bicycle adventure day

Ahoy,

My favorite adventures are always sprinkled with munchies along the way. A bicycle adventure I highly recommend is the Ballona Creek Bike Trail to Santa Monica. It's pretty easy and flat. Bonus, there are no stoplights. You can begin in Culver City along the Expo Line Bike Path. This feeds into the Ballona Creek Bike Trail, and from there you have a straight shot out to Marina Del Rey. Halfway along the path you can stop for a sandwich and paleta at Mateo's now or on your way back.

In Marina Del Rey, you can take a rest and water break at the UCLA MAC. Watch the sailboats and renters come in and out. From there, it's back on the bike path up to Venice and Santa Monica. I will warn you it's something of a traffic struggle in Venice what with all the other people. You'll encounter other cyclists - slow ones, old ones, young ones, fast ones, etc. You might get caught behind a family, folks riding astride, or slow people. Most of the time it will seem like no one is paying attention to anyone around them. In addition to pedestrians and tourists who just walk in the bike lane or cross without looking. I wish so much of the time to just ram into them. It would be delightful.

At Santa Monica, get off the trail and walk over to Sunny Blue for some omusubis and royal tea froyo. They are bomb. Then it's just back the way you came. We did this ride with A's sister that was visiting. We got back and they both promptly went to sleep while I cooked us dinner. Which also happened to be bomb that evening.

A day well spent is when everyone around me is pooped.

citrusily limey,
jt

secret stairs round 1

Ahoy,

I met up with a friend to go on an urban hiking "trail" listed in this book, Secret Stairs. We did #37, Hollywood Bowl & High Tower Loop. This was an excellent leisurely walk. We mostly house shopped and imagined what elements we would one day transport to our dream homes. Also, the dogs. Some noteworthy points along the way were the campanile style tower and Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Being from the Midwest, I always enjoy when this architectural icon makes appearances elsewhere.

The following weekend, the RRS and I went on walk #12, Echo Park Lake Victorians. I'm really pleased we got to squeeze this one in. Seeing these Victorians had been on my list for a while; they're akin to the painted ladies of SF. I was absolutely starstruck when we came upon the house from Charmed. I feel like that house was as prominent a character on that show as the people, maybe even more so. A was not so amused. We did this walk in the dark so I didn't get a good picture, but it was extra spooky crawling through this neighborhood that wasn't mine. Extra spooky is always more fun.

gallantly stooped,
jt

confessions

Ahoy,

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the biggest fan of camping. Amongst my group of friends this statement is probably something that will elicit gasps and abrupt clutching of pearls. I've been camping. My first experience camping was in college at Big Sur. Yes, it was fun. Yes, nature is magical and majestic and magnificent. And I've been camping at Black Mountain this other time when the RRS's friends brought extra equipment for us to use because we pretty much have none. But I thoroughly feel like I don't need to stay overnight outside if I don't have to. Call me a city girl. I'm not ashamed.

It's not sleeping on the ground, it's not night-time or day-time forest critters, it's not having to cook outside. Those things I can get over. But you see, I like going to bed clean and fresh. I like showering daily. Call me a clean freak, but I know you know you like to be clean and fresh too. Living outside is a novel experience, but I'll stop at that. It's something I'm glad to have checked off my list of life experiences, but it's not something I'm eager to continue checking. I'll do it if I have to, and I won't complain, but you're going to have to take me to a Backstreet Boys concert in exchange.

woodsily warned,
jt

sappy things

Ahoy,

On our way home from a party one evening we stopped to get a movie from a redbox. It was on the way and easy since we were on bikes. We picked a super sappy movie, About Time. This was a mutual decision, mind you. In fact, he suggested it. Moments like this make me happy because he is just as sappy as me. Despite mixed reviews from critics, we both loved it! We couldn't stop bringing it up for days. We should probably just buy the DVD and soundtrack. It's just one of those movies that make you feel good about life.

