2019/2025 Pacific Coast Ride

We hadn’t been riding for half a mile when we spied an unassuming sign on the side of the road.

In reality, the sign should have said

We watched a pickup truck drive through the water and it was at least a foot deep. So, we turned around and got out to 101 a different way.

While we were still in Bandon, the cranberry capital of Oregon, we passed a well-known company.

At the Art101 studio, we met a dragon made of all sorts of interesting items.

We stopped for lunch here

where we had the obvious thing

While we were enjoying our hot dog, a big-rig driver asked us when the rest of our group was going to join us. Unbeknowst to us, a large group of cyclists were behind us for much of the day. They’re going from Seattle to San Diego to raise money for a charity. They passed us while we finished our lunch.

Just outside of Port Orford, we reached a milestone (har har, pun intended).

Since we had the afternoon free, we visited a store that sold items made of myrtlewood, which only grows here and in Israel. And, Glen checked out Battle Rock.

Another day of cycling through gorgeous trees, but no spectacular coast vistas. We first encountered Charleston, where we saw Charlie the Tuna!

The best part of our ride was that we were off 101 for all but 4 miles, so mostly had the road to ourselves. Before joining 101, we reached this very helpful intersection.

Just before arriving at our final destination, Alissa found a new friend.

Since our collection of Oregon lighthouses was already incomplete, we decided to forego the 6 mile roundtrip to the Coquille River one. But we got to see it off in the distance.

We enjoyed a walk along the boardwalk, where numerous pieces of art were displayed as part of the annual art show. We also met another ocean-garbage sculpture.

We enjoyed the evening views as we headed toward our lodging.

The route out of town took us by the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

We were as disappointed as these folks that we wouldn’t get to see gray whales.

Like yesterday, no coast on today’s ride, but again many, many trees.

This lovely map on the side of our road listed all the fun things we could look forward to in our upcoming towns.

Not long after this sign, we encountered a weigh station so we rode over the scales. Alissa+bike+gear weighed 150 lbs and Glen+bike+gear was 200.

We got a nice view of the Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge as we approached.

Our second guardian angel of the Northern Half ™ was Larry, who took us and our bikes safely across to North Bend.

Literally just a few feet on the other side of the bridge was Moe’s Bike Shop, where Mike Moe (son of the original owner) spruced up Glen’s bike.

Since we had the entire afternoon free, we decided to explore the Coos Bay area and wound up at the Oregon Coast Historical Railway Museum. The best part was that we were allowed inside all the cars on display.

In multiple parts of the town there were attractive artworks constructed entirely from garbage found in the ocean.

And, we discovered (too late) that today was another special, celebratory day.

Just as Punxsutawney has numerous colorful groundhog statues throughout the town, Florence is filled with decorated seals. So, as we were leaving, we passed one near the bridge across the Siuslaw River.

We soon entered the Oregon Dunes.

Miles and miles and miles of REALLY HIGH sandy hills that looked strikingly odd next to the forest.

When we saw one that came right to the road we were on, Glen decided to scale it.

Once we got to the top, there was a lake, more sand, and more trees.

No coast for the rest of the day, but many gorgeous trees and lakes.

We stopped for lunch in Reedsport, where we were welcomed by everyone’s favorite bear.

We’ve had so many special days this week so far: bicycle day, Hobie’s birthday, and, as we learned at the Sugar Shack, today was National Donut Day.

After lunch, we mailed some postcards.

There wasn’t much to do in Winchester Bay, other than seeing our third bald eagle of the trip, but we had fresh-caught albacore tuna for dinner!

A short ride today because we had a mission we chose to accept: attending a 12:15 pm showing of Mission Impossible. But before we get to the highlights of the morning’s trip, we first have to wish a very happy 4th birthday to Hobie the wonder dog!

Now back to the cycling. It was a gorgeous morning!

We stopped to visit the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

From the trail to the lighthouse, we could see the bridge we’d soon be crossing.

After the bridge, we started our day’s climb. We pulled over at the first vista point (naturally) and watched the lighthouse beacon, which can be seen 21 miles from land and is the strongest light on the Oregon coast (thanks Oregon State Parks for that tidbit!). Look (very) carefully (maybe click the fullscreen button on the bottom right of the video) and you can see the light turn on at around 10 seconds.

