Headed to Ess Eff on Friday night to prep for a good long road ride with ol' G-Sharp Saturday. He and his wife Dena have an incredible house in Bernal Heights neighborhood, and we planned to use our location to hang-out, get some food and maybe do a little drinkin' (something I haven't done for a real long time). I also remembered my good friend Rich lives in the same general area, so a call was made, plans enacted to meet later and off we went. How did it go? Reaaaaal nice. Sharp is one of my closest friends, and given what is going on, I needed a sound mind to share with. His advice and insight are always appreciated—essentially what the weekend was about...listening and sharing.
Anyway, there was some Al Green records to listen to, some red wine to be drunk and then off to eat some sushi at a place called Moki's. Real good place, really fresh maguro and large Sapporo helped out. Headed to a neighborhood bar where we met up with Rich, some Guinness, the old pal Jameson and very entertaining conversation with a transplant from Akron on her way to New Orleans...ah to be young and totally naive...
Morning came a bit too soon given the amount of drinkin', but Dena hooked us up with some good strong coffee, eggs and, you guessed it, BACON. God bless the swine. Thank you so much Dena!
Well there was nothing to do, but do it, so we headed out groggy and ready to test our mettle through the city. I am always amazed at the variety of neighborhoods, each one filled with new restaurants, shops and people...totally cool, totally alive.
Bernal is on one side and Marin on the other end, so the wiggle through neighborhoods and such was eye opening and helped get us out of groggy and into being alert. Soon we were dodging hammers on the GG bridge, thankfully Grady had full command of his bike bell... Another stop in Sausalito at Cafe Trieste for more coffee and we were off to Fairfax. There were a ton of riders out there that day, especially given how beautiful it was. Best part is getting out onto backroads, Alpine Dam and Tam. The climbs were rough given our night before, but the purpose was to cruise and enjoy the day which we did successfully. All told we got like 67 miles with a little over 6000' of climbing in on an incredible day. Dena again came through with a delicious dinner of grilled chicken covered in Tapatio, arugula and Goat Cheese salad on some grilled beets, and red quinoa with corn...My plate was cleaned!!
A huge thank you goes out to both Grady and Dena, your hospitality and insight are well received and much appreciated. I look forward to many more rides and times together.
More images on my Flickr page...
1 comment:
Looks like you had a great ride with good ol' Sharp.
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