Thursday, October 18, 2012

Biking Bonanza

Remember this post about my bike getting stolen? Well, I'm not sure I ever mentioned that I found the same red bike for sale on eBay a few weeks later. It's not an uncommon bike here, because it's made by Reid Cycles, an Australian company, but I did think for a second that it might actually be mine being resold by the thief (it wasn't). Anyway, so I have a red bike again, and on Sunday, Zack and I did a loooooong ride with Kristy and Nigel along the Yarra River. Kristy has the same bike as me, but hers is white.
After several kilometers of riding, we arrived at our destination, Fairfield Park Boathouse & Tea Gardens. This riverfront restaurant was extremely popular and crowded on this sunny Sunday, and we had to wait a long time for our food. In the meanwhile, we enjoyed sipping on spiders, which is what Australians call floats. You know, like root beer floats...soda with ice cream in it. We had a raspberry soda one, and it was delicious. 
This place really is a boathouse, and you can rent canoes and kayaks here to paddle around in the river. The whole area is very scenic with tall eucalyptus trees, a bridge, and ducks swimming around. I wish there had been a koala in one of the trees; that would have made the place perfect!

After lunch, Kristy shared her fairy floss, which is what Australians call cotton candy. If you're a longtime reader, you may remember that from the post about Zack's birthday last year. Anyway, we sat along the river and soaked up the sun for awhile (Zack even took a little nap!) before hopping back on our bikes for the long ride home. We got a bit lost for awhile and couldn't seem to find the path back to the river, but we eventually made it and biked home to collapse on the couch for the rest of the evening. We sure slept well that night. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon spent with friends, though it hurt a bit to bike to the store the next day!
Sipping on spiders-ignore the rogue piece of hair in my face!

8 comments:

  1. What a wonderful way to spend your Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So how far was the bike ride? You mention "several kilometers" but a mile is longer than a kilometer. Does someone need a bike odometer as a Christmas present? There are apps to chart distances traveled as well. When we walk the dogs somewhere new and random, I always turn on the app so we know how far and how long we went. It also comes in handy when we get lost. When there is not a blog entry for a few days, we assume you died somehow. Just saying...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not dead. Yeah, I should have turned on my iPhone app to see how far we went; I forgot. I'll do some more blog entries tonight so you can be entertained all week.

      Delete
  3. I wonder why they call them spiders...it just seems odd. They do look yummy though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See below! Thanks Anonymous-that actually makes sense!

      Delete
  4. Hi, they are called spiders because the ice cream scoop is the spider's body and when it melts it forms the legs, hopefully!

    ReplyDelete
  5. so cool!!! I've been really wanting to ride bikes along the yarra!!! where was your starting point?? I usually ride down the beach from the st kilda pier to brighton, you should def do it if you haven't already :) P.s. thanks so much for adding me to your blog roll! i've made a promise to myself to write more!!

    http://measuredbyvolume.blogspot.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We started our ride at our home in South Melbourne and joined up with the Yarra near the Botanic Gardens. We would often do the ride/run to Brighton when we lived in St Kilda-definitely a good one! Hope you're enjoying the warm weather...finally!

      Delete