photo by Ben Ingham 

I’ve recently been bitten by the bicycling bug.

Again.

When I was a teenager, my dad would take the whole family out for semi-regular mountain bike rides. I remember it being hard, but getting a kick out of it. Bicycling used to be my main mode of transportation when I was in junior high. I have fond memories of biking to South Pasadena for errands and to get away for a bit.

Since living up in Northern California, I’ve tried to take up various sporting hobbies, and so far none of them have stuck (for various reasons). That is, until I decided to start biking again. First, I got a flat bar road bike (which, incidentally, isn’t really a flat bar road bike. It’s more of a mountain bike with some fat city tires on them. I will be turning this into a real mountain bike soon). After I road around for a bit, I remembered I really really like this bike riding business.

Second, I purchased a really great road bike (which I’m attempting to train for my first charity ride coming up in July. For some, 50 miles is not a lot, but for me it’s quite daunting.). And now, my (former) next door neighbor “gifted” me his fixie bike. Now, there’s no way I’m riding a fixie (fixed gear) on the streets; it’s kind of a death wish, really. So I’ve taken it to the local bike shop, and hopefully I’ll have a functioning non death trap, around town, bike very soon.

When I lived in LA, I tried to make a (intermittent) habit of doing short little day trips around Southern California. Because I was initially alone in Northern California, when I moved up here, I tried to make day trips even more of a habit. Since Casey and I have been married, the day trips have sorta tapered off for a variety of reasons, but today that changed.

Today, I dropped Casey off at work, hopped in the car around 11 AM and attempted to get myself pretty lost. I did a pretty good job actually. I did such a good job, that within the first hour, I managed to hit two dead ends while trying to get over some hills. However, after a few wrong turns, I managed to get myself over the hill, and through a few cities I had no idea existed. I’d love to tell you what cities they were, but I have no freaking clue.

I can tell you that I ended up in Marshall, CA at a great restuarant/inn called Nick’s Cove. It’s a fun, quaint restaurant, and from what I can tell, some kick butt food. I’ll spare you the minute details, but basically everyone I encountered was extremely friendly. The Petrole Sole, fried in Lagunitas IPA batter, with fresh french fries, was easily the best fish and chips I’ve ever had.

fried food heaven.

Two nice little touches were: the waitress brought me a kayaking tour guide and let me know what else was out in Marshall. I had informed her that I was completely lost and was wondering what else there was to do. The other was when I stopped by the inn’s office and they offered to give me a tour of the (awesome) property.

Overall, the day was pretty great. I traveled about 160 miles in about 5 hours, saw some amazing scenery that only Northern California has to offer, and had some great fish and chips. Can’t beat that.