A Taste Of Freedom

It has been 14 months since our little one arrived and turned our whole world upside down. As anyone who has kids can attest to, your lifestyle goes through quite a change. Gone are the carefree days spent pursuing one’s own interests. Gone are the days of eating your food while it is still hot. Gone is sleeping through the night.

Now I know I have painted an amazing picture of parenthood and I would be shocked if all you people who aren’t parents are thinking how do I get me some of that good life. All joking aside being a parent is extremely rewarding, but also extremely different from our previous life.

Mrs. Flip It and I were talking and we realized that we hadn’t been out to dinner, just the two of us, since before our little girl had been born. In fact, we each had done precious little of anything we used to do.  So we decided to have a day for just the two of us, a bit of a staycation. One day where we drop the little one off at daycare and do whatever we want.

This led us into a deeper conversation about what we would do day to day if all of our days were free days. What would our lives be like if we didn’t have to go into an office for the majority of the day? What would we do to occupy our time? I will have to do a full blog post on that conversation at some point, but for now, let’s focus on what we decided to do for our staycation.

We got up in the morning just like any other day and went through the mad rush that is getting a toddler ready for daycare. Things went smoother than normal with no threat of being late for work looming over our heads. We got the little one dropped off with no issues and headed off to breakfast at a nearby restaurant. I will admit we did feel a bit of guilt leaving our daughter behind, but it helped to know that our daycare is amazing is she was probably going to have much more fun there than tagging along with Mom and Dad for breakfast.  

We enjoyed a great breakfast, it was hot and everything and even found time to enjoy a second cup of coffee. It was great just to chat with each other without worrying if a meltdown was about to occur. We were seated by a large group of seniors, because who else is out having breakfast at 9:00 am on a workday. tThey were surprisingly rowdy and provided great entertainment.

After breakfast, we headed home took a few minutes to tidy up the morning chaos and then loaded the bikes onto the car. We drove downtown and dropped off a library book before heading out on the trails. One of the best things about the city we live in is its active transportation network. The city has done a great job reclaiming old rail line and repurposing it for biking and walking trails, the result is a beautiful trail system that extends for kilometers.

We biked for the rest of the morning after a quick pit stop to fix a few flat bike tires (this is what happens when you haven’t had the bikes out all summer). We explored the trails at our leisure, stopped at interesting locations, took in the amazing river views and all in all, had a great time.

After we got back to the city center we locked our bikes up and headed to a brewpub for lunch. My second favorite thing about our city is it’s a mecca for craft brew with many amazing beverages to choose from. We enjoyed a lovely lunch, more pleasant conversation and a few delicious beverages.

Then we were off to you pick some raspberries and blueberries at a local farm. Mrs. Flip It has been wanting to get a big batch of jam put together and the weather was so nice we thought what could be better than hanging out in a field and enjoying some sun. By about mid-afternoon, we finished up our berry picking and headed back to the daycare to pick up the little one.  Then it was homeward bound for a nice family supper.

It was a great day, we were tired at the end of it still, but a happy kind of tired. What would you do with a free day?