Rest day - Saturday, July 21, 2012 - Pura Vida

Of course it would be the day after we finish that we would have a real day of rest- no biking 45 miles or walking endlessly all over a city.

We spent the morning packing up our bikes and cycling gear and coordinating a van cab to ship it home via UPS. The hotel room looked pretty ridiculous - half filled with cardboard at one point. Next we grabbed lunch and cabbed it to the beach where a true day of relaxing and modifying tan lines occurred.

It's difficult to believe that we don't have another morning of cleaning up camp, gearing up, and hitting the road to post up 80 or so miles.

Day 25 - Friday, July 20, 2012 - El fin.

No alarm was necessary today, as our internal alarm clocks had us up by 6:30am. We took full advantage (or slightly abused) the continental breakfast before hitting the road.

We only had a half mile ride to the Coronado ferry. This ten minute trip took us across San Diego Bay, avoiding the bay bridge. We had a great view of the San Diego cityscape, and of particular interest were Naval vessels and a large ship being built.

Once we disembarked the vessel, we took off on a bike path that led us through all of Coronado and into Imperial Beach. We navigated through this city and it's outlying horse ranches to Border State Beach park. Unsuspectingly, this was the end of our trip. We saw a large tall fence, border patrol in hilltops and helicopters, but no point of entry. Thankfully this venture was about the journey, not the destination.

After our anticlimactic finish, we grabbed some food and hit the beach. On the ferry back to downtown San Diego, we were engaged in conversation with two cyclists and one if them ended up being from Cleveland Heights. He grew up on East Scarborough and was a Roxboro and Heights High grad....such a small world.

The rest of the day was spent retrieving boxes and packaging materials, and of course washing clothes. We broke off for dinner and it should be mentioned that Mike and Melissa found a tasty vegan joint (Evolution Fastfood) and indulged in PinkBerry frozen yogurt afterwards (side note: totally worth the hype, so tasty). Z and DJ decided to give In-N-Out a whirl. They both agree that there is no way it could have lived up to its outlandish reputation, but it was still a good burger.

Day 24 - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - Are we there yet?

We headed out of San Onofre State Beach per the directions, "keep the ocean on your right". We jumped on a bike path that quickly led us through Camp Pendelton for about 8 miles.

After passing through the Marine Corp Reservation, we had the pleasure of riding through a series of beach towns. Oceanside had a cool natural food market where we met a free spirited cyclist who had ridden from Sarasota across the country. He had been on the road for 90 days and talked about how he had couch surfed a good portion of the way. He also spoke of the incredible heat that forced him to ride super early before sunrise and quit around lunchtime. We shared our cold and wet stories of Washington and Oregon.

There were many cyclists on the road, as this part of the country is very popular for triathlons. There was no shortage of impressive bikes to view from across the road. We met some friendly riders who gave us tickets for a ferry we would need tomorrow to make it to the border.

This was a short day of riding, with 58 miles to our downtown San Diego hotel. Many beaches along the way enticed us, like the whole La Jolla area and Mission Beach, but we were determined to get in and unload our gear.

We spent the rest of our day cleaning up and retrieving boxes for our bikes to be shipped home. We caught a great sunset to top off the day at Mission Beach. The border awaits tomorrow!

Day 23 - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - SoCal Appreciation

We left Torrance full after taking advantage of the continental breakfast at the Travelodge. Our route took us on a bike path that followed the Los Angeles river and near the impressive Long Beach waterfront area.

We rode on a straightforward bike path through Seal Beach, then through the Huntington Beach area. The pier still has the same landmark red restaurant at the end, but there have been quite a few other changes to the area. Workers were setting up for the US Open of Surfing, erecting seating for the coming weekend. We were jealous of the miscellaneous camps for kids along the beachside including junior lifeguards, surf camps, and beach volleyball.

In Newport Beach we were back on the PCH, and we rode past enough exotic car dealerships to make Ian jealous. We stopped for lunch in Corona Del Mar after putting down half of the necessary mileage for the day.

Back on the PCH we took on the rolling hills through the Laguna Beach area and onto Dana Point. We stopped at a bike shop at the beginning of San Clemente and knew we weren't far from our final destination for the day.

We were treated to dinner at Melissa's Aunt Betty and Uncle Carmen's house in San Clemente. We gorged on the incredible spread while taking in views from the ocean front patio. Many stories and laughs were shared, and it was the perfect end to another day of riding (80 miles). (Side note: it was nice to meet Kristen and Megan!)

Day 22 - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - thrills and spills

Today was the first day we woke up to warm weather. Long sleeves and pants were not a necessity, and the air temperature was warm enough that our tents were not wet with condensation. We packed up camp and set off from McGrath State Park.

Along the way we rode through a Naval missile park, which included a F-14 Tomcat. (insert Z and DJ Top Gun joke here). We entered Los Angeles county and took a break by watching surfers at a beach before entering Malibu. We lunched just past Zuma beach and cycled along the coast. While Z was taking in the sights at 20 mph, his front tire slipped into the ditch sent him tumbling into the street. Fortunately he escaped with minor abrasions and we had a more mellow bike path to continue on.

The bike path took us through Santa Monica and Venice, where the people watching was nothing short of amazing. Hermosa beach had some impressive houses right along the sand for viewing. Redondo Beach was where we turned off and went inland to our hotel for the night after riding 75 miles.

Melissa's friend, Rob, met us at the hotel and took us for our first car ride in three weeks to the Redondo Fisherman's Wharf. We also met up with Melissa's cousin, Michele and her son Jayde, as well as another awesome friend, Jack. It was great seeing good friends and family along the way!