Saturday Perfection

We had the best adventure on Saturday. It was just the perfect summer day. I'm going to have to come back to this post in the middle of February when it is cold and dreary and remind myself how amazing Cleveland can be in the summer time.

We started off the day with a bike ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We rode our bikes on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath trail. The path that we rode used to be where the mules would pull the canal boats up to Lake Erie. It is a 20-mile trail, but we only rode about 12 miles and stopped to enjoy a picnic lunch and a demonstration by the park rangers of the old lock system that used to be in place to allow the canal boats to adapt to changes in elevation.

Nora was an angel on her little seat on the back on my bike. Sadly, we left the camera in the car.

Instead of riding back, we took the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. They have an awesome program which allows bike riders to load their bikes on the train and ride for only $2 per bike. Nora was so excited to be on a train. The conductor waved at us as he drove by and Nora squealed with excitement. The Bike Aboard program is just fantastic, and I highly recommend this for any interested Clevelanders.

Richard ran to the car to snap these pictures of us outside of the train. Nora was just so happy!

I don't know why she isn't smiling here. Maybe it is me :) Sorry these pictures stink. Richard just asked me if the lens is dirty. Probably. Nora likes to play with the camera. I'm sure she has gotten her little grubby paws on the lens.

After our bike ride, we went to pick blueberries. We haven't done this with Nora before, so I wasn't sure if she was going to enjoy it. Additionally, she had only napped for about 15 minutes in her little bike seat, so we were sure that she was going to have a meltdown. Thankfully, we were wrong! She was a natural blueberry picker and had a ball putting the berries into her little bucket.

Nora and Richard, on the hunt.

Nora with her very own little, blue pail.

Picking the berries.

More berries picked by Nora.

We enjoyed some delicious blueberry pancakes tonight thanks to our efforts.

We ended the day by going to Five Guys for some delicious cheeseburgers. I haven't been to a Five Guys since I moved from DC in 2005. It was better than I remembered. The only downside of this part of the adventure is that they cook in peanut oil and have peanuts available for the customers to eat while they wait in line. Richard and I were super nervous about this (Nora has a peanut allergy), so we pretty much kept her confined to her high chair and ran out of there as soon as we were done. Nora was so bummed that she didn't get to eat the french fries that we had to stop at Wendy's so she could get some fries of her own. We are such pushovers.

It was the perfect summer day.