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Ride Bike!
Aug. 2nd, 2010 12:12 amK. and I went out for a bike ride today. A pretty standard route that I've ridden several times, but the first time she'd been able to join me on a substantive bike ride in quite some time.
We started out by heading down to the pedestrian overpass and past the Berkeley Marina (which was jam packed with lines of people heading for the Berkeley Kite Festival). We then went over Golden Gate Fields (which still hasn't built the Bay Trail that they promised they would) and through their back parking lot (which was jam packed with people out for some sort of cat/dog/rescue festival). From there we took the Bay Trail to Point Isabel.
As usual, we watched the dogs while there. They're always so fun to watch in their mindless physical enthusiasm and I enjoy myself by narrating their thoughts. K. tends to laugh at that. After that we headed out to the end of Point Isabel where we sat on The Coldest Hill in the World (tm) and read another chapter in the 7th Harry Dresden novel.
(Last time we did this, K. made us leave the hill because she was getting too cold; this time I had a bit of an earache by the time I left. Brrr.)
After that we headed toward El Cerrito Plaza. That's always a crappy bike leg, from the Point to the Ohlone Greenway, so I tried out Google Bicycling Maps for an alternate route. The bike routes at Google started out terrible but have been getting better and better. This time this suggested jogging off of Central Avenue as soon as possible, and going up some back streets. We did, stopping in Creek Side Park at the bottom of Albany Hill (which had lots of secret paths heading off about the hill that I wanted to explore, but I had to content myself with a walk through a dry creekbed and a trip over a rickety bridge today), and then went up to El Cerrito Plaza (where dark-chocolate M&Ms were bought at half-price). The route was good, with quiet streets and bike lanes in abundance; score another one for Google's bicycle maps.
From there, it was the Ohlone Greenway to home, and various TV watching, house cleaning, and history writing. Now, a bit of reading before bed ...
We started out by heading down to the pedestrian overpass and past the Berkeley Marina (which was jam packed with lines of people heading for the Berkeley Kite Festival). We then went over Golden Gate Fields (which still hasn't built the Bay Trail that they promised they would) and through their back parking lot (which was jam packed with people out for some sort of cat/dog/rescue festival). From there we took the Bay Trail to Point Isabel.
As usual, we watched the dogs while there. They're always so fun to watch in their mindless physical enthusiasm and I enjoy myself by narrating their thoughts. K. tends to laugh at that. After that we headed out to the end of Point Isabel where we sat on The Coldest Hill in the World (tm) and read another chapter in the 7th Harry Dresden novel.
(Last time we did this, K. made us leave the hill because she was getting too cold; this time I had a bit of an earache by the time I left. Brrr.)
After that we headed toward El Cerrito Plaza. That's always a crappy bike leg, from the Point to the Ohlone Greenway, so I tried out Google Bicycling Maps for an alternate route. The bike routes at Google started out terrible but have been getting better and better. This time this suggested jogging off of Central Avenue as soon as possible, and going up some back streets. We did, stopping in Creek Side Park at the bottom of Albany Hill (which had lots of secret paths heading off about the hill that I wanted to explore, but I had to content myself with a walk through a dry creekbed and a trip over a rickety bridge today), and then went up to El Cerrito Plaza (where dark-chocolate M&Ms were bought at half-price). The route was good, with quiet streets and bike lanes in abundance; score another one for Google's bicycle maps.
From there, it was the Ohlone Greenway to home, and various TV watching, house cleaning, and history writing. Now, a bit of reading before bed ...