{"id":691,"date":"2019-02-11T06:44:11","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/a4sur5roues.wordpress.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2020-08-06T23:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T21:44:27","slug":"s4a1-a-ride-along-the-pacific-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/?p=691&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"S4A1: a ride along the Pacific ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have decided get back to our routine of cycling for a couple of days to discover new places. As we were moving out from our place in Woodland Hills last Friday, the plan was to put our stuff in storage and next day get our bikes to Santa Monica and ride south. The weather was not happy with that and we had to postpone our trip after four days of some of the worst rain Los Angeles has seen some over last years. So after a weekend of museums and Universal Studios, we were finally ready to hit the road!<\/p>\n

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Day 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

After dropping our bags to the storage in Pasadena and bringing back the rental car, we were quite hungry! We went to our new favorite place in Pasadena, Real Food Daily. After lunch we picked the metro to Downtown LA.<\/p>\n

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The girls have a heavy bike as we don’t have bike bags on the mountain bike, Basile and I only have backpacks.<\/p>\n

We picked the metro again at Pico station to reach Santa Monica. Then it was going along the Pacific to reach our hotel in Manhattan Beach. Nice ride, but a bit too long in the evening and rather cold. Once arrived we went to the local Mexican restaurant before going to bed, everyone was tired.<\/p>\n

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Day 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the morning of the second day we started with hot drinks at the local posh coffee place, called Two Guns. Rich ladies in yoga pants parked their huge SUV to get their cappuccino or chai latte. Then go to the local posh grocery store, Genson’s, great organic products for a premium. Back on the bikes, we go down to the beach, after a short ride we stop so the kids can build another sand creation.<\/p>\n

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We continue the beach bike road to Redondo Beach and stop at the boardwalk.<\/p>\n

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We continue along the road to a nice place with rocks in the sea and have a nice picnic.<\/p>\n

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The bike road stops a little further,after a nice climb we end up on the sidewalks of a very boring road, and worst we end up on the side of a freeway with no pedestrian crossing when entering Long Beach. There are bike lanes in Long Beach but it’s a joke, no separation not even proper marking, we use the sidewalks as it feels so much safer.<\/p>\n

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We finally reach the park where we can see the Queen Mary.<\/p>\n

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We have found an hotel nearby, not great but convenient. For the first time we’ll sleep with the bikes in the room! The original plan was to go to Newport Beach and back to Long Beach but we learn that there are works on the blue metro line, it’s replaced by bus service and the tandem won’t fit on the rack. Plan B is to catch another train line in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

Day 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

We start the day at funny dinner place called Chuck’s that is not far from the bike road.<\/p>\n

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An omelet later we’re riding along the shore, beautiful sky and almost infinite beach, with surfers, joggers, campers and cyclists along.<\/p>\n

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Another picnic on the beach, Corinne picks some waste while Olivine and Basile are digging In the sand. Pretty sad to see those beautiful beaches so dirty. We finally get to Newport Beach! We get to the beach for another sand digging session and then go to the ferry.<\/p>\n

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After we have set our bikes at the hotel we walk to the a local place called Eat Show, that happens to be really good, great crispy tacos!<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we’ll leave the beach to get to Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

Day 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s been showers during the night, that means there won’t be no beach today. We walk to Cappy’s cafe, a popular place right by. Very traditional dinner, gluten free or vegan don’t quite exist here. Serious omelettes and pancakes are on order though and they don’t deceive.<\/p>\n

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The weather is a bit weird, pretty hot in the sun, but the air is cold, quite chilly when cycling. Not much energy this morning, happy to reach Santa Ana. We stop in a nice coffe place called the Gipsy Den in the Artist Village.<\/p>\n

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Next stop at the station to check how we’ll get the bikes onboard, then going to the hotel, it’s Olivine’s birthday so we picked a nice place that has an indoor pool.<\/p>\n

Day 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Great night and good breakfast at the hotel to start the day, but bad news, rain wasn’t supposed to be there before 2pm and we have to go to the station that is 6 km away. We wait for 10 minutes and rain stops, so we’re good to go.<\/p>\n

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We arrive at the station and have to figure out how to deal with the tandem, that is not allowed on Amtrak trains nor the Metrolink, but the Metrolink train have a Bike car that is supposed to offer more space. I remove the front wheel and we setup the team to be able to jump on the train.<\/p>\n

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One hour to LA Union Station, we decide to go direct to Pasadena with the Metro as it rains seriously.<\/p>\n

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Again we are lucky with the rain, we reach our storage where we put the bikes and get the stuff we need for our next adventure, a week in Palm Springs! Follow our journey in California here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

And if you want to see more, here is the video!<\/p>\n

[vimeo 326735222 w=640 h=360] Cycling along the Pacific Ocean from lejeunecedric on Vimeo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have decided get back to our routine of cycling for a couple of days to discover new places. As… read more S4A1: a ride along the Pacific ocean<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[26,28],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/img_7188-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.obcc.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}