out and about
So I finally had a chance to get out a bit further afield this afternoon. It was nice, cause while I've walked, biked and driven from home to downtown like a million times already, besides that I didn't have much idea what things are like around here. Desirous of rectifying this situation, I looked at the mountains which we can see down to the northeast at the end of our street, and said, 'I'll go up there!' (on a bike, this is).
Which I found out that they were alot further than looked. Our internet was broken when I set out, and the map was in Leah's car in the parking garage by her work, so I didn't have anything to go on besides I could see the mountains there at the end of the street. Which was fine, except after about a mile and a half the street ended. I went right (mountains are inland, right?) and at 26th Street I came to the end of Santa Monica and entered beautiful Brentwood. 26th was the first cross street to keep going north, so I took it for a bit, but then it took a turn for the hilly, diving down into the canyon, so I decided not to go any further that way: not knowing the terrain I didn't want to go down any gigantic hills that I might have to come back up again!
So instead I went back to San Vicente Blvd and took it down (and down it was: a gentle grade, but I barely had to touch the pedals for a mile or so) til I got Ocean Ave and the bluff. I could see the bike path down there on the beach, but I couldn't get to it (the mountains? Oh, um, they were really far away. Never mind them.), so I took Ocean a little further north where it went through some crazy turns taking its own dive into the canyon, and then navigated though a maze of streets (um... these streets have curves in them; I don't remember how to do curves) down to the Pacific Coast Highway, where I sat and puzzled for some minutes on how to get across it. Eventually I deduced from the signs ('do not cross: use tunnel') that there was a tunnel, so I located it and there I was.
Then it was a simple matter of heading down the bike path back to the pier, where I arrived just in time to watch the pelicans diving for their dinner. (Though 'diving' perhaps doesn't give the right impression, as it leads you to imagine they employ some grace and style in this endeavor. Which is not the case: no, they look more like they've been shot, or maybe they're just tired of flying and decided to stop. Big splashes.) Then I biked up into town, and got to Leah's store just at the moment that she was calling me to ask me to come pick her up. So she didn't get picked up, but we did get to do a little shopping and walk home together, which was nice. Oh wait, we didn't walk together: she rode the bike and made me run along beside it! No fair!