This past weekend was designated as Barker Family Fun Weekend. Since February, our weekends have been booked and while we loved every one of them, we haven't had the opportunity to just hang out as the three of us. Plus, we had a Ski Patrol banquet on Saturday night that precluded any major travel plans.
The sun came out. And, seriously, if that was all that had happened, that alone would have made Barker Family Fun Weekend a success. Score one for the Barker family.
We made "meh" plans to register The Hizzle in her first bike race ever- the Kiddie Kilo at the Eric Kautzky Memorial Track Race. As it turned out, we showed up too late and missed out. But we did get to see some track racing and bike friends and Hizz wore her bike helmet all morning. Score two points for the Barker family!
We all came home and *shocker* went on a bike ride. Since PIR last week, I have done ZERO training rides, but I have gone on several rides with my family. As everyone else in the bike racing universe goes on century rides and does sweaty intervals at 6am, I am...well, I am decidedly NOT doing those things.Racing performance will undoubtedly suffer. Life satisfaction will not because, really. Have you ever ridden your bike next to the toddler featured above? Enough said.
Everyone concluded Barker Family Fun Weekend Part I at the Ski Patrol banquet at Timberline Lodge where we all stayed up too late and clapped too loudly. And then we drove home at an ungodly hour. I think it was 11pm.
The next day, in case you live in a cave, was Mother's Day. Seeing as I am a mother, I got to do whatever I wanted. What I really wanted was to do was go to Hawaii, but I am constrained by this budget thing. It is such a bore. As a completely worthwhile alternative, I wanted to go on a food cart tour of Portland by bike. It was almost as good as Hawaii.
If you happen to live outside the Portland bubble, the food cart thing is big around here. So big it has its own website. I won't explain it because the website does a much better job. The plan was to hit up three food cart pods and a couple parks. We only made it to two pods because we ate too dang much.
Oops.
We did, however, get a whopping 15 miles in and I took a nap. Three points for the Barker family!
I have a lot to talk about like seeing Isabel Allende speak and consequently wanting to marry her, forcing Barkernews to take up track racing, rumblings on the job front (good ones, not to worry), and my own future in bike racing (your guess is as good as mine), and big camping plans this coming weekend, but it's 9pm and that means this Cinderella is about to turn in to a pumpkin. Until the next Barker Family Fun Weekend which starts in approximately 20 hours and counting...
