For a pre-Mother’s Day bike ride, my family and I are biking part of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.  This planned 14-mile recreation and transportation route will connect Greenpoint and Sunset Park, tow Brooklyn neighborhoods that people outside the city have rarely heard of, let alone visit.

The family friendly – and free! - bike tour along the route of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway starts in Greenpoint, which is where the amazing Van Leeuwen ice cream store makes the delicious ice cream for its trucks. But the ride starts at 10am, too early for ice cream.

We are riding through DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) where the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has its store.  Oddly, the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory also makes its ice cream in Greenpoint, but Greenpoint’s residents seem no larger than the average Brooklyn-ite. Again, sadly, we will hit DUMBO around 11:30, too early for ice cream.

The bike tour winds up in Red Hook, in a park near IKEA. A long bike path runs past IKEA to fishing piers; the path is flat, un-crowded and as close to serene as you can get, if you ignore the industrial plants across the water.

We all scream. Even better, the tour ends around 1, ice cream time. Steve’s Key Lime Pie makes a frozen key lime pie on a stick, dipped in ice cream. Tehnically not ice cream, it is delicious nonetheless.

You can take this ice cream, er, bike tour by yourself any time, of course. Or come back to Brooklyn for a bike tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, April through October of each year.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Modell’s Sporting Goods is giving away a Champion Sports Bra.  One winner will be chosen at random. To enter, leave a comment about how you are celebrating Mother’s Day.

< Prev		Next >