#YVRFamilyBiking Easter Bonnet Ride

Some of the festive Easter Bonnets & bikes

Saturday's inaugural Vancouver Family Biking Easter Bonnet Ride was a great success, with more than two dozen riders, ranging in age from nine months to none of your business. ;)

We all met up at Science World, adding streamers to handlebars & pipe cleaners to everything. Thanks to Tonya for getting all the supplies! Unfortunately a third of us arrived quite late due to technical difficulties with a borrowed bike & setting up the various child carrying arrangements for the first ride of the season. Thankfully we'd already decorated all our helmets in advance.

After several semi-successful attempts at a group photo--just no way to get the dozen children to all look the same direction--we headed out along the False Creek Seawall westward.

I seem to have sprouted an extra passenger in Jericho Park

We never actually did an official head count, but I think we had 27 people, 12 of them children. About half the kids rode on the backs of cargo bikes, or in bike seats on regular bikes, or in trailers, & the rest rode along with us on their own bikes. With four cargo bikes in the group, it was easy to tow bikes if the smaller riders got tired, or just add one more to the pile, like in this picture on the right.

The weather was cool but mostly cooperative with only a couple very light showers during our ride. Possibly because of the indecisive weather, the seawall wasn't too busy, & what pedestrians we did encounter gave our two dozen rabbit-eared riders smiles & a wide berth. 

All the kids seemed to enjoy the ride & aside from some rumbling bellies, there were no complaints. We decamped for lunch at Jericho Beach, in a picnic area near the concession. One of our riders even brought candles & cupcakes for everyone to celebrate his wife's birthday. 

Happy birthday tooo yoooooooou!

After we'd eaten, chatted, rehydrated & the kids got a bit of time to run around on the beach, we biked to the other side of the park near a large patch of bramble that is home to a lot of feral rabbits. Our fearless leader Tonya handed out carrots & lettuce to feed the bunnies, & chocolate hens to feed the rest of us.

After we took a collective 1000 photos of children & rabbits being cute, we headed off for home. The ride back east was just as social & relaxed as on our way out. It's fun to be able to have a conversation while riding along quiet roads & off street paths. I enjoyed meeting some new people & getting to know others a little better. I had so much fun talking to people that I didn't take that many photos during the ride. :)

We had so many smiles, laughs & comments about parades from passersby that we definitely want to do another costumed ride again in the near future. (Your theme suggestions are welcome!)

The next #YVRFamilyBiking ride will be in May, or possibly sooner if there's enough interest. Join Vancouver Family Biking on Facebook, follow @YVRFamilyBiking on Instagram & Twitter for updates! If you want to share your family biking with us, add the hashtag #YVRFamilyBiking to your posts on social media. :)

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