June 26, 2012. Cuyahoga Valley, day 1.

We drove to Richfield, Ohio yesterday, arrived in time to have dinner, play in the playscape, and go to bed. This morning we ate breakfast and headed to the Towpath Trail. We got the bikes out of the trailer and assembled them, and it was after 9 AM when we finally got on the bikes and headed north.

Here is Toby, our oldest grandson--he is a very good rider and we have no concerns about him riding on this trip.

Here are Laura and Erika:  Laura folded up her white cane and stowed it in the bike bag and got on the back of the tandem. Erika, the taller of the two, is our daughter and Toby's mom.

This our son-in-law Francis, with grandson Adam. Adam is riding a trail-a-bike behind his dad. This is his first multi-day bike trip. Doesn't he look ready to rumble?

Daughter Alison is Francis's wife, mother to Adam and Delia, shown here with her mom. Alison has been on bike trips before, but not with the kids, and not ever while pregnant! We all think she will do fine...

And here are Bill and me--known more commonly as Grandpa and Grandma on this trip!

We started out from Peninsula, Ohio and headed north on the trail. We stopped to see some locks along the way--this was the towpath for the Ohio and Erie Canal. Remnants of the locks and other structrures remain along the route, which follows the Cuyahoga River in many places. The path is very flat, and mostly fine gravel with a few sections that are paved. There is a train that runs parallel to the path but we found out this morning that it only runs Wednesday through Sunday.

We had heard from our friend Fred that Brandywine Falls was worth seeing, so we went off the path onto the road. Looking at the map, it was little over a mile to get from the towpath to the Metro Park bike path which went right to the falls... piece of cake, right? But that mile or so was all uphill! I guess we should have realized when the name of the road was Highland, and there were signs directing us to the ski hills! Toby and I climbed the hill in our granny gears, me with the trailer behind me. It was quite some time before the rest of the crew arrived, having walked up the steepest parts of the hill.

After several miles on the lovely paved Metro Park bike path, we arrived at the falls. But there was a long series of steps and boardwalks to get to the falls. Erika, Laura, and Bill decided not to take the hike.

Alison, Francis, Adam, Delia, Toby and I made the hike, and enjoyed seeing the falls. After that we all ate our picnic lunch and headed back to the towpath. We had a long crazy downhill section on the way there, and then one little steep hill before we got there.

We stopped at the Boston Visitors' Center, and looked around. It is in an old building that was built in 1836. There also were restrooms and a water fountain where we filled up our water bottles. And a little store across the street.

After we got back to the truck and loaded all the bikes and trailer, we started back, but of course had to stop for ice cream! Homemade ice cream at that.... then we returned to the hotel and swam in the pool until almost dinnertime.

We all showered and headed out to the Winking Lizard for dinner,which was superb! We were all very pleased with our food, had ice cream again, and called it a day. I remember telling Alison on her first multi-day bike trip that when you ride you need to have beer or ice cream at the end of the day, sometimes both! She did not believe me at the time, but this was one of those "both" days!