted to listen to some concert), and we biked to Andersonville on Monday to have lunch with Vlad and Dylon.

At the Edgewater Art Fair, Nadia danced for forty minutes straight while the band was playing, and Kira followed as much as she could:). Neither me nor Anna could expect it!

Only later we thought that we could plan more outings with the cargo bike, including going to the Lincoln Park Zoo and to Navy Pier – both are relatively close to where I live, but unfortunately do not have convenient public transportation. We will plan better next time!

That’s How I Go Shopping These Days

Last time Boris was here, he talked me into using the bike’s luggage rack. Before that’ I was a little bit sceptical about my abilities to keep the balance/ Also, I didn’t realize how much stuff you can carry on your bike this way. Now, I am shopping at Devon Market, and at once a week the Glenwood Street Market.

And I am planningt to use my bike for shopping as soon long as possible (not sure how winter will look like)

One More Long Bike Ride

Now about the good things which happened on Friday:). I took Friday off, and we went for another long bike ride. This time we were somewhat limited by time because we had other things to do before Boris left for the airport, so we decided to put a hard limit of 2 hours total. This time, there was no strong wind (which increased our speed), but we also made several photo stops that slowed us.

We only got to the Buckingham Fountain (which was almost entirely covered by preparations for Lalapaloose.

I think it would only take us ten extra minutes to get to Aquarium, but it was a good ride anyway, and I took a picture of a place where the Chicago River flows into Lake Michigan!

A Very Long Bike Ride

One of our plans was to go on a long ride on the Lakefront Trail. I didn’t do long rides for a while, so I was unsure how long I could bike. The longest I biked this spring was one hour and twenty minutes. The total length of the Lakefront Trail is over 18 miles one way, and we are 2.5 miles away from the start.

We decided not to rush. Saturday was the perfect weather; we got out after breakfast and decided we are not doing more than 3 hours. In reality, we biked for 2.5 hours, but I was surprised by how far we went! I decided it’s time to start going back because I started to be a little bit tired. It was a good call – we didn’t realize we had a tailwind all the way there! On the way back, we had to go against the wind!

Surprisingly, it took us only 10 minutes more, probably because we made fewer photo-stops

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Biking Along The Lake

I bike towards the lake almost every morning. Soon, the sunrise will be too late to bike before 6 AM, and then, I might retreat to biking on the weekends only. But for another several weeks – every morning!sSome days, it it windy and stormy

Other days, it is calm nd peaceful:

One Sunday morning, I went to a rather long bike ride, and ended up by this “windmill” sculpture:

It’s still very far from being able to cover the whole Lakefront Trial!

Biking To The Shakespeare Garden

I tried it once, and got lost :), so I was looking for an opportunity to bike early in the morning so that there will be no traffic, and on a day when I won’t have to go somewhere. Last Sunday, I decided that it’s now or never. The potential forty-minute round trip took over an hour, but at least I found the Garden!

The catch is that you can’t “bike to” that garden, you need to walk your bike on the last stretch. And Google was bringing me to the parking lot “under” the garden from where there was no way to get to the garden itself.

Some pictures from my bike ride to the North: