Life can be a routine of routines even when you get to ride.

Wake up. Make the wife coffee. Ready my belongings for work. Wake my daughter. Brush her teeth, get her dressed, make breakfast, walk her to school, read to her in class and ride to work.

Eight hours later, I bike to the train station, get on the subway (and write CiclaValley squabble), ride home, play with CV Jr.

Eat dinner, bathe CV Jr. and put her to bed. Spend some quality time with the wife or do the bills.

Sleep.

Repeat.

Sounds like a lot of details, but things can blur over time.

I may take a different route to work (not that there’s too much of a variance) or ride another bike, but that’s my weekdays with a few evening meetings mixed in.

 

 

 

Looking at my page this week, I noticed that it was filled with tragedy.

It’s a sad reality, but riding bikes can also inspire.

A couple of weeks ago, I took in a midweek Dodger game after work with some friends going only by bike and subway.

I knew it was going to be long and that I’d have to prep more, but it allowed me to move at a slower pace.

The weather was ideal and it was a day where riding a bike just seemed perfect.

It was the perfect way to interact with the city and a nice breather in the chaos of it all.

Part of it was luck, but riding a bike helps make more of it.

I took plenty of pictures and video not knowing at the time how great of a twenty four hours I was going to spend.

Life’s been pretty normal since then, but this day stuck out enough that I had to share it.

Here’s a little recap of the day.

 

 

I left the house a little earlier since my mom took CV Jr. to school. It’s the heaviest traffic of the day and it brought an early smile to my face to see all these people biking to school. This just felt like a prelude to something special.

 

Riding over Mt. Hollywood Dr., I ran into my good friends from the Insane Bike Posse. It was the largest midweek crew of the group I had come across, so I had to split up my hellos.

 

Of course, there was filming up there. It seemed like a lot of the crew was enjoying the scenery.

 

 

If you can’t make the hike up to the Hollywood Sign, the view from the Observatory will more than do. My friend Hamish wasn’t appreciating it much as he does hill repeats on Wednesdays. Slow him down if you can.

 

Riding on Sunset, I noticed that the bike lane had been repainted. There’s a lot of construction going on in the area, so this definitely qualifies as an improvement even though it’s just about 1%.

 

I’ve featured Raoul and his good deeds around Mulholland before. I catch him sometimes getting on the bus, but he barely notices me because he’s usually rocking out because F yeah he can!!!

 

To say I have some disagreements with the goings on inside of City Hall is a bit of an understatement, but you can’t escape what a great looking building it is. The view from the top is free, but if I wasn’t working that day, it would have been a perfect moment to go up there.

 

After work, I met my friends who came by Metro Rail or Metrolink at Traxx in Union Station. Fortunately, I had a free month’s pass at the station’s bike hub which made locking it up securely easy. Pretty handy for those commuting.

 

I thought I had my camera on, but I biked to the stadium up Sunset alongside Doreen who I just met from Metro. I didn’t have to explain to her how much faster biking was. This pic was from another trip, but I just included it to show how nice it is to have your own lane to the stadium!

 

 

 

Parking my bike at the stadium, I was approached by an attendant who asked me if I had tickets in the Loge section. He wasn’t harassing me, but wanted to make sure I was parking my bike closest to my seat. How nice! I also noticed these two bikes next to mine poorly locked. I was tempted to switch wheelers with those gumwalls.

 

The view at Dodger Stadium is amazing. There’s nothing to see, but hills and mountains. It always brings a smile to my face to see those antennas from Mt. Wilson even if they tease me to ride up there.

 

When I came back, it was nice not just to find my bike unharmed, but a couple more in tow. Yes, bikes are the best way to Go Green. And Dodger Blue.

 

I somehow exited out the Scott Gate not realizing where I was going because I assumed it was closed. Still it was nice to take a different route to the Subway since I ride Sunset 99% of the time.

 

It was near 11pm when I made it to the Santa Monica / Vermont Station. That’s already way past my bedtime, but I felt refreshed by the nighttime air. I did think about riding through the Cahuenga Pass all the way home, but it was such a perfect day, this was a good spot for it to end and wish for the next.