Category Archives: Family biking

Cape Cod Vs. The Hamptons

As a Boston resident, I’ve frequently visited the Falmouth area of Cape Cod. As a New York native, I am in the Hamptons every summer for a week or two. In both cases, we visit family and don’t have a place of our own. We don’t want the hassle of owning a second home, but, occasionally, I might day dream about the type of location I would pick for a “country home”. I would start to think about the activities I would want to fill my leisure time with. Hiking, biking, or skiing would lead me to the mountains or the forests. Sun bathing, sailing and swimming would require water and a beach or shore. Another critical choice that is not well considered is how to commute to those leisurely activities. Researchers have shown that people underestimate the cost of long commutes to their well-being when selecting a house (See this Science Blog article). I would guess that individuals who make second home decisions spend little time thinking about how they will get around, unless their main sport is biking.

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Biking for Milkshakes

We receive a good number of gift cards to restaurants and retail establishments throughout the year. Planning when to use them can be tricky amidst our busy two-child family schedule. For this reason, a perfectly good $100 gift card to a great restaurant sat in our nightstand drawer for over two years. We finally dug it out in search of something unique to do during our atypically quiet July 4th weekend. The most unique part of our dining experience was not the dining, however – though the food was very good – it was how we got there.

The Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant closest to us is in Watertown, just a short block from the same Dr. Paul Dudley White Bike Path that passes close to where we live in Back Bay. Biking there seemed to me to be the most fun and logical option. Unfortunately, my 7 year old son did not agree. To be fair, his longest bike ride was hardly 20 minutes, and that was about a year ago. This trip is almost 7 miles one-way if you take the scenic route, along the Charles River. Realizing that we were asking a lot from our kids, my husband and I reset our expectations and agreed that plan B probably involved returning home hungry with an unused gift card.

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