CicLAvia ~ Iconic Wilshire Blvd ~ Ride Report

This event started at 9am and we rolled through the starting point just beyond Pershing Square at 1 Wilshire Blvd at 9:05am.  It was quiet to begin with, under great cloud-cover.  Westlake/MacArthur Park was a really pleasant surprise, since I've never seen it before.  Like a mini- Central Park for LA.

The architecture at Vermont and Wilshire was spectacularly colorful.  The Bullocks Wilshire/Southwestern Law School building (1929) with copper panels and the housing, retail and a public school surrounding a subway station (1996) make the area a bustling and dynamic multi-use city-space.

The Pellissier Building and Wiltern theater (1931) in green terracotta is another stunning structure.  The marquis advertises Patty Griffin, but my inner comic read Kathy Griffin, who I LOVE.

The Wilshire United Methodist Church was another eye-popping building.  It's spire is intricately decorated and it has a large rose window facing the street.  By the time we reached the turnaround at 5900 Wilshire Blvd, we were surrounded by cyclists.

I really enjoyed the display of the Berlin Wall sections.  It was a peaceful spot to lay in the grass and appreciate the music.  We didn't catch any of the advertised belly dancing, but I heard the music and knew it was coming soon.  The Variety Building (1971) is the tallest skyscraper on the Miracle Mile and has displayed ten segments of the Wall (the longest in the US) since 2009.

The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) is definitely something we will return to someday. We had fun posing with the Oscar statuettes outside LACMA. Ruben Ochoa's Dancing POPOS were really cool.  The theme of this ride seemed to be art & architecture and even though CicLAvia organizers encouraged this as the most walkable event, most of the participants were on bicycles!

There were two adorable costumed greeters outside the Korean Cultural Center at 5505 Wilshire. The Los Altos Apartments (1925) at 4121 Wilshire were totally iconic.  The Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (1961) was an ornately frescoed building that we noticed both coming and going at 4357 Wilshire.

Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park at 3410 Wilshire nearly brought tears to my eyes.  Actually what captured my interest was an out-of-service fountain at the intersection of Alexandria and Wilshire, a remnant of the demolished Ambassador Hotel (1921).

Most of the information presented here was found in a pamphlet prepared by Catherine Gudis based on the Los Angeles Conservancy's curatingthecity.org.  I got a few comments on my socks, one had multi-colored bicycles and the other was a rainbow all the way up to my knee.  Gudis also cites "Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in LA 1945-80."  Shoutout to PFLAGs!  I didn't know if they were complimenting me on the bicycle sock or the rainbow sock, since both people said "I like your sock."

T-shirts bearing the logo I (heart) K-town were for sale for $10 each and a group of volunteers out front of Immanuel Presbyterian Church at 3300 Wilshire were handing out free bottles of water (BIG THANKS!). Rolling back into downtown, we saw more cyclists than ever.  

A stop at the Westlake Theater (1936) for a traffic crossing was nice.  We noticed the gorgeous mural, which I now know depicts Jaime Escalante one of my biggest role models in life.  I first learned about this dogged calculus teacher like most other people by watching the movie Stand and Deliver (1988), in which he is portrayed by Edward James Olmos.  Both men are in the mural along with a graduate and a proud parent.

After a quick bite at Crepe'n Around, we headed back into LA Union Station and caught the train back to Glendale.  Overall, we had a great time with no accidents or mechanicals.  We are extremely grateful to all volunteers and workers (LADOT t-shirts were amazing) who made this event possible.

It's TIME: Pt. Reyes ~ Ride Report

A ride mapped on 03/21/2013 using a Garmin Forerunner 110

Sometimes when you do something so EPIC, you have to take a step back and see how that jewel fits into the crown of your existence.  This ride was certainly tops in LIFE so I have to express a bit of it here in my biking blog for posterity, of course.

A HUGE thanks to my dear aunt Anne for organizing and facilitating this transformative weekend. We took 1,066.27 ft of climbing in strong winds along Sir Francis Drake Blvd all the way until the end of the pavement.

Basking in the sun at the turnaround like a sea lion.  We saw so many different flowers and wildlife, including a coyote.  Also ran into an experiment station at the end of this tree-lined driveway.  It was a great pleasure to take an 11 mile recovery ride the following day out of that wind.  When a friend told me to bring a windbreaker, I'm glad I listened.  Also totally loving these gloves I found at a gas station in either KS or NE over our epic Christmas vacation.  Missing family right now, lots going on with cousins and sisters.  It's the dawning of the Age of Aquarius or something, like big things are happening for all of us.  Claiming the area like early explorers must have done felt really inspiring.   I always loved our in-house library with maps and photographs of ancient artifacts and cultures.  I wonder what will survive this modern digital age for the future generations.  Will this carbon fiber bike still be an artifact after 10,000 years or will it be broken down again to atoms and converted to another substance in this universe?

