Beach Cruisin'...minus the beach.

Arizona is a pretty sweet state to live in.  On our absolute worst day of the year, including our worst possible weather, we can still leave our homes and go about our daily lives.  In a lot of other states, that's not so true.

During most of the year in Arizona, the weather is nice enough that just about everyone should be walking or riding a bike if they are traveling anywhere less than 5 miles.  I know, that's a bold statement, but it's true.  There's absolutely no need to drive your car when you are traveling such a short distance!  Obviously, there are exceptions.  But for the most part, we all could walk or bike.

My wife and I are pretty lucky.  We have two grocery stores within just a couple of miles, our church is only about five miles away, and we have some family that only lives about a mile away.  And just about any time we are going to one of these places, we go beach cruisin'.

My baby

There she is.  My glorious beach cruiser.  If you're new to the geography scene, then you may not know that Arizona doesn't actually have an beaches to cruise, so it's more like dirt, or sand cruiser.  Whatever.  This set-up has actually proven to be quite useful for us.  The basket up front serves for quick access, or a larger water bottle holder.  Note that there is a cup holder, but it's pretty small.  The bags on the rear of my bike can actually hold a lot of stuff.  Between my bike and my wife's bike, we can go to the grocery store and get all the groceries we need, and be able to get them home with no problem!

But what about my daughter?  Well, one of the great things about my job is that I have a lot of very nice coworkers.  One of those coworkers in particular was nice enough to loan us a Cougar bike stroller (which is a very nice bike trailer).

The bike trailer

This trailer is very comfortable, breathable, and super easy to get on and off of my bike.  My daughter really enjoys riding in it, and I think it's a great way for her to see my wife and I getting outside and being active.  Soon enough she'll be riding her own bike, but for right now we're going to stick with the bike trailer.

If you do a lot of short trip driving, I seriously recommend you look into getting yourself a cheap cruiser bike.  The one's we bought weren't too expensive (I think around $100 on Walmart.com).  In the long run, it will save you money, and get you outside and active!