As we were getting back on our bikes, we were passed by a pair of other touring cyclists. We rode close-ish to them (meaning, we could see them up ahead of us) for about 3 minutes, before they turned the bend and were gone. But, then we caught up to them and passed them! (They had stopped.) We didn’t see them again for the rest of the day.

Soon afterward, Glen captured this shot of Alissa and her new (wild) canine friend watching over her.

We chose to ignore the Sea Lion Caves, a roadside attraction just south of the lighthouse. When we first saw a billboard for them, we were super interested — America’s Largest Sea Cave. How could that not be cool? But after reading about the caves online and asking our Airbnb host, it sounded like a cheesy tourist trap. We were told that it would be really neat if the site had reamined natural, but it now has a “smelly Disneyland vibe”. Instead we saw more gorgeous coast until we arrived in Florence.

We enjoyed a post-movie treat at the northernmost A&W stand along the Pacific Coast.

As we were leaving our home for the night, we ran into a family that we met a few days ago at one of the vista point lookouts! We encouraged them to have a donut from the nearby coffee shop, which we had taste-tested (and gave 4 thumbs-up to) yesterday.

To depart Newport, the first step was to cross the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

It wasn’t foggy on the bridge and there was a nice sidewalk.

There was a lot of fog on the other side, though.

We rode along the coast for awhile, but there wasn’t much to see for a few hours.

We stopped at a bakery right on 101.

Soon after, the sun started to come out and we reached the town of Waldport.

It happened to be market day, which made it a great spot to grab lunch.

Everyone we talked to told us we should order a sandwich from one food truck in particular, so we got the lingcod royale.

The ride continued along the coast for about 10 miles.

Whatdya do when you see a good friend? Yachats! That’s the town we arrived in for lunch. (Actually pronounced yah-hots.) We couldn’t check in to our next lodging until 4 pm, so we got drinks and sat for awhile at the Dream Machine coffee shop. Here we met another cyclist also traveling the Oregon Coast route, but he was heading northbound! He started in San Francisco and has done an incredible amount of climbing, since he went inland to visit Yosemite. Even so, he said the worst day of his ride was a few days ago when the winds were so strong he could only go 6 mph downhill.

After obtaining food for dinner, we left the downtown area and stopped to see Thor’s Well, a hole where the waves spout up. Look down where the people are standing and you’ll see it at around 4 seconds.

Our home tonight is right along the coast and, like many other places we’ve stayed, has an incredible view. This one also has a staircase down to the beach.

Here’s the view from the hot tub in their backyard.

Happy World Bicycle Day!

Despite the theme, we didn’t actually spend much time on our bikes today. Instead, we explored Newport. We started with the obligatory visit to the local bike shop, Bike Newport.

Then we went to the tide pools in the Outstanding Natural Area (yes, that’s really what it’s called!) by the lighthouse.

We saw sea stars,

urchins, anemones,

and a gumboot chiton.

Back on the road again tomorrow!

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Northern Lights last night. But, according to posts online, it sounds like no-one else in Oregon saw anything either. We took a picture with long exposure just to check and this is what we got.

We were less than half a mile into our journey today when we encountered the Christmas Cottage — a bright pink house-like structure that sold every conceivable ornament. You could find any dog, bird, occupation, musical instrument, or even dinosaur. The shop owner was a spunky lady. At 9:30 am she saw Alissa looking disappointed at the 10 am opening time. She opened the door and said, “Come on in!” Alissa asked, “Are you sure? You don’t open for awhile.” She replied, “It’s my store. I can let anyone in whenever I want!” So, we went in and found the perfect addition for this year’s tree.

In another 50 feet, we saw Perk 101 so we popped in and Glen ordered a caramel cuddle and a marionberry banana bread muffin. Having made these two important stops, we were ready for the next few miles.

Today’s trip rivaled our days in Big Sur from the Southern Half ™: one gorgeous vista after another.

We spent the majority of today right along the coast. Alissa needs to break her habit of stopping at every viewpoint or else we’ll never make it home. Here is just a tiny sample of our favorites.

We made a brief stop in Depoe Bay to browse the touristy shops and found another ornament, this one for our lawn.

While we were there, a local offered a pro tip: take the turn onto Old Hwy 101 to stay closer to the coast than the new 101. It turned out to be one-way with a bike lane and only 2 vehicles passed us.