There are certain qualities in a mate I don't need. I'm sure you can agree- there are deal-breakers and then there's whatever the opposite of deal-breakers is. A need for speed, expensive watches, coffee connoisseur - these things are neither here nor there. Just like a taste for sappy movies, but I'm really glad to have someone who can watch and appreciate sappy movies with me. It's like a bonus.

dressedly shifted,
jt

summer welcome grill time

Ahoy,

Having learned our lesson last year, we opted to get to Ciclavia early this year. Since the route didn't come to our doorstep this time we had to make our way to Wilshire & Fairfax. We departed at much too early an hour for a Sunday morning. Getting the RRS out of bed is like pulling teeth. The route is only 6 miles, plus 3 miles to get to it. Getting to downtown was not very crowded, but coming back had more traffic. I wore my Supergirl uniform again and only had one cape-tastrophe. There was a sudden whirl of wind that pulled my cape over my eyes. It was both disastrous and hilarious.

With the coming of summer and Ciclavia, we felt it appropriate to throw another patio barbecue. We gathered provisions the day before of ribs, chicken, asparagus and mushrooms. It was his most successful attempt yet at lighting the coals. He and I are both very glad; our friends might not have been fed had his previous foibles continued. The ribs were a big hit and went on first because the RRS just was too excited to not put them all on at once. It was a delightful evening of food and friends. We ended up with more food than we knew what to do, which is always a better problem than the other way around. Whenever I have guests or cook for other people I have this great, foreboding fear that they will not be full. Perhaps your Chinese grandmother can understand. With the RRS, this feeling is perpetual because he is just so skinny I'm afraid if I don't feed him enough he'll just dissolve into dust in the wind.

A thousand thank yous to everyone who came to our party! We had lots of fun and hope you did too!

summerily scorched,
jt

tide pooling finally!

Ahoy,

I've only been asking for forever to go tide pooling. We all know how annoying I can be. It's best for everybody that we finally made the trip. We went to Palos Verdes, over some super windy roads through what I'm told is a super swanky neighborhood, flanked by a Trump golf course. The road emerged onto a cliff overlooking the beach, look for the sign for Abalone Cove Shoreline Park. The hike down is pretty easy, and we went exploring upstream a dry riverbed. You should too, but don't try to climb up the canyons because the substrate is super crumbly.

There was tons of wildlife that day. Urchins and anemones everywhere, a few stars, a bunch of  crabs. It's important to be careful where you step because a) it may be slippery, and b) you might be stepping on an organism. I've also learned that you can look but shouldn't touch. This is a real life habitat and home for all these creatures and I wouldn't like people coming to bother me at my home. Living in an intertidal zone is stressful enough without humans messing everything up. We even saw a baby seal that approached the shore. It probably got lost/separated from his family. 

Low tide was around 3pm, and we arrived a little before so the tide started to come up halfway through our session. No one got dunked that day. We walked back to dry land to check out this cove at the bottom of the cliff. People had been going back and forth across, but it looked like the tide had come up so you were more than likely to get splashed had you made the trip across again.

This is a super fun place to tide pool. A says the last place he went to had fewer specimens to look at. Also, he likes to drive fast on the windy roads next to the ocean. Afterwards we went to 85 degrees bakery and totally spoiled our dinner without any thought to the matter. We are just such good adults.

middingly toiled,
jt

at jo-ann's

Ahoy,

A brand new massive Jo-ann's opened up on Cienega near us. I made him go after his final the other day. My hours long search for shark bag material in the fashion district proved unfruitful. We parked in a 20 minute zone and threw caution to the wind. I ran off because he started counting me down as soon as I opened the car door. So he was quite a bit behind me as I dashed through the entry, thus giving the indication that he, a single male, had arrived of his own, sole accord to Jo-ann's. He tells me they greeted him warmly, as you typically do to single males arriving at female-centric establishments.

After a few minutes inside, he recalled his childhood having been dragged to Jo-ann's by his godmothers. "There is no place more boring than this place," his thoughts as a child. Apparently he wasn't the most creative child.

tridently fixated,
jt

on the fly

Ahoy,

I would say it was not ideal to go to bed at 3am after a liquor filled night and then head out to Bishop in the morning. There are certain preparations that have to happen before a climbing trip, I'm sure you can agree. I would say a late bedtime is not ideal. But it was an opportunity that does not come by very often. If there's anything I learned in these few years on Earth, when opportunity strikes - you have to seize it!

A massive load of gratitude to our perpetually stoked friends to get on real rocks. A climbing trip is always a great excuse to get outdoors, but what I'm really in it for is Schat's Bakery. Let's just be honest here, folks.

tantalizingly aligned,
jt