Chambers Creek: Home to family friendly walking/biking!

Water fountains, bathrooms and a view -- oh my! Today our family discovered that Chambers Creek is so more than home to a top-notch golf course.

The Eldest has been ACHING to ride her bike beyond the alley and beyond the block. But as a newbie biking family, we don't know many good, safe routes. Neighborhood riding is a lot of stop and starts and watching out for driveways and alleyways and intersections. A little much when the girl is still on training wheels, and mom and dad's bikes still needs to head to the shop for tune-ups and tires before they can join, and while there's still two other smaller ones to worry about.

And so we decided to try out the new trails at Pierce County's Chambers Creek. While venturing blindly down random trails, we almost took the Soundview Trail. That's the one that winds through parts of the new Chambers Bay golf course. I took one look at that more than 10% hill and quickly vetoed that path. Not only did I not want to be walking up or down that hill, I definitely didn't want to deal tugging two kids in a wagon up and down that sucker, or a cranky kid who was about to have to walk her bike up and down a giant hill as the majority of her "bike ride."

I figured there HAD to be a better way. And there was.

The Grandview Trail. A picture of perfection for a family consisting of a newbie bike rider, parents pulling a wagon of children, a family looking for a decently aerobic trail, a family who might need drinking fountains and restrooms.

Any trail where the Baby Girl can pull her brother in the wagon for half a mile is pretty darn fabulous if you ask me ...



I'm still rather shocked about the staggered water fountains, available at human AND dog heights. The trash receptacles magically appeared right when I finished my coffee, and then right when my husband finished his. And the restrooms were dreamy. (You heard me.) That's what the shelter is in the below photo.



And did I mention the view?



Plus, it was fun to finally get a peek at the Chambers Bay golf course ... which will be the home course for the 2010 U.S. Amateur & 2015 U.S. Open Championships -- so cool! And I don't even play golf. The Pierce County course is walking only, and so I see how golf could be good exercise ... that course is gorgeous, but it's quite a hike.



So all in all, a fabulous morning. The Eldest got to ride her bike more than 2 miles. Daddy got a bit of a run in. And Baby Girl and I worked up at least a bit of a sweat walking and dragging the wagon behind. The Boy? Well, he pretty much laid in the wagon the whole time. I guess we all need an occasional lazy day. But I'm guessing next time he'll be out there with his big sis on a bike, because I have a feeling ...

We'll be back.