We arrived in Newport very quickly because of the strong winds behind us (yay for switching directions a couple weeks ago!). So, we decided to visit the lighthouse.

We lunched at the Chowder Bowl, which turned out to be about 50 feet from where we were staying for the night. It was too windy for a walk on the beach, so we headed over to the historic waterfront area for dinner and some window shopping.

True to the pattern, no rain to start the day. So we took off and our first stop was the Grateful Bread Bakery where we got….sconed.

We had one last glimpse of the ocean before heading inland.

We then spent lots of time on Old Scenic Highway 101, which was great since we only saw 3 cars for 15 miles. Also because, as suggested by the name, it was very scenic.

It was lunchtime when we merged with “new” 101 and we found a coffee hut for a snack. Guess they’re a thing in Oregon, too.

Then, to avoid the 101 traffic into Lincoln City, we took the side road around Devil’s Lake.

We’ve passed the tsunami entering/leaving zone signs dozens of times in the past couple of days.

And now we’re going to take a nap so we can get up later and hopefully see the Northern Lights.

It seems we’re on an every-other-day schedule for sun and clouds. Today was cloudy and sprinkly again. We set out and passed a bay that is a significant source of Dungeness crab.

A few miles later, we got a flat tire, which Glen awesomely fixed.

Two miles later, we arrived at the cheese mothership.

Their shop offered everything, including 5lb bricks of cheddars.

Glen got himself a (small) block of sharp white cheddar from 2010! Of course, we had to get a snack.

We stopped at Fred Meyer in Tillamook to get a new inner tube and they had everything else we needed. After another mile, we made a second cheese stop.

We got food to take with us for dinner later, since we weren’t going to encounter any other restaurants for the next 20ish miles. That meant we biked through many gorgeous landscapes.

It’s always nice to get confirmation that we’re on the correct route.

After arriving at our cabin, we went for a walk on the beach and saw someone kite surfing.

We were impressed by the streams of sand flowing in the wind.

Within a couple of miles from our amazing new home (the current owners have yet to be informed) we encountered the Arch Cape Tunnel. Fortunately there was a button to push to alert everyone that we were inside and there was a sidewalk.

After an uneventful journey through the tunnel, we were met with amazing views.

After Alissa got tired of stopping at every vista point to take pictures, we arrived in Manzanita. It was still early, so we got coffee/tea and a marionberry scone. We wandered in a couple of the shops along the main street, including a pet store. Alissa couldn’t help herself and bought Hobie a toy for her upcoming 4th birthday. We headed two blocks down the street to the post office where we shipped Hobie her surprise.

Next up was Nehalem where we visited Buttercup for chowder and ice cream (though not together) and Glen played a game at North Coast Pinball.

After lunch we had more gorgeous views.

And for a moment thought we were already back home.

The final destination for the day was Rockaway Beach where we found Tillamook ice cream (perhaps spoiling our visit to the creamery tomorrow).

Along the main drag, we found a Wizard of Oz themed mini (we mean very mini, perhaps micro) golf course. Of course we played a round.

Rather than rent kayaks to get close to Rockaway Beach’s “twin rocks” we settled for a picture in front of this mural.

Today was Alissa’s favorite day of the trip so far! So much ocean and such cute beachy towns!

We woke up to gray skies and rain. We expected to have rain on this trip and were surprised it took this long to have a wet day. But, the Internet told us the rain would stop at 8 am, so we walked to a coffee shop to pick up breakfast snacks (including an orange cardamom morning bun for Glen, yum). We packed up our bags and were ready to go around 8:05 but it seemed Mother Nature didn’t read the memo from weather.com. Still raining. We put on our rain gear and set out.

Our first stop was the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park — the location of the fort they built for their winter in Oregon.

While we explored the fort area, the sun came out so we removed all our outer rain gear, much to the amusement of the 4th graders visiting the park with their teachers.

Next up was the coastal town of Seaside, which reminded us very much of Pismo Beach with its beachy shops, restaurants, candy stores, and other touristy spots. Before lunch we visited their bike shop.

