Tour de Fat-- Too Much Fun

Just to further prove that our town of Fort Collins, Colorado, is a bicycle-friendly community, over 25,000 cyclists come together on one Saturday morning annually for the Tour de Fat  bicycle parade. This past weekend the free event occurred. I cleaned up my New Belgium  bike, ( that I had won in a contest three years ago) and checked the air in the tires for a smooth ride.

 Out came the box that stores my special Tour de Fat costume: black and white striped knee stockings, a black and white polka dot bicycle skirt, and a white t-shirt with "Tour de Fat" embroidered on the back. For a bit of  "bling", I wear long red feather earrings and my red helmet has strings of pearls hanging from the back.  Actually, it's a pretty conservative costume compared to the thousands of other participants. People come up with some very crazy outlandish outfits.

Even bicycles get decorated with crepe paper, colorful flags, streamers, plastic flowers, blaring music boxes and baskets holding dogs. Some very talented and skilled welders work on original home-made bikes all year just to ride and show off their new creations for this once-a-year festival.

Several streets along the route, in the downtown area of Fort Collins, are blocked off for the bike parade. Volunteers and police officers help safely guide the masses of cyclists along the right direction.  Everyone is in a party mood and lots of smiles can be seen. Even the folks watching on the sidelines  wear colorful costumes, pull out the barbeques, and cheer the riders on--even though this is not a bicycle race. In fact with so many bikes, the parade moves along quite slowly, which gives me a chance to observe all the creative costumes surrounding me.

At the end of the parade route, hundreds of rental bike racks are placed in a large empty lot but it's not enough to hold all the innumerable amount of bikes. Every available street light or pole will have several bikes locked up against it. Actually the whole downtown area becomes one big bike parking lot. Several music bands play rock music. Food vendors sell pizzas, hamburgers, veggie-wraps, and even Chinese dumplings. Long line of hungry cyclists start queuing up.

 At the end of the day prizes are given to the best costumes and unique bikes. It's just a really fun and unusual day, spent among thousands of bikes. I ride my bicycle home, take a well-deserved shower and pack away my costume into it's own special box until next year's Tour de Fat. Can't wait!

A Day in San Diego

We've all been there, done that, and some of us even "got the T-Shirt".....we helped a friend or family member to move their household to a new home. And when the work is all done, there is usually a celebration of sharing a large pizza, but in this case it was Mexican food.

I just returned from a trip in southern California to help my daughter, Erica, and her family, make a major move four hours away. There was a heat wave during the whole week that I was there. My packing of shorts and tank tops worked just fine.

I was raised south of the San Diego area and some of my family still live there. Over the years we took many trips to the usual tourist's spots such as Tijuana, Balboa Park and Sea World. My sister, Cory, asked me what I wanted to do with my one free day before the BIG MOVE.  " Oh, let's go to the beach, I haven't seen the Pacific Ocean for quite some time now," I replied. So along with my mother, we drove out to Ocean Beach. This was on the last weekend before school started. Seems like everyone had a desire for one last summer hurrah.

We could quickly see that there was not one single parking space available. Ditching that idea, Cory suggested Dog Beach, where "it's so entertaining to watch the dogs play in the waves." ( Dog Beach is the most popular canine hotspot in San Diego.)  Not only was there NO parking spaces , we got stuck in a line of cars trying to escape OUT of the parking lot.We then drove over to Shelter Island. After two minutes of gazing out at the San Diego Harbor, the heat wave forced us back into the air conditioned car.

One last effort was a short drive south to the Seaport Village area where The Headquarters is located. Yea! At last, we found a precious parking space! Presented in 2013, the open-air market offers a range of specialty shops and eateries. The buildings served as the headquarters for the San Diego Police Department from 1939-1987. Building began in 1937 and the architecture represents a  Spanish mission style along with a mixture of Ancient Greece and Rome Classical Revival. It is now on the National Registrar of Historic Places because of this eclectic gathering of architectual mode.

At one time the building housed a crime lab, five courtrooms, an emergency hospital, an indoor shooting range, and an extensive law library. Some of the original jail cells from the 1930's still exist. Of course, we couldn't resist playing jailbirds and had our photo taken. There is a Hall of History displaying original mug shots of men and women who also got their picture taken, but not happily. Adding to the historic value is the tower where the San Diego police officers watched the Pacific Ocean for enemy aircraft during World War II.  

Fortunately these lovely vintage buildings were not torn down but instead were refurbished into a center where art and music events take place all year long. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and topped it by sharing a piece of Salted Caramel Cheesecake. Excellent decision.

We drove back to my sister's house and I sat on her back patio looking at the Pacific Ocean in the distance with a cool breeze brushing across my sweaty face. Holding my glass of minted iced water, I was reminded of what I use to tell my kids when traveling: "Go with the flow!"  We did that on this San Diego Day and it turned out to be quite  pleasant after all.