Biking, Biking, Biking
Nov. 6th, 2010 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aYesterday, Chris & I needed to do an iPhone swap, and we decided to do so at the AT&T Store in Emeryville. I took it as an excuse to have a nice, midday bike ride. Unfortunately, our supposedly nice weather turned chilly & humid. I did get to stretch my legs down to Emeryville, back to Downtown Berkeley via the Aquatic Park, then home, but I was too busy getting sweaty and cold to enjoy it a lot. Ah well.
Have replaced the 1st-gen iPhone--which was no longer useful at all for testing apps--with an iPhone4, though (which'll let me test our hi-res stuff).
In the evening, K. wanted to go to the Oakland library. I though it was a fool's errand, trying to go and get a book and a library card just as the Rockridge branch closed, but we went anyway. That was also a so-so ride because we mostly took the quick route trying to beat the clock.
And as it turned out, the Rockridge branch was closed for an EMERGENCY!!!! They were afraid that spontaneous rioting might break out in Rockridge because ... well, I guess because they were either idiots or else were looking for an excuse to close out early on Friday, because there was no chance that rioting was coming within miles of Rockridge, even if Ron's police had sat on their thumbs again, like they did earlier this year. So, no card, no book.
We decided to head over to Cactus Tacqueria in Rockridge for dinner, and that was a horrid experience. The acoustics of the new location are just shit, and the place was absolutely jammed with ill-behaved and screaming children, resulting in a deafening cacophony of screams. Besides that, the food was at best mediocre, not at all the fresh food and produce I was expecting. And for some reason, Cactus is no longer offering mild salsa (which is what I tend to eat nowadays because the alternative makes me sick). As I told K.: well, with only hot salsas, I understand why all the kids are screaming.
Never again.
I certainly wasn't planning to go riding today after so much riding yesterday and none of it much good. But, I did have the day free from gaming due to sad pet problems. I was just planning to get lunch but it was SO NICE that afterward my bike headed down toward the Bay practically on its own.
I ended up riding around the entire coastline of the Berkeley Marina, which I'm not sure I'd done before. I started with a new secret way in to the park, which K. and I had spotted on the 4th of July. It's toward the north of the Marina and runs from the Bay Trail straight out to Cesar Chavez Park. I wish they'd pave it, because it's a really nice back route, but as is the dirt path was quite well packed.
I was newly reminded of how very nice Cesar Chavez Park is, with its path circling around an extension that goes a ways out into the Bay. You can see lots of water and lots of the other local waterfronts. Once I got out to the northwest corner I settled down and read for a bit, where I had a nice panoramic view centered on the Golden Gate. It reminded me of why I've liked biking again these last couple of years.
Past Cesar Chavez Park, there was much biking around yachts and sail boats, which was OK, but once I got to the south end of the Marina, south of University Ave., it turned very nice again. There's a strip of green along much of that area that's separated from the road, and thus very pleasant. There was also a superbly cool-looking "Adventure Playground" or something like that, which was full of netting and all kinds of other neat-looking kids' play equipment.
And then finally I rode back up the gazillion miles from the Coast to Telegraph. After a stop at Moe's it was back home.
For Saturday afternoon napping. Mmmhm.
Have replaced the 1st-gen iPhone--which was no longer useful at all for testing apps--with an iPhone4, though (which'll let me test our hi-res stuff).
In the evening, K. wanted to go to the Oakland library. I though it was a fool's errand, trying to go and get a book and a library card just as the Rockridge branch closed, but we went anyway. That was also a so-so ride because we mostly took the quick route trying to beat the clock.
And as it turned out, the Rockridge branch was closed for an EMERGENCY!!!! They were afraid that spontaneous rioting might break out in Rockridge because ... well, I guess because they were either idiots or else were looking for an excuse to close out early on Friday, because there was no chance that rioting was coming within miles of Rockridge, even if Ron's police had sat on their thumbs again, like they did earlier this year. So, no card, no book.
We decided to head over to Cactus Tacqueria in Rockridge for dinner, and that was a horrid experience. The acoustics of the new location are just shit, and the place was absolutely jammed with ill-behaved and screaming children, resulting in a deafening cacophony of screams. Besides that, the food was at best mediocre, not at all the fresh food and produce I was expecting. And for some reason, Cactus is no longer offering mild salsa (which is what I tend to eat nowadays because the alternative makes me sick). As I told K.: well, with only hot salsas, I understand why all the kids are screaming.
Never again.
I certainly wasn't planning to go riding today after so much riding yesterday and none of it much good. But, I did have the day free from gaming due to sad pet problems. I was just planning to get lunch but it was SO NICE that afterward my bike headed down toward the Bay practically on its own.
I ended up riding around the entire coastline of the Berkeley Marina, which I'm not sure I'd done before. I started with a new secret way in to the park, which K. and I had spotted on the 4th of July. It's toward the north of the Marina and runs from the Bay Trail straight out to Cesar Chavez Park. I wish they'd pave it, because it's a really nice back route, but as is the dirt path was quite well packed.
I was newly reminded of how very nice Cesar Chavez Park is, with its path circling around an extension that goes a ways out into the Bay. You can see lots of water and lots of the other local waterfronts. Once I got out to the northwest corner I settled down and read for a bit, where I had a nice panoramic view centered on the Golden Gate. It reminded me of why I've liked biking again these last couple of years.
Past Cesar Chavez Park, there was much biking around yachts and sail boats, which was OK, but once I got to the south end of the Marina, south of University Ave., it turned very nice again. There's a strip of green along much of that area that's separated from the road, and thus very pleasant. There was also a superbly cool-looking "Adventure Playground" or something like that, which was full of netting and all kinds of other neat-looking kids' play equipment.
And then finally I rode back up the gazillion miles from the Coast to Telegraph. After a stop at Moe's it was back home.
For Saturday afternoon napping. Mmmhm.