California

*Le sigh* The great trip ended last night, as we landed in Calgary after a week of cycling and touring around Southern Calfornia. I had a great time and will let the pictures tell the story!View from the deck
L.A. Criterium
Redondo Beach volleyball
Universal Studios CityWalk
The gang at Universal Studios
Spongebob at Universal Studios
Hollywood at night
Huntington Beach
The view from Glendora Mountain
The guys on Glendora
Just another jam on the 405
ADT Center
The view over Palm Desert
Newport Marina
Laguna Beach
The ADT Center crew
Newport Beach

I was still pretty sick when we landed in Los Angeles, so I skipped out on the Food Park Ride on Saturday (although we went to South Coast Plaza in the afternoon) and the L.A. Criterium on Sunday. While the guys were racing on Sunday, I rode through Westchester to Marina Del Rey and along Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beaches.

By Monday I was feeling well enough to ride, so we went for a spin along the San Gabriel River to Anaheim and back to Newport Beach. Then we hopped in the van and went to Universal Studios for the day. The rides were a lot of fun, and thank god the lines were short. I can't imagine having to stand in line for an hour for some of those rides -- how do you say disappointment? In my opinion, the new 'Shrek in 4-D' ride was the best, maybe because it was the funniest. The Mummy ride was cool too, but short. The Universal Studios Tour is definitely a must-do. We ate, drove down Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, and then made the long trek back to Newport.

Tuesday morning was extremely windy and Frank, Reid and I went for a ride along the Pacific Coast Highway into Long Beach and back to Newport. We had thought that open track at the ADT Center was Tuesday, but it ended up being on Wednesday and Friday evening instead. We went to the South Coast Plaza mall again in the afternoon instead.

Wednesday was the Glendora Mountain ride and the drive to the track in Carson in the evening for a workout.

Thursday was the 150km ride from Tom's Farm through Lake Elsinore, Murrieta, Temecula, Aguanga, and Anza to Palm Desert.

Friday was a coffee ride from Newport to Laguna Beach and back and then an afternoon at Fashion Island finishing our shopping. Frank, Reid and I went and did a hard workout at the ADT Center again on Friday evening, and despite a volleyball tournament going on, we pretty much had the track to ourselves, which was nice.

Saturday we packed up, ate breakfast on the Newport Beach boardwalk, attempted to find parking at Venice Beach to go walk around (to no avail) and then fought traffic, security and crying babies to make it to our flight back to Calgary from LAX intact.

It's unfathomable how much driving Angelenos do to get from point A to point B. Everything is so spread out. Traffic jams are a normal part of life there and something you always have to factor into your travelling time. It's nuts. The weather was gorgeous though, and despite the one windy day, most of the other days were ride-perfect weather.

Now I can't wait to experience Northern California in 11 short weeks!