CicLAvia Goes Weird

Hollyweird, that is. I am not quite going to say that today's route through Hollywood was the most interesting (I have always been partial to the downtown ones), but it certainly approached the original in terms of sites to see. From Barnsdall Art Park with the Hollyhock House at one end to the old Grauman's Chinese Theater on another end, a plethora of sidewalk stars in between (yes I did find his, and yes I did step on it and grind it beneath my foot), and WeHo and a very loud Hamburger Mary's on a third leg, there was almost too much to see and not enough time to check out the other riders (well, not really, but point is there was much to see and do).

That said, CicLAvia is as much about the people as it is about the sites - there were familiar people - David, was there, as was Dagmar, Janette, Waldi, Tom, the Cox (I believe) family with not one, but two Claremont HS mountain bikers, some guy named Venom who pounced from somewhere up high, and a Princess named Leia from a galaxy far, far away. The familiars, of course, were vastly outnumbered by "new" people, like Mike, who we shared conversation, and a train ride back home with, and a vast crowd of others enjoying a self-propelled day site-seeing one of the worlds most iconic locales. 

By the by, I want to thank everyone for coming out to the birthday party for the mrs., it was a bigger bash than I could have ever planned on my own. I didn't have to do anything other than show up (and coordinate the train rides).

In all seriousness though, I can probably count the number of times I have been to Hollywood on my ten fingers, and I don't think I am really all that different than other native greater-Angelenos; I tend to leave it to the crowds, and the tourists. Before the current rail system made it easy, getting there was a pain. So why bother? It took CycLAvia to get me there - hear that, It. Took. CicLAvia to get me there. Thanks CicLAvia, and Los Angeles, for putting out the welcome mat today for myself and the other tens of thousands I shared the streets with.

We got there right as the route opened so it was pretty quiet still at the Barnsdall Park hub

the Hollywood crowd

the big guy

well, they got the birth year part right, i'm not so sure about the world famous part

the theater formerly known as Grauman's

Hollywood and Highland

what the... where did he come from?

surfin' safari down Hollywood Boulevard

hey, all the way from Santa Barbara (yea!) it's the CycleMaynia gal

WeHo

Hamburger Mary's across the street - i don't know if there was a drag show taking place, but there was one heck of a party going on in there

found a couple old teammates along the route

Hey Dagmar!

the end, in more ways than one