We chatted with Joe and his 80 year-old dad who have owned and operated this shop for decades (and Joe’s grandfather owned it before that). At some point, Joe said to Alissa, “You know, when you’re going down a hill at 35 mph …” and Alissa just wanted to laugh out loud. Even when she was trying to go as fast as possible — pedaling down a hill on a closed course during a race — she maxed out around 22 mph. She can’t image going 35 mph on a bike under any circumstance. But she just nodded and let Joe continue his story. Glen got his brakes adjusted (turns out the events at Bikes and Beyond hadn’t gone as smoothly as we hoped) and we headed to the beach.

After a tasty lunch we continued our ride. Fortunately, we were on the correct route.

The next town was Cannon Beach, where Glen enjoyed a pre-dessert s’mores snack.

We ate well today — grilled salmon tacos and crab melt for lunch followed by salmon salad and oyster po-boy for dinner.

Almost to our home for the night, we had to make a brief stop.

We admit, we were too worn out to ride down (then back up) the hill to the actual Hug Point. The Internet says it’s really quite the spot during low tide. We’ll have to come back another time.

The views from the road between Hug Point and our home for the night were really spectacular.

After a long day, we finally arrived at the home we rented and Alissa decided she never wanted to leave.

We knew we had some serious climbing to do today so we set out early. Good thing, since the wind was incredibly strong and directly in our faces. Fortunately 1/4 of the way into our trip, we came to the Berry Patch Restaurant, where slices of pie were available 24/7!

Here we learned how various berries are related

and learned that a certain local also likes to get his pies from here.

After some hills, we got to ride along the Columbia River.

And passed an eagle reserve.

Finally, we arrived in Astoria, which is a cute town with lots of maritime action.

And we got a glimpse of the 5+ mile bridge from Washington to Oregon that we did not, and would not under any circumstances, cross via bike.

We headed to a bike shop to get our brakes checked out.

This place was wild. The shop had everything…including a chicken.

Based on our limited experience, there was much more “beyond” happening in the shop than “bikes”. It was probably the single strangest bike shop we’ve ever been to. But the owner Scott was very nice and welcoming and Emilio took very good care of our bicycles.

We had dinner at a place that serves their own wild-caught fish. We wandered through the downtown streets and found it charming that the graduating high school seniors decorated the store windows with their names.

The day began with a speedy 10 miles down to Longview, WA where we got lunches to go. Then, as we did in Leggett during the Southern Half ™, we happily accepted some help with our journey. Brian (a Lyft driver) took each of us and our bikes separately across the Lewis and Clark Bridge.

We got some great views from the car.

And then, all of a sudden, we were in Oregon!

Then it was just another 15 miles or so along Old Hwy 30 (virtually no cars!) to Clatskanie, where we dined on delicious Mexican food while watching kids play baseball at the nearby park.

After sleeping in, George (via Uber) drove us an hour to the Hummocks trailhead. When he dropped us off, we made him cross his heart and triple pinky swear that he would return to pick us up a few hours later.

Very quickly, we joined up with the Boundary Trail, which leads up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

The hike had incredible views.

On our way down, we saw a mom and baby mountain goat! They ran off before we could take their picture, but they looked like this.

Fairly soon after leaving our home for the night, we had a Seinfeld moment.

Not much later, we saw this sign so had to stop.

The owner of the donut shop asked if we were training for the StP ride. Having never heard of it, we said no, then looked it up. Apparently there are insane people who ride 200 miles in a single day from Seattle to Portland! And it turns out, they follow exactly the route we’ve been taking.

So, we downloaded their directions to Castle Rock and wound up in Winlock.

We continued to Vader where Alissa was able to upgrade her bike.

As we approached Castle Rock, we saw an unusual road sign.

We also passed FOUR coffee huts today! (We told you they were everywhere!)

We arrived in town just as Glen’s “family time” hour started, so we stopped at the local bookstore/coffee shop to use their wifi and get a snack. By coincidence, the author who was hosting a book signing today lives just a few miles from us in Marina del Rey.

We wandered around a bit and took more photos before heading to our home for the night.

Still no baby yet! But man do Mark and Jaclyn have quite the collection of antique knick-knacks.

We got a late start this morning because we waited around to check out the Yelm Farmer’s Market.

Then we had 13 car-free miles filled with gorgeous trees and more of the lovely yellow Scotch broom all the way to Tenino.

Upon arrival in Tenino, we went straight to their Farmer’s Market!

