JIA-CHI

It’s been almost 2 years since I started Bruce’s Buddies on August 18, 2011 with the first Supper Social.  It was a social experiment in connecting like-minded Angelenos together as a way to make our city more livable.  With Los Angeles as our playground, I wanted to instill a sense of exploration in my buddies to not only experience our great city, but also connect with the amazing people who live here.

In that same spirit of adventure & camaraderie, all were invited to spend a relaxing weekend in the hills of Ojai, CA with me and my buddies as I celebrated my birthday.

The Pink Moment _ “Since Ojai is lined up with an east-west mountain range, it is one of few towns in the world to have a “Pink Moment” occur as the sun is setting. The fading sunlight creates a brilliant shade of pink for several minutes on the Topatopa Bluffs, over 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above sea level at the east end of the Ojai Valley.”

Matilija Hot Springs

Birthday Party @ B-Hill Farms

Baking Bread, on the grill

Harvesting onions, strawberries, and kale.

Bacon wrapped, cheese-filled peppers.

Bohemian Rhapsody Sing-Along.

I’m the luckiest guy in the world.  Love & Peas.

Buddy Alex Kenefick threw a retirement party under the 6th Street Bridge, in the Los Angeles river.

To top it off: a Surrey ride with Ashley through the river.

Somerset & Elya. On an Xtracycle.

On the way home, ran into a carnival.  Except that it wasn’t.  It was a photo shoot.  They quickly told me to put my camera away after this photo was taken.  Oh, Los Angeles.

Pee-Wee: There’s a lotta things about me you don’t know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand.

Dottie: I don’t understand.

Pee-Wee: You don’t wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel. So long, Dott.

No better sign that Summer is arriving in Los Angeles than outdoor movie screenings and concerts.  Oh, and hillside hot tub parties.

The happiest days of my life are when cicLAvia’s take over the streets of LA.  For the sixth cicLAvia, titled “To The Sea”, 15-miles of LA streets were closed off to cars from Downtown LA to Venice Beach.  I rode with the Bodacious Bike Babes.   

Olvera St. / Main St.

The route started in Downtown LA, then headed south-west via 7th Street.  Some zig-zagging down Alvarado and Hoover brought us to Venice Blvd., a straight shot to the Pacific Ocean.

City Hall

7th St.

MacArthur Park w/ The Bodacious Bike Babes

 Alvarado St.

Venice Blvd.

Bigfoot West

5 hours, 15-miles later, we finally reached the beautiful shores of Venice Beach.

Good buddy Nate is riding his bike from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the annual AIDS Lifecycle.  As part of his fundraising efforts, he threw a neighborhood carnival, with “an AMAZING levitation artist and a HILARIOUS clown troupe, and FUN games!”

The Levitation Artist, Special Head.

Will Wright.  In jail.

Not only did this neighbor win the hula-hoop contest, she also won teh $50 gift card to Velo Love.

Cookin’ With the Koos.  The Douglas House hosted a small gathering of non-Coachella bound neighbors.  Marcus fired up the grill, and projected the live stream of the concert in the backyard.  There was a banjo, guitar, lots of tambourine, and the Postal Service.

It all ended with Game of Thrones.

Iglesia Ni Cristo _ N. Union Ave., Historic Filipino Town

Edware Road / 101 Freeway _ Angeleno Heights

McDuff St / Scott Ave. _ Echo Park

Laveta Terrace Steps _ Echo Park

Chung King Rd _ Chinatown

Mozart St. 5 Freeway Overpass _ Lincoln Heights

Fortune Cookie Dumpster _ Secret Location

The mighty Los Angeles River.  It was so powerful, that the Army Corp of Engineers encased its banks with concrete to prevent flooding.  Wonderful.  But from that day was also born a river-side Bike Trail, a class 1 bike path, a highway for bicycles.  But much like Luke and Leia, the bike path was separated at birth into a northern and southern section that do not connect; there is not bike path as the river passes through Downtown Los Angeles.  Pity.

We planned an adventure to ride from Downtown LA to Downtown Long Beach via the southern stretch of the LA River Bike Trail.  I had never been on this southern section before, let alone been to Long Beach, our neighbors to the south. 

The Queen Mary

Lions Lighthouse for Sight

Good buddy and Long Beach bicycle advocate April Economides intercepted our group during brunch, and led us on a two-wheeled tour of the bicycling infrastructure in Long Beach, including cycletracks & parklets where we had a twerk party.

Along sections of the Bike Path, between the river and the residential neighborhoods, were horse stables and corrals.  These equestrian centers were filled with caballeros and families, and had been established long ago, when these cities to the south were largely agricultural land.

Long Beach, who knew?