Mother’s Day weekend by bike

This year, we moved our Mother’s Day celebrations to Saturday to accommodate some Sunday gardening.  We enjoyed beautiful weather (sunny and 60s) all weekend long.

We started with a bike trip to Tower Grove Farmers’ Market.  Given the size of our garden, farmers’ market trips are fairly rare for us these days, more so for Matthew and Gabriel, who usually spend Saturdays at the garden, so being there as a family, soaking up all of the beauty that is local, small-scale produce, was a real treat!

We purchased asparagus and rhubarb in quantities to freeze, and then I headed to the playground with Sir, while Matthew biked a little farther for some goodness from La Pastisserie Chouquette: a bourbon pecan sticky bun and an almond and cheese-filled [pastry] pillow, shared three ways.

On our way home, we chose “the road less traveled [by bicyclists],” continuing south on Kingshighway (a major north-south arterial in StL, two lanes each direction with a center turn lane) for most of our return trip, rather than diverting to smaller neighborhood streets after using the bigger road for a short stretch, as is our habit.

It’s not what I’d do every time, but for duo biking, it worked like a charm, and was much more pleasant than our route on the way there.  Plenty of space for us and other road users, two stops at stop lights as compared to over ten stop signs . . .  what’s not to love?

As we neared our turn, we heard a honk (the only honk we received in over a mile).  I would have thought nothing of it, shrugging it off as a the proverbial “territorial barking dog motorist,” but the man pulled up next to us with his window down and very sincerely praised our good work “claiming the lane.”  Talk about a great end to a lovely bike outing!!!

After a low-key afternoon (and blanching and freezing the asparagus), Matthew made a special dinner — spanikopita, using pie crust (super light and flaky thanks to his pastry chef skills!) instead of phyllo dough.

I enjoyed some solo time on actual Mother’s Day, which included two more bike rides.  I once again had a nice interaction with a motorist, when, stopped at a light in the through lane, the woman in the minivan in the right turn only lane next to me rolled down her window and very politely said that she just realized she was in the wrong lane and could she get in front of me.  Why, yes, and thank you for asking!

‘Twas a weekend of abundant good, weather, good spirits, and biking!  Hope your weekend was lovely as well.