Since we didn’t find sustenance at the market, we stopped by one of the numerous coffee drive-thru huts we’ve passed all over Washington, to get drinks to accompany our lunch of smoked salmon from Pike Place Market in Seattle.

When we got to Malibu in the Southern Half ™, Alissa regretted not having taken pictures of the different styles of lifeguard stations we passed as we cycled by all the California State Beaches. After we rode by a couple of these coffee shacks, she thought about documenting all them to make up for this. But it quickly became apparent that doing so would mean stopping far more often than we’d like.

Leaving Tenino, we had more beautiful vistas and a road almost entirely to ourselves. Maybe two cars passed us?

We arrived in Centralia thirsty and hungry, as today was 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. We lucked out and chose to stop at Lewis County’s most loved dessert location.

Finally we made it to our home for the evening, Chehalis,

welcomed by the giant greeting committee of one.

Our short rides the past two days were intentional to synchronize our schedule with our good friend Tom, who is moving from Tacoma to Colorado. While we were having breakfast, our other friend Jenny happened by!

After breakfast we embarked on our longest ride of the Northern Half ™ thus far. We rode right by Mount Rainer! 😉

Seeing as how she can’t turn our home into Uncle Sam’s headquarters to celebrate Memorial Day as she usually does, Alissa appreciated the efforts by one farm we passed.

For much of the day we were surrounded by gorgeous yellow flowers and, like yesterday, the weather was perfect.

We finally arrived in Yelm (great name!) where we had a tasty cauliflower steak and salad at The Local, and met our very charming Airbnb hosts who are expecting their first child AT ANY MOMENT! (She’s a week past her due date!)

Who knew this area was train central?

We passed this mural leaving Auburn and headed south to Tacoma. Along the way, we found ourselves derailed (ha, ha, see what we did there?) by…you guessed it! A train!

Alissa claims she saw more trains today than over the course of her entire life. (Glen can’t believe that to be true.) Upon arrival in Tacoma, we ran into the weekly farmer’s market where we picked up some lunch and listened to a dude play the kora, which he learned how to play from the masters in Gambia.

For dinner, we rode over to Duke’s Seafood on the waterfront where we had fresh fish, warm sourdough bread, and great views.

We wrapped up the day with made-in-Tacoma ice cream. Glen had almond poppyseed — a rare and Glentastic flavor!

Wait! What’s going on with our numbering system? Well, since we’re going south again, so the numbers need to increase. So, we took an educated guess at how long it will take for us to get back to Crescent City where we’ll call it a wrap (and rent a car to drive us and our bikes home). If all goes well, we’ll increase by one each day and Day #-4 will see us at the Avis counter of the Del Norte County Regional Airport, matching up with our initial 2025 posts.

After returning the rental car, we set off for Auburn, WA. It was a great (though short) day of riding with blue skies, giant clouds, sunshine, and a cool breeze. And, even better, most of our two hours was along car-free trails!

In Auburn, we wandered along Main Street in the historic downtown and stopped at a cute coffee shop, a chocolatier, an axe-throwing entertainment center (which was sadly closed for a private event), and Indian restaurant where we ordered dishes we’d never tried before!

In preparation for our trip, rather than in celebration for having finished it, we decided to eat our way through the city.

At the Pike Place Market, we got some delicious cherries (turned out they were from CA) and apple cider. We encountered a block’s worth of people waiting for…something. Turned out to be Starbucks! What’s so special about this location? Well, it’s the very first one. The only thing that differentiates it from the 17,000 others is the original logo, which you can actually see is a mermaid.

Then we met with various friends: Jenny and Tracy from the Seattle Universal Math Museum (SUMM) and Becky, Alissa’s friend and co-TA from the Summer Math Program at Carleton College.

No, we didn’t attach jet packs to our bikes!

So, back in 2019 we bought “Cycling the Pacific Coast: The Complete Guide from Canada to Mexico” to inform us what to expect. In the intervening six years, we forgot one of its central lessons:

We were, however, reminded of this dictum the previous day when Alissa found herself needing to be in her lowest gear and pedaling hard while riding downhill and when we encountered another pair of cyclists in Redwood National Park who muttered as we passed them, “they’re going the wrong way.”

