It’s now summer time and we now live in Azusa, East of Pasadena and right by the San Gabriel Mountains. It’s July 4th weekend and we went to a parade in Azusa yesterday so we have some special decorations for the bikes and riders!
First day
We start at 8.30, the San Gabriel bike trail is just on the other side of the road from our BnB! It’s gray in the morning, the mountains are dreamy in the haze. The trail is very nice and we go down fast, about 20 kph.
Lot of homeless people along the way, their tents sometimes in the riverbed. At some point the girls’ tandem gets a puncture, we can’t find the hole so use the spare tube and we’re back on track ten minutes later.
We stop at a playground at 11, and we have lunch, Corinne has made some salads. Now the slow wind from the ocean has removed the haze and we have a nice blue sky. After a stop at another playground, we find a coffee place nearby, difficult to explain we want real cups and no straw to reduce our waste, maybe they just hate to wash the dish… We get by the hotel pretty early and the kids want to go to the swimming pool. They have a lot of fun, and after two hours it’s time for shower and get some food, there’s a funny Mexican restaurant on the other side of the road.
We went back to the hotel and read a bit before going to bed, 20.23, Basile just went asleep when we felt some tremors, earthquake! Grab Basile, go outside while still in underpants!
2nd day
Breakfast time, the hotel doesn’t provide much so we go to a nice place for some omelettes. Long Beach is only ten kilometers away and we follow the bike trail to the Marina. There are some oil rigs in the city, right by some very expensive villas!
We end up at Mother’s Park where there’s a nice playground. We have lunch with one of Cedric’s friends and then go to the Bay for some kayaking! Naples is a neighborhood that has some canals like Venice Beach.
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We then go to the Ocean, there’s a kite surf competition. The surfers fly over the water at impressive speeds! Before getting back we need some food, we find that there’s a Sancho Tacos here, like the one in Newport Beach! Their nacho fries are really good. The ride back to the hotel along the river is really nice, the light is beautiful and a light breeze is helping us.
3rd day
The night has been cut with a water spill from the sink, that didn’t wake up the kids but Olivine had a hard time to wake up in the morning. We bought some bananas and peanut butter so we get breakfast and start early before it gets hot.
This is not the most interesting bike road, but there’s only very few places where we have to get through traffic. We see a lot of horses along the way.
We get to the Santa Fe Dam, there’s a nice recreation area with a lake that we see from the top of the dam, we have a stop at the playground.
It’s just another 8 kilometers to get back to our place, it’s getting hot. We’re a bit tired, but after a shower and some fruits, we’re ready to get to the pool!
So happy to have had another bike ride in California!