Perhaps it’s the warm summer air that lightly tickles my skin as I glide across the pavement or perhaps it’s the wind in my face when I kick it up into athletic mode, but whatever it is, I have to say, I am in LOVE with biking.

I’m not sure what I did in previous summers without a bicycle, because ever since I clunked my butt onto one of those seats, I’ve been obsessed. I bought my CCM wheels at Canadian Tire – one for me (linked here), my hubby and each of our kids. We’ve kind of made it our quarantine family activity. It began with little outings around our home or up and down our street, but it didn’t take long for us to turn it into our new favourite mode of transportation.

Recently, my daughters and I put in an order at Calem for ice cream, popped onto our bikes and cycled the 6.1km to the ice cream shop, and of course, the 6.1km back. Up and down our beautiful Montreal hills. It was such a lovely way to spend the evening with my girls. I think aside from the fact that we got in some exercise as we spent time together (always a plus in my books!), I think the part that was the most bonding was how we communicated in the streets and looked out for each other as we safely wove in and out of each neighbourhood.

There are so many ways to keep busy and stay together as a family. I am a huge advocate of game night, cooking together, eating together, and just keeping things simple as long as we are all together as a family. Now we have a new activity to keep us together. We even threw our bikes into the trunk of my car and lugged them up north for a fun family ride in the warm country air.

I think that although lockdown has brought out some hard realities, it has also shown us what is essential, what’s important, and what our true priorities are. Yeah, it’s been hard to abstain from life as usual: the gym, coffee dates, social nights with friends, and the hardest for me has been slowing down on the work hustle! But, I have my family and we have our health. We have gotten pretty creative and resourceful in thinking of ways to keep ourselves busy and happy, and hopefully when this is all behind us, we will have come out stronger and more resilient, and incidentally, will have amassed a few extra hobbies!

Photography by Patricia Brochu