bike trip, 2011

i've taken a few great bike trips over the years, so when my friend andrew suggested that we spend our spring break riding our bikes, i was all ears.  you may remember andrew from my california league ballpark bicycle tour from a few years ago.  andrew suggested riding some california coast, and when we figured out how much time we had, we decided to head south, hit up some regional breweries, and ride the amtrak train back home.

we left on monday, and as you can see from the photo above, we ran in to some rainy weather.  i will post a few more photos from our journey over the next few days.

rainy days

we've been getting some seasonal gray weather and rain this weekend - even some thunder and lightning yesterday!  here is a picture of our soggy city hall. you can't even see the san gabriel mountains because of the hanging cloud cover.

a bit late for this week, but we'll consider this skywatch friday on a sunday.  you can see more at the skywatch website right here.

it was a crazy day of precipitation

see

i've held off talking about our recent wet weather because...  well, i wasn't sure i had anything special to add.  but wednesday afternoon's downpour was so amazing that i figured i better take some pictures.

i want you to take a close look at the above photo - see that white stuff in the grass?  that is hail (additional photo below).  see that gray matter where the sidewalk should be?  yeah, that's a river.  see the van that is waiting to turn out into the road?  yeah, water is pouring through his front wheels.

i can't imagine what is going on up in our mountains, and in the communities at the foot of the mountains.  i haven't heard anything too terrible yet, but if the rain keeps coming, who knows what will happen.

certainly there is cause for concern at our various runoff basins and water channels across los angeles county.

as our parking area slowly becomes a lake

rumor has it that the parking area of our building is now one of the largest bodies of water on the west coast. okay, not really, but it does feel much more aquatic than it ever has in the two and a half years that we've lived out here.

we're supposed to have a short break from the rain today, followed by more rain when next week arrives.

bicycling in the rain

it has been unseasonably wet in southern california this week. we don't usually get much rain, so when it rains for more than a few hours in one day people take notice. it has been raining almost non-stop so far this week, and as you can tell by the edge of the street in the bottom of this photo, it is raining more than the streets and gutters can hold.

this cyclist is hardcore. i'm sure this is a common sight in places like portland or seattle, but not in los angeles county. i consider myself to be an avid rider, but even i'm not really willing to go out in this mess. congrats - whoever you are!

overcast in pasadena

i didn't get around to posting any pictures of our rainy gray weather this week. while we've recovered to get back to our normal sunny weather, we had a few days of wonderful cloudy dreariness. we are realizing that the longer we live in southern california, the more we begin to lament the lack of rain and clouds - weird, right?

it's raining, it's pouring

i don't get very inspired to go take pictures when it is raining. usually in pasadena i don't have that excuse, but lately we've had quite a bit of rain - like maybe more rain than we've had the entire year and a half we've lived in southern california.

it appears that some of my blogging neighbors are also feeling a little wet. case in point here, here, here, and here.

you may recognize this view - it's another shot of the perspective we get from our balcony.

villa parke voting

rain was falling today but that didn't stop people from lining up to vote outside the villa parke location. if you live in the usa, i hope you got a chance to do the same today.

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like

take a blurry picture and see if you recognize anyone

one last picture from sunday's rainy and wet tour of california. stay tuned tomorrow for some non-bicycle material - maybe of the neon variety.

tour of california

the final stage of the 2008 tour happened to be a few miles from our house. it's amazing to watch professional cyclists ride on roads that you normally ride on, only at speeds you cannot fathom. this picture shows a bit of the lovely weather that we were graced with on sunday. rainy and cold for the end of the race - