The trip was timed so John and I could help a friend celebrate a milestone birthday Saturday evening. We didn't really have any other plans. The beach is always a popular option, but it turned out to be a bit chilly for that (lovely--no complaints! but not exactly beach weather.) I happened to notice a small calendar listing in the Tribune Saturday morning that turned into a very fun outing.
A group called Open Streets Chicago was having its annual event down the Loop, which closed State Street to vehicles from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. That left the street wide open for a variety of activities including bikes, skateboards, rock climbing, large building blocks, sack races, chalk art and more. And as if it weren't already exciting enough to be in the street downtown, we also took the subway to get there. If there had been a firetruck I think it would have been our boys' perfect day.
We carried their bike helmets and Razor scooter, which we were glad of, even though the bag was bulky. After seeing the volunteers "spray cleaning" a pile of used skateboard helmets, I was very happy to have ours with us. It was too bad there was no easy way to bring their bikes, as the ones available for check out were too large. But Daniel did not let that stop him. We eventually just worked out a system where rode from my dad to me, stationed about half a block apart and yelled out, "I'm getting ready to stop!" so that we could catch him.
He actually mastered the hand brake pretty quickly, but the bike was much too large for him to get a foot down to the ground as he stopped. After a few successful maneuvers, he took a tumble that convinced him to switch to his own scooter. Edward narrowly missed his own disaster when he unwittingly turned in front of a tandem approaching him from behind. Luckily the tandem driver took quick action to avoid disaster. I didn't see the incident, but my mom carries the psychic scars of the near miss.
A good time was had by all!
