The Family Pedaler

It doesn't take much searching on the Internet to find local blogs about life in and around DC.  There are even quite a few DC bike commuter blogs that have useful information, tips for new comers, interesting stories and irreverent observations from the bike paths, lanes, sharrows, and streets of DC (Many of them are very witty, well written and informative and I encourage you to check them out in the list of links).  My wife and I have started this blog, "The Family Pedaler" not just to add another voice to the conversation, but to add a different, often underrepresented viewpoint -- stories, tips, and insight from people who are active in DC biking, but ride with their kids, and live in car-centric Fairfax County, Virginia.

In the blog entries that will follow we intend to review kid-toting equipment and local businesses that have helped us along our way.  We will describe great ways we have found to bring the kids along for a ride.  We will scrapbook our bike-filled vacations whether we explore different parts of the country our our own community by Bike, Tag-a-long, and Trailer.  We will also try to answer any questions you our reader may have about biking in DC with or without kids.  Lastly we hope to entertain you with stories from our family life.

Before we get started a few introductions are in order:

"Hi my name is Mike, I'm a civilian employee for the Navy who commutes daily by bike and bike/transit/bike to work in SE DC from Fairfax, VA.  My favorite part about biking in DC is meeting the great, helpful, and caring community of fellow bicyclists and sharing these encounters and experiences with my wife and kids."

"I'm Keow, Mike's wife.  I am a stay at home Mom who as much as possible gets out of the house on bike with our kids.  I also work part time as a children's education program instructor with our county Rec Centers.  I love the feeling of accomplishment I get and seeing the smiles on our kids faces when we reach some far-flung destination by bike."

"I'm Dougie, I'm 7."  "I'm Ben, I'm 5."  "I'm Jack, I'm 4," no Jack you are only 3, "Right, I'm 3."  "We call our bike the Red Streak Express!

Thank you for joining us on this journey.  In life as on the trail with the kids, we may be a little slower, but we are strong -- strong enough to get up any hill that life puts in our way, and I can guarantee we will be smiling when we get to the top.