May 20, 2010 - Walking and Biking

Riley has no idea that extremely expensive and high performing bikes are right behind her, lined up and ready for the Tour of California

The riders arrive in these tour buses. Lance Armstrong is on team RadioShack, and as you can see the fans crowded around hoping to get a glimpse

These support cars carry extra bikes in case the riders have a problem. Lance had to switch out bikes on this particular day so he finished the race on one of these

George Hincapie is one of my favorite cyclists. Look at his legs, these guys are in crazy shape!

We found a good spot to watch the riders line up and Lance Armstrong rode right by us

Mommy and Riley at the startline

After the racers depart, the long line of support cars that carry extra bikes, parts, water, food, mechanics and coaches follow them down the road

They departed from Ocean Beach in San Francisco, which wasn't crowded at all even though it was a beautiful day

So we played in the sand. Riley loved pouring it on top of herself.

Afterwards we ate lunch in Golden Gate Park, right across the street from the beach

A cool windmill

The big exciting news this week is that Riley is finally walking. In the last few weeks she's taken a few steps at a time but suddenly she started going longer distances and now can walk across the room. She gets the biggest smile on her face as she goes, I think she really likes her newfound mobility. She still primarily crawls and has trouble on uneven surfaces but definitely has made huge progress towards becoming a biped.

This week Riley and I took a fantastic field trip to San Francisco to watch the start of Tuesday's stage of the Tour of California. This is a pretty important bike race in America and some of the top cyclists from the US and Europe participate. They bike 812 miles from northern to southern Cali over 8 days. Riley and I arrived at the start line about an hour before the race began so we were able to see the bikes up close (these are amazing machines) and got even closer to some of our favorite cyclists including Lance Armstrong. Technically I'm not sure who Riley's favorites are, but Levi Leipheimer, an American who has won this race the last 3 years, smiled right at her as he rode by us after his warm-up ride, so I'm sure she likes him now! As always, Riley enjoyed watching all the people and I was very excited to have the chance to see a professional race. Chad and I watch to Tour de France every year on TV but it was quite a different experience to be in the middle of all the riders and people. Something I'll always remember and a good story to tell Riley when she's older.