Media Center Pedaling Around the Island – II

Pedaling Around the Island – II

With summer in full swing our adventure this Saturday morning started much earlier than usual. We headed out the door by 8:30 am to make our way toward the garden. The family garden has been very successful to this point. Just the other day we made all our own fixins’ from the garden – green beans, new potatoes, peppers and tomatoes to go along with pulled pork from Southern Soul BBQ. YUMMY doesn’t even describe the combination of semi-homemade!

The garden was just a quick stop to see how much longer until the okra and corn would be ready to be pulled and then we were on our way to the library. The library is located in the old Casino building and adjacent to Neptune Park (site of Palmer’s weekly playground adventures!) Palmer was SUPER excited to get her first library card and check out all they had to offer. So excited that her heart sank when we arrived at the library and they were not open yet. A big ‘oops’ on my part.

I used some quick thinking and decided to occupy our time with other fun activities while we waited for the doors to open. The casino patio is full of big white rocking chairs and a wonderful view of the water. So we jumped in the chairs and pulled out our morning snack. Palmer loves to “roooock, rock…. roooock, rock” until she gets tired and exclaims, “Mommy push me!”  After snack time we pulled Palmer’s soccer ball out of the bike trailer and played in the field at Neptune Park. It is a perfect place for kids and adults to run around and enjoy themselves. In fact, Palmer quickly remembered that we had gotten our kite from the Easter Bunny stuck in one of the big trees! Just a tip – flying a kite for the first time in 20 years near big trees on a windy day is not the ideal situation. Luckily, we saved the string and Papa is going to get us a new kite soon!

Finally 10:00 was upon us. The doors opened and to Palmer’s surprise she received a sheet of stickers for being the first guest of the day! What a great start to our Library trip. A little paperwork later we were card holders and headed back to the kids section for our first adventure. Palmer quickly found all the wonderful pop-up books and was situated on a colorful kids’ rug with books laid out all around her. Her favorite book of the day was a close call but I think “5 Little Lady Bugs” won her over with its similarity to “5 Little Speckled Frogs”. (You all know the song, right?) We started getting a little antsy so I decided it was best to move on to our next morning adventure.

Palmer has quite the memory at age 2. As we were riding through the Village she immediately spotted St. Simons Sweets (home of her favorite marshmallow pop) and starting begging very nicely to please stop.  After processing the fact that she had a very healthy breakfast and snack I decided that a marshmallow at 11:00 am wouldn’t be the end of the world. It was a quick stop but an enjoyable one for the little lady.

Typically our biking adventures would last much longer than today’s but the heat had really set in at this point and it was time to get Palmer back home, hydrated, fed and rested for the afternoon. I never thought I would have the opportunity to take my daughter to the library via bike and trailer. And to be honest wasn’t sure that we would even see the inside of a library by this point in her life. It was just another great experience and reason why we are loving life on the island.

We know there are so many other adventures out there to find and enjoy. If you have some in mind please pass along, and we would love to experience all of them! Also, share your island adventure stories. You never know, they might just get published, too!