Things I learned from this ride:  hills kills.  Beware of cows.  Bring lots of CLIF.  Don't be afraid to lay in a grassy meadow.  Explore meandering pathways.  Sing in unison.  Sometimes all you need are two peas in a pod.  The experience of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center was incredibly authentic.  The powerful women we stared into each others eyes and shared deeply.  It was scary and uplifting.  Hiking the hills of Mount Tamalpais overlooking Stinson Beach was a moment in time that is completely priceless.  When I think back to the expansive views, I become speechless and calm from the inside out.  When you see yourself in that scale, the worries fade to grass and the peaks which seemed large are now just a part of the landscape.

LA River Ride (preview)

When my collaborator said Friday is writing day, I must have heard RIDING day because I took off on Friday afternoon at 2:30pm like a bullet and overshot my destination.  It's easy to do on the LA River Bike Path, which takes you along the I-5 corridor.

The wildflowers were spectacular and the skies couldn't have been bluer.  I met my mirror image.  At a stoplight.  She wanted to ride with me, perhaps considering I was wearing as much fluorescent yellow as possible in addition to reflectors.  With the help of her mobile device and McDonald's free WiFi, I got back home without reaching my original destination.  Something about the next turn being 'Apex' I knew there would be no soon end to the climbing and I was out of gas.

Sometimes it's fun to see where the city leads you.  There were two streets I identified with.  One I called out 'Muhlenstrasse' because it was steep like the street in Jena I used to push my bike up on foot rather than choke halfway up.  It was actually called Alessandro.  Why is it always a freakin' hill?  That guy must have been one powerful dude if every street named after him is a long climb.  Made me think of a friend from Jena of the same name.

Long days give way to high productivity.  I can feel the solstice coming, it's only 10 days away.  From LACC you can see a cathedral of Scientology, the Hollywood sign, and Griffith Observatory; it might be fun to visit the last one on the solstice.  They have a cool sculpture that reads out the time and date by objects' shadows and alignment with the heavenly bodies and the energy emanating from them.

20 miles of SMILES

Speaking of collecting photons...The radish (easter egg blend) seeds are almost ready to harvest.  Spinach too.  Harvested Mexican Poppy seeds today.  Lettuce and chard are bolting.  Squash is flowering and fruiting.  So are tomato and pepper.  So is basil.  I started more radish (white icicle), new carrots (Danvers #126), new salad mix, and a bunch of herbs that I haven't had in awhile.  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.  Spell it with me!  Made some new seed packets too.  And a new set of QR codes.  Just need popsicle sticks to finish that project.  And time, love, and tenderness.

Corona del Mar Scenic 5k ~ Race Report

The Corona del Mar Scenic 5k provided us what it always has, sweeping views and more food than you can fit on one paper plate.  This year, we ran in the Men's Race although in previous years we have run the Women's Race.  We stayed at the DoubleTree Club in Santa Ana to be nearer to the starting line.

It was super fun running with a large representation of family members, my husband and his mom, her husband, my sister-in-law and her husband, and their two children (8 people).  The weather was fantastic, cool and overcast with a slight breeze, although at one point it seemed we were running at exactly the wind speed since we only felt the breeze while walking but lost it when we started jogging again.

CdM5k 2013 Course Map

I won't bore you with the details of how we placed, let's just say we ran 12.5 minute miles and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Staying down there for the weekend allowed us to get a total body workout, running the CdM5k on Saturday and Kayaking around Newport harbor on Sunday.  We caught a bit of the Balboa Island Parade while stopping at Pavilions for a bathroom break.  Hot chocolate and doughnuts were our Kayaking turnaround treat.  Even though it was overcast while we were out on the water, it wasn't too windy and we didn't flip once!

Kayaking Route

I thought of the poem containing the line "One if by land, and two if by sea;" and I'm not sure if it applies here.  Maybe if we consider ourselves "attacking" a fitness routine, our metabolism will respond doubly if we challenge it at sea. Or maybe it means when we're done with a workout, we can eat an ice cream cone with one scoop if we did a 3.2 mile run (337 Cal) and two scoops if we do 5.3 miles of kayaking (1048 Cal). Working out at the beach is the best.  BTW, Happy national running day!