L&K Take America

In between my nights in Tracy at my cousin, Jenny’s house, I spent a great 27 hours with some friends. After dropping my sister at the airport on Friday, I headed to my friend, Lindsey’s, place in Oakland. She is getting married in a few short weeks so I was very grateful that she allowed me to drop in and waste some of her time.

When I arrived, we got Luna settled and then set out on bikes for an adventure in the big city. I must say, I am too scared to ride my bike in Boston, but somehow this was much better. Doesn’t say much for Boston drivers or the bike friendliness of Beantown. We road from her apartment to the ferry in Oakland in Jack London Square. While we waited for the next ferry, we had some wine and cheese at the Rosenblum tasting room.

It was a beautiful day and the ferry was super convenient.

We arrived in San Francisco with our sights on crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We dodged tourists, winding our way through the streets and up to the Bridge. Not going to lie, I’m not in the greatest shape of my life and his was the most exercise I had done since setting out on the trip and the bike was a few inches too tall for me. Needless to say, my whoo-ha was not happy with me after a couple miles on the cobblestone and uneven streets of San Francisco. I stood for a good portion of the ride, which somehow caused me to bruise the inside of my thighs. When I did go to sit down, I kept pinching my inner thigh fat. Really, Katie??? Eek!! Going to be sore.

All of the pain was worth it when we arrived at our destination. Wow…completely different perspective from the bridge on foot rather than driving over it or looking at it from afar. Highly recommend taking this adventure.

We then road back to the ferry and grabbed a snack while we waited from the next ferry. Lindsey’s fiancé, Joe, had given her specific instructions about how not to get her new, VERY nice bike stolen. As you would assume, this put her a bit on edge whenever it was out of arm’s reach.  Well, as soon as she locked it up, a super sketch guy started clearly scoping it out. While you may think this is two girls being dramatic, it was real. After clearly checking out how to steal the bike, he got on his phone, sat on the bench next to the bike rack, and continued to scope it out. Long story short, after about 10 minutes of watching him and speculating about his intentions and who he was talking to on the phone, Lindsey went and brought the bike over next to us to ease her nerves. He watched her the ENTIRE time and as soon as she walked away with the bike, he took off. While it would have made for a great blog post if he had tried to steal the bike, I’m glad she didn’t have to tackle the guy. The potential for that to go awry is pretty high, and again, she is getting married in a few weeks, so it’s best to avoid such situations. Interesting nonetheless.

When we got back to Oakland via the ferry Joe picked us up so we didn’t have to ride all the way back to their apartment. As he was putting the bike I was riding on the roof racks, he stopped and said, “You have a flat tire. How long were you riding on that?” I was panicked that I had bent the rim by riding on a flat tire. They didn’t seem overly concerned about the rim, but informed me that it would have been pretty rough (which it was) and pretty difficult (which it was) had I been riding for very long on a flat tire. Now, should I have noticed that there was a flat tire? Probably. However, Lindsey is one of my oldest friends and she has ALWAYS been a significantly better athlete than me. As a result, the fact that she was peddling with ease and at least a quarter mile ahead of me at most times, while I was wheezing and peddling as fast as I could, wasn’t all that alarming to me. That being said, I would like to think that I was at least somewhat hindered by my injured vehicle and that it wasn’t all due to being out of shape and abnormally short legs.

We took quick showers and went out to a casual dinner and drinks at a cool little place, Blind Tiger, with a friend of theirs. I keep wanting to call it Tiger Tears. Not the name, but someone should name their place that. It was delicious.

Lindsey & Joe were going on a rafting trip early on Saturday morning so we headed home and went to bed. Luna greeted them with a special hello in the morning by jumping into bed and snuggling with them once she heard them rustling. Thank you, Joe & Lindsey, for tolerating my little nugget.

After they left for their rafting trip, Luna & I went to meet a friend and former coworker of mine and his wife, Patrick & Jess, who recently moved to San Francisco for brunch. We went to Market and Rye in their new neighborhood. Very cool little area and great brunch. We then walked to a dog store and to their apartment to get a bag full of toys that their dog doesn’t like for Luna. She LOVES them!! Thank you, Patrick & Jess!

After brunch, Luna & I walked around a bit, got the Jeep a much needed wash and vacuum and headed to the airport to pick Mom up.

After picking Mom up, we headed to a Jeep dealer. Why you ask? Because I smelled a smell. To me, it smelled like hot brakes. Mom thought it smelled like burning oil. Whatever the cause of the smell, I didn’t like it. The guys at the Jeep dealer checked it all out and said everything looked normal and didn’t smell anything abnormal. In my defense, the smell had lessened after getting it washed. When I told them that, they gave the tell tale “Ahhhh…yes..” with the head nod reaction. They said it was likely something on the exhaust pipe such as a plastic bag that was washed off with the car wash. Made me feel better to get it checked out, and I will keep an eye (and nose) on it.

Off we went to Stop #18, back to Tracy for a little family time!

Lesson of the Day: Check your bike tires often. Can save your whoo-haaa some distress.

Oh and avoid driving near plastic bags and the such.