Thus, today, we came to our senses and decided to do what we might well should have done to begin The Northern Half and rented a car to drive to Seattle. We made it Roseburg and will arrive in Seattle tomorrow.

Today offered the first real test of our hill training (Mandeville Canyon and The Country in Diamond Bar).

Turns out we’re doing this ride at precisely the right time!

After arriving in Crescent City, we naturally tried this place for lunch:

It was striking to take in both the beach and the redwoods in a single glance.

Glen was thrilled to have his first sighting of a bald eagle “on the wing” in the wild!

Today we rode through 10 miles of redwoods.

And we also rode through 10 feet of a redwood.

Because of the short mileage today, we had time to visit a place from the 1940s roadside attraction era, the Trees of MYSTERY! (Alissa notes that she didn’t find anything particularly mysterious about them.) We got up close and personal with said mysterious trees:

We also each made a new friend!

Our day ended with a dinner recommendation from a local.

As mathematicians we could not in good conscience use the same numbers over again from the first half of the trip. Moreover, we’re traveling in the opposite geographic direction, so we figured we should also travel in the opposite numerical direction.

The day began on a lovely trail right along the coast, but sections were unpaved making for a bumpy ride.

We stopped for lunch in the cute town of Trinidad where we found a previously untasted variety of Dick Taylor chocolate! (We discovered them on The Southern Half because their factory is in Eureka.)

Post lunch, the rest of the day’s ride was on the shoulder of the 101 freeway.

But, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. It looked absolutely nothing like this:

And instead like this:

Today was also four-legged animal day: we saw cows, horses, goats, sheep, and elk! We wrapped up the day by soaking in a hot tub, thanks to the fact that we cycled to the wrong cabin and had to rent a different one at the last minute.

They say “well begun is half done,” but in our case, it seems the question is whether half done is well begun! After six years we decided to find out.

So, here we are. Look familiar?

After grabbing our bikes from the (still) friendly and (extremely) helpful folks at Revolution Bicycles, we headed north, embarking on Glen and Alissa’s Pacific Coast Cycling Tour: The Northern Half.

Because of the late (but not delayed this time!) flight, we didn’t go far — just to McKinleyville where we stayed in a home with quite possibly the best ocean view yet:

The easy start and comfortable place to stay left us relaxed and ready for the real firsr day of cycling tomorrow.

p.s. The day began back in LA abandoning poor Hobie, who was devastated by our disloyalty.

40 miles, 5 bridges, and 0 cars! That’s what the 5 Boro Bike Ride, held on Glen’s 50th birthday, promised. Since we’d spent the past couple of months riding in the rain, we figured we knew the drill and set out in the drizzle, along with 20,000+ other cyclists.

Alissa: What’s the next entry in this sequence?

306, Hideaway Suite, 2, 222, 230, Fishman’s Cabin, 6, 17, D33, 50, 2, 2, 306, 540, 512, 7, 688, 23, 53, 1, 12, 303, 107, 349, 18102, 4207, 513, 6331E, 316, 4046,…

Oh you thought this post was going to be about our next adventure? 😉

These are our room designations from the trip.

In order that I may submit this blog as my sabbatical report, I’ll devote the remaining time of my sabbatical to determining the next entry in the sequence. With luck, I’ll even figure out the closed form formula, after which I will add it to the “Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences” (after making the obvious integer substitutions for some of the sequence members).

Alissa: After 1,000 miles, 14 counties, roughly 45,000 feet of elevation gained and lost, a min elevation of -7 feet, max elevation of 1930 feet, and one flat tire, we MADE IT! =) =)
[Note: these numbers include our extra help from Day #5.]

Our final day began with a giant wide road just for us!

Shortly after starting out, we came across a sea cave from the early 1900s

that we naturally had to check out.

To add to our fun, we rode the ferry across to Coronado “Island”

during which we saw a complete circle rainbow!

We wanted to visit “Friendship Park” right along the border, but it was closed due to flooding. So, we didn’t make it far into this park.

We headed east to the actual border crossing, and were pleased to see McDonalds in its appropriate role, greeting visitors at the “gateway to the Americas.”

We’re so close to Mexico, you can even walk there!

We took the electric trolley back up to downtown

where we loaded up a minivan with all our stuff

and went out to celebrate with Mexican food!

I’m wishing that I had taken pictures of all the lifeguard stations from Santa Barbara onward. There was so much variation, which I wouldn’t have expected!

