Earth Day 2012

Meet up at West Hollywood Park by the Library.

Today the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition had a ride from the West Hollywood library to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.   Round trip it wasn't a huge ride - maybe 6 miles at the most, but it was a group ride and we had about 10 riders total, including 2 young girls, maybe aged 9 and 11.  The girls thought the whole ride experience with the group was a complete blast and the youngest rode at the front of the pack and chatted up a storm, making up words and general silliness.  It was terrific.

The ride was to celebrate Earth Day, and if you rode your bike or used alternate transportation, you could get into LACMA for free.  We arrived there at about 12:30, and the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition, which I decided to join for $25, had free bike valet parking.  That is the first time I have parked my bike and left it, although I stripped it of most stuff before I left it because I just wasn't sure how safe it would be.  As it turned out, it was perfectly safe, but I worried like a mother leaving her child with a babysitter for the first time.

Looking north towards the 6th Street entrance into the LACMA grounds

One table had some bits of LADOT (Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation) swag, so I got a few dinky things, including a flashing red light, a pair of bike socks and some reflective stripping to wrap around the ankles.  I'll give these to my friend when she arrives as gear for the 2nd bike - well, not the socks.  Those I'm definitely keeping.

I did not end up going inside LACMA because I don't do well on my feet or with lots of walking around, and having been on my feet a lot the past few days making tons of cookies, I decided to just enjoy the sunshine and people watch.   There were lots of Earth Day activities, and I saw some of the  cutest toddlers.  

crafts activities

Some of us went to the food trucks on Wilshire Blvd, and I got a quesadilla for $5 which was good, although truthfully it was more of social eating than just hunger.  I wasn't actually hungry.

An outdoor public piano on Wilshire Blvd.  I was so tempted to play it, but these girls were having fun!

 We all met up again at 2:30 by the bike valet, and some decided to stay longer, but I decided to go because I had more cookies to work on and also I'd been up since 7:00, been downtown to deliver 2 orders of cookies, and done this bike ride on about 2 hours of sleep.  So I went home.  I rode down 6th to Sweetzer, then took it to 4th, 4th to Orlando, and Orlando up to home.

One thing I did notice is that on the ride towards LACMA, when we were on Willoughby, which I have travelled many, many times on the bike, I noticed that I wasn't feeling the inclines.  Maybe it was our slow pace or maybe it's just that my legs are so much stronger than a year ago.