Welcome, Gigi!

This is a belated 4th of July entry. On the 4th my friend Gigi and are were headed to a house party in Redondo Beach which is about 15 miles away from my house. I asked her if she had a bike because we could ride our bikes down the Marvin Braude Beach Bike Path almost the whole way. She said she didn't have a bike, but she'd been looking for one. A few hours later, because of the magic of craigslist, she had this sweet single speed Schwinn conversion!

Isn't it the cutest bike ever?!

In college she used to ride a bike all the time out of necessity, but now she wants to ride for all the other reasons. We took the Ballona Creek Bike Path for part of the way, and then linked up with the Beach Bike Path. Most of the ride was during magic hour and dusk and it was really beautiful.

Ballona Creek Bike Path

The beach bike path was packed with pedestrians so it made the bike ride quite challenging and slow going, but in a couple of hours we were there and we rode by a park just in time to sit down and watch the fireworks show.

Enjoying the fireworks show at a Redondo Beach Park.

After that we headed to the house party. Everyone thought we were a little nuts for riding our bikes that far but we chose to think it was the good kind of nuts. Some time after midnight we set out for the 15 mile ride back home. At that time of night the beach bike path was a lot less crowded with people, but the degree of drunkenness of the people who were out was a lot higher, so it was still a challenge. We got home late, we were tired, but we were exhilarated.

I'd actually never been to Redondo Beach, so that was a new experience for me. Also, 30 miles is the most I've ever ridden in a single day. It was a day of firsts!

I'm so glad Gigi has her great new bike, and I look forward to many more rides together!

A bonus shot of Gigi and her bike. A little blurry but she looks so happy!

This post is an entry for the "Let's Go Ride a Bike" Summer Games. (New Territory - Explore a new part of town by bike.)