Alissa: Our day began with delightful signage in the breakfast room!

Hmph. We were NOT planning to ride 57 miles today. But thanks to the few, the proud at Camp Pendleton who decided to close the bike path for their training exercises, we got to ride on “the 5” for thirteen miles instead of six plus ride an additional ten miles. Ooh Rah.

We knew we were going to have to ride on the shoulder of “the 5” for a little bit because the Camp changed its policy regarding bicyclists. It used to be the case that you’d show up, flash your ID, and be merrily on your way through. But a few months ago they started making everyone stop at their main gate (on the SOUTHERN end of the Camp) to obtain a pass. So, “the 5” it was.

As you might imagine, we weren’t exactly thinking about taking pictures as we rode like the wind (seriously, Glen rode faster than a bat out of hell) to get off the freeway as quickly as possible. Then we were just so mentally drained from being hyper alert that we weren’t inspired to document much else. However, the Pacific Surfliner sped right by us, and we did manage to capture that.

Alissa: It was a strange feeling yesterday being in civilization the entire day and knowing that this would be the case for the remainder of the trip. Even the ride along PCH in Malibu had unpopulated spots, so yesterday was really the first time the whole trip.

Our ride today took us through all the uber posh beach communities of the OC: Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, etc.

I found the riding conditions to be perhaps the least pleasant of our trip! I would have rather been on the side of PCH. No bike lane, no shoulder, and lots of people in expensive cars in a hurry who did NOT want cyclists sharing *their* road. None of these drivers were giving us friendly honks accompanied by big grins and a thumbs up! (And yes, we got quite a few of these along the way, though mostly when we were north of San Francisco and mostly from hippies in their Volkswagen mini buses.)

We stopped for lunch in Laguna at the Orange Inn, which has been there since 1931!

We didn’t notice until we went inside that they claim to be the “home of the original smoothie”! (Which would have been clear had we read their awning.) Of course Glen tried it, and of course we asked why they think they’re the creators of smoothies. I don’t remember the story (Glen probably does) but it was something about blenders being invented in 1931… Anyway. It was a tasty stop that we’re glad we randomly chose.

Alissa: And we’re back! I finished up my civic service for the good folk of Los Angeles County at the Pomona Superior Courthouse, so we loaded up our packs and set off for the border.

The day started like many bike rides Glen and I have taken: southbound along the beach path going through Marina del Rey, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and ending at the Redondo Beach pier. We’ve done this ride so many times that nothing was worthy of photographing since it was all just “normal” to us.

Our route then took us inland through Torrance and Carson, where we passed what at first looked like the Haribo bear.

We also rode through some lovely residential areas with great trees!

After crossing the 110 and 710, we rode along the LA River on the river bike path.

This took us into Long Beach, where the Queen Mary was off in the distance.

Finally we joined the beach path that took us along Bolsa Chica, Huntington Beach, and finally Newport Beach. Since I’ve spent loads of time on this path (as Newport holds a special place in the hearts of all Crans family members), I wasn’t inspired to take pictures as everything was just so familiar. The day ended by having dinner with my parents!

Alissa: My good friend Robert texted me a couple of days ago about the “millions” of butterflies in Los Angeles.

Today we woke up to be greeted by all of them! It really was delightful to see so many of them at once, and fairly consistently down to Malibu.

I’ve ridden this exact route a few times now, and it’s still beautiful. (Though, I must say, I used to think of Malibu as incredibly gorgeous and today I did have the reaction, “meh,” to the view in comparison to what we saw up in Big Sur.)

There were tons of bright wildflowers everywhere because of the rain

even in places destroyed by the recent fires.

For a brief portion of the ride near Zuma Beach, we had our own protected corridor!

After a long day of riding, we arrived at the Santa Monica Pier, where we’ve spent lots of time enjoying the Fosselman’s ice cream.

We’re staying put for a few days because I’m on call to do my civic duty this week, and then we’ll finish up the ride by heading to the border!

Alissa: It was only a matter of time…

We’ve been lucky and this is our first flat. (And in a super convenient place–the hotel!) I have absolutely no clue how Glen’s tire and tube came to be in the state shown above, so perhaps he can explain what happened. Fortunately, he’s very good at fixing all sorts of things,

so we were quickly on our way. We made a brief stop to check out one of the oldest bike shops in the country

then stopped for lunch at a (super tasty) bakery with an attached wine tasting room!

