Been a pretty chill few days. Downtime was forced by the Thursday appointment with Ducati Newport Beach. Never really planned on spending much time in the LA area other than the required day for servicing, so this was a bit of a bonus. Took a chance to do things I normally wouldn’t do on a visit to LA. Bit of a shift from a normal tourist visit, but a good change of pace.

Sunday was a throwback to the old Sun Run training days – Church at synergysb.com, pho for lunch and then a run in the afternoon. The joys of tasting pho in the back of your throat as you suck wind isn’t enjoyable, but it did bring back a lot of memories. But the trail run/hike in the sun up to ‘Inspiration Point’ in Santa Barbara was quite nice. Definitely not something I think I would have done on any other trip.

Taking the Duc out to Riverside on Monday was interesting. I went along the coast to try to swing by Neptune’s Net – but got there too early in the morning. Passing through Santa Monica, I got onto the 60 – this was a real taste of the LA highway system with traffic. I’m not sure what it was, but I could not for the life of me keep my eyes open. Not sure if it was the glare of the sun on the 12 lane highways, the heat, or the what, but it felt like I needed to just close my eyes for a while. Opening up the visor helped briefly, but in the end, I had to pull over for gas anyway.

Fortunately, this did give me a chance to look for an In-N-Out Burger. Cross off something ‘typical’ from the tourist list.

Got a little lost getting to my Godparent’s place in Riverside, but nothing too stressful. It was nice to see them again – and they have a little dog named Spanky! We hid out in the house to avoid the afternoon heat before grabbing some dinner and going for a walk/hike up the local mountain. Minimal pollution meant there were some great views. But my godmother did point out that the pollution does getting used to and that my experience on the highway might be related.

Not really having anything else to do, I decided to swing down to San Diego on Tuesday and cross of Corner #2 – San Ysidro. Tempted briefly to cross the border into Mexico on foot, but since I dont’ really have space for any shopping and wasn’t going to do any drinking, I didn’t see the point. Went by the Tiajuana Nature Reserve before heading towards La Jolla for lunch. George’s at the Cove was a great place for lunch. Good food, great views and solid service. Ticked off the ‘fancy west coast/cali’ dining experience. It was so busy even at 1pm on a Tuesday, I had to wait 30mins for a seat on a patio. I hopped down the street to grab a coffee. Chatted with young guy about his ‘hardley’ for a bit. He kindly pointed out that one of the young women who were at the next table previously was a ‘porn star’. Interesting encounter, can’t say the bike doesn’t open doors. Where those doors go is anyone’s guess. There was also a young boy hanging out for a while. We had a nice talk about bikes and my previous stops. Wasn’t long before Area 51 came up and we talked about some of the defense systems. Not sure how much of it was fantasy, but still entertaining.

After lunch, I wandered around Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma before heading back to Riverside for the night.

Wednesday morning, I decided to take Spanky for a run. ~4 miles down to the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, hangout for a coffee before heading back.

It was a nice trip, although probably a bit of a late start. Getting uncomfortably warm by the time we got back. Spanky was thoroughly wiped.

I rode out on the 91 towards Newport after lunch. Same thing as Monday and Tuesday. Could not keep my eyes open and the watering made staying on the road dangerous. Ducked out to grab gas while I stopped anyway and things eased up. Checked into the Vagabond Inn and dropped the bike off at the shop before walking down to Newport Beach. Got there fairly late in the afternoon, so it was rather quiet.

But definitely got my ‘beach’ fix – makes me want to rent a beach house one of these days. Walking back was much less entertaining. Run and the walk in one day was too much. So much so I was tempted to steal an unlocked kid’s bike just to get off my feet. Lots of stops for drinks on the way back, but no appetite – at least until I saw the Chik-Fil-A next to the hotel. Forgotten how good they were. I think they’re better than In-N-Out!