One of the rules, of course, is the no-shoes rule.  Which brings me to the top-ten reasons for bringing extra socks to the ballpark.  

Reasons 1-10: packing a pair of socks means you're prepared when your kid wants to head for the funzone, and not picturing All The Gross that their bare feet (and 10 adorable toes) could pick up while they're in there. 

We'd ridden portions of the path, called Forbidden Drive (because cars are forbidden) with the afterburner trailer bike last year and earlier this spring, and thought we'd ride down to the historic Rittenhouse Town this time - about 2 miles downhill from the Inn, and back up.  We were planning on building up to a ride all the way down to the Schuykill River (3.5 miles one way), and eventually connecting that to a ride around East and West River Drives, past the art museum.  That ride would be about 15 miles, with substantial uphill at the end, so we (ok, my husband) advised ourselves to take it in portions for now.  

To our surprise, we missed the turn for Rittenhouse Town, the weather was lovely, and we kept pedaling, finding ourselves at the end of Forbidden Drive, looking at the Schuykill River before we knew it.  We were thrilled, but decided to turn around and complete the uphill before adding the river circuit to our route.  The junior member of our biking party had already weighed in that she was ready for a soft pretzel (they sell these at the Valley Green Inn snack bar), and we didn't want to end up suffering at the end of a long ride.  As we began to pedal back uphill, onlookers commented on our daughter's ability to help my husband by pedaling the trailer bike, and cheered her on.  She grinned ear to ear.  We stopped for water and raisins a few times back up, and ended up rolling into view of the Inn about 2 hours after we left it - not a bad 7 mile circuit with a steep grade.  

What we took with us:  lots of water, raisins, two bananas, and sunscreen in a daypack; and  two multi-speed hybrid bikes, one rigged with an afterburner trailer bike for our daughter.

The biggest surprise was that we got up the next morning excited to try another ride - this one along the Schuykill out to Valley Forge, and also closed to cars.  The trailbook has the route going from the Art Museum to Valley Forge National Park (21 miles), with an optional addition of a 6 mile circuit around the park.  There is a parking lot next to the trail a little more than halfway through, in a town called Conshohocken, so we drove to the parking lot and began our ride there.  The day was very hot, and this trail, while mostly flat, is not shaded.  Nevertheless, the path was filled with bikers of all types, including some obviously competitive teams.   We went slower than them, of course, and took about 2 1/2 hours to ride out and back, following the very industrial scenery and catching site of the river now and then.  

What we learned - for a hot spring day, the portion of the Schuykill Trail that we rode is very hot, as there is little-to-no shade, unless you go early.  Pack lots of water, wear lots of sunscreen, sunglasses, etc., and take breaks as needed.  It's flat, so there are many opportunities for looking at the different parts of the landscape, but it is a pretty tough ride for the person hauling the afterburner, once the kid on the afterburner gets bored and decides to put her feet up for a while.  

What we also learned - we can bike a lot further, and faster, than we thought we could.  More importantly, this is a great thing to do together, in some incredibly scenic and historic areas, on a cool summer morning.  Especially if there are ice cream cones or soft pretzels at the end of the ride.

A reason why we've gone back, aside from the delight we take in letting her heave a heavy object around someone else's wood floor for once, is that bowling is a lot different than you remember.  There are bumpers that keep the ball out of the gutter, for one.  And some lanes have assist-ramps that speed up the glacial pace of a toddler-powered ball, so that you can get off the lanes before the leagues roll in.  

That leads me to the last reason why we still go bowling from time to time: the look on her face when she knocks down a bunch of pins. And the way we all get to cheer each other on.

And for what it's worth?  Bowling alleys are loud enough to handle a couple kids' birthday parties at a time, without anyone much noticing a difference; so any mid-morning meltdowns just kind of disappear into the slightly-sticky carpet as if they never happened.  Plus, the bowling shoes still rock.

A few things to bring when you go:

• Socks.  Seriously.  Don't forget socks.
• A snack, or a couple quarters for a snack.
• Your choice of hand cleaner, before they reach for the snack.

So here's my tip for Not Traveling with a child, and yet not just plugging that child into the TV for 10 straight days of stir-craziness:  Prezzies!

At Christmas, as usual, M received far more gifts than he could play with, let alone remember. So we confiscated about 1/3 of them, and stored them away for a rainy day.  This counted.  Some were small (Matchbox cars, new Thomas-the-Tank-engine vehicles), some were big (a kid-sized art table and easel), and some were of course electronic (a plug-and-play set of Star-Wars-themed video games).  We doled them out with little fanfare, and in no apparent pattern; after all, we don't want him to start believing that every day should start with the gift of a new toy, but when he'd hit the absolute depths of boredom, or when we needed a few minutes of sanity-repairing adult time, hey, new stuff to play with!

We also did analog stuff together - we made butter in the food processor, and used the buttermilk to make pancakes.  Cooking is one of M's favorite pasttimes, although when he complained that it was taking SO LONG for the cream to become butter, I considered shipping him to the Amish for a month or so.  We also made and decorated cupcakes (a mistake, as he ate about 12 of them when I wasn't looking), made suet and put it out for the birds, played simple games, read books (lots and lots of this), and drew pictures together.

I'm not going to say that I'm not relieved things are getting back to normal.  M's a raging extrovert and needs to get back to school and have more people around than just us, and I will be happy to get back to work and start earning money again.  But I was awfully glad that we'd rationed his embarrassment of riches at Christmas, and glad that we all found things to do that didn't involve the TV.