We were on the highway for only a brief period

because most of today was spent on incredibly nice, protected bike paths!

As an analog to the Glen-riding photo from a few days ago…

After dinner, we channeled our inner Daniel-san and went out for a night on the town!

We experienced Autopia as it was initially conceived

and illustrated the Mean Value Theorem after I started first and we both kept the pedal floored our entire time. Then we played some arcade games and some mini-golf.

Alissa: Leaving Lompoc was awesome for a few reasons: it was a gorgeous day, we were heading back toward the coast, we left behind an incredible windy city, we rode through lush green hills, we had an enormous shoulder (basically as wide as an entire lane), and perhaps the awesome-est reason was the gleaming, shiny, brand-new repaved road.

During a long, flat carless section, I snapped a closeup of Glen enjoying the ride.

At the top of the road, we took a break for lunch and a quick computation.

After descending, we reunited with the first road we took when leaving Arcata

because in this part of the state, “the 101” is along the coast (as you can see in the picture) while “the 1” is…well, I don’t know where it is, actually. Perhaps they’re even the same road! Here “the 101” is the

Before we got to the coast, we rode through a gap in the cliffs, which wasn’t big enough for travel in both directions (there is a tunnel on the northbound side).

And look how close we are to home now!

The winner of the “best traffic sign” of the trip goes to the one prior to a bridge just north of Refugio State Beach.

Tonight’s dinner thankfully didn’t involve any flags.

Alissa: Getting to Goleta (the home of UCSB) from Santa Maria involves gaining well over 3,000 feet in elevation. So, we decided to polish off a third of that and stop in the city of art and flowers, Lompoc, CA. Our day started and ended with a long, continuous series of strip malls. CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Auto Zone, and so on. In between, we passed many more strawberry fields (during which I told Glen that I might have to pick one at some point for, you know, quality control).

We arrived in Lompoc in time for lunch then a wine tasting at Longoria for Glen, which he declared his favorite wines of the trip thus far.

Alissa: We woke up to a great view of the Morro rock.

We stopped in SLO for lunch and a quick visit to the local bike shop.

It was a great day for a ride!

We had to say goodbye to the coast today for a couple of days as Hwy 1 (now called Pacific Coast Highway!) turns inland. We spent another afternoon passing by numerous farms. We saw cows, horses, goats, sheep, chickens,

citrus trees, cilantro crops (so fragrant!), and many, many more strawberries.

Alissa: Very quickly into our ride we turned inland away from the coast for a bit.

After a few miles we stopped to see the elephant seals

then made an early pit stop for lunch of burgers made from Hearst cattle and some wine tasting for Glen.

Then we went on a tour of the Hearst Castle

and saw a bunch of bedrooms, Hearst’s office

the indoor pool,

and the looooooong driveway up from Hwy 1.

We passed through Cambria and Cayucos which I think were our final cute little towns consisting of a single Main St “downtown” area. Glen kindly took a picture of me when we passed Harmony. The last time I was in a picture with this sign, my brother and grandma were also in the photo and Harmony had 4 fewer citizens.

We rode until 7 pm because of the time change and our long mid-day break at the Castle, so were starving when we arrived in Morro Bay (which also had a super cute single-street downtown). In the words of my nephew, “What the?”

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the ATM and I saw this:

Why doesn’t anyone (er, the Easter Bunny?) ever leave a Reese’s bar and clasp envelopes at my place of work?

Alissa: Glen surprised me with a fun gift:

which I gleefully started unwinding

wondering what on Earth could be wrapped up inside. I didn’t have to wait long until I found a plastic frog,

a glamorous new ring,

and a roll of Smarties.

Fun times!

Alissa: Today we rode through both of the road closure areas, which, thankfully, had opened!

We had more lovely views along the coast,

and the views to our left looked mostly like this:

During our lunch stop at the Whale Watchers Cafe, I, suitably, saw the spout of a whale! And, we encountered fellow cyclists also riding down the coast!

Post lunch, Glen and I made unexpected discoveries. First, I found Freddy! I didn’t even know I had been looking for him.

Then Glen found that elusive California reflector rock!