Having a wonderful vacation, but I am missing good riding weather at home.
So, yesterday, we ditched DS, DIL, and my dad to do a 3 hour bike tour of La Jolla and Pacific Beach. Although I have never lived here, my parents moved to San Diego 30+ years ago. I've spent a lot of time here, so I figured I would see things from a bike that you never see in a car.
So, it started out a little on the wrong side, with one too many people for the van that brought us to the top of Mt. Soledad, where the tour started. I refused to not have a seatbelt, so some other woman sat on her DH's lap . Oy.
We got to the top, as DH and I lovingly looked at the incline going up. Very, very, steep and curvy, probably 20% at least in places. Got to the top, where they gave us our bikes.... beefy, old mountain bikes, which was fine. Right away, I noticed my front brake was like mush, so I told the leader and asked if he had a hex wrench. I might be a mechanical dunce, but I knew what he needed to do. He tried to tell me not to use the front brake, but after I talked to him, he was, like, OK...
We descended down a different road, not so curvy, not as steep, but still a real mountain type descent. Being on a mountain bike and not on dirt gave me confidence and I was the third one down the hill. There was an assortment of "regular" people on the tour, with one younger guy with good mountain biking experience who rode with DH and I and the leader. There was a young couple, about my kids' age who were very annoying. The woman kept getting in front of me in places where I couldn't pass her, so I couldn't talk to DH, like on the bike path, but also on the road. After a couple of times of me saying "on your left" and sprinting past her, she still kept trying to drop me. It was silly, this was a leisurely tour and she clearly was not going to win. When we turned back to La Jolla, there were a couple of teeny inclines and then she got it.
The only really unnerving thing was at one point he had us riding the against traffic, in a bike lane on a busy road, rather than have us make lefts... DH and i were mortified and our bike leader minds were going into over gear. He also didn't signal. But, he did verbally tell us and we stopped and regrouped frequently. At the end we went down to see the cave in La Jolla after climbing a pretty steep hill. The young girl was breathing pretty heavy going up the stairs up from the cave and looked like she was going to cry after that.
We learned a lot of interesting things, especially about the coastal ecology. So despite the lack of safety precautions, it was fun. The shop rents road bikes, but maybe next time. Riding around here does not seem like it would be that fun; lots of multi lane roads, clueless drivers, etc. I've seen lots of male roadies, but no women.
I've been walking for 45 minutes on the other mornings, and given the eating I am doing, there will be a lot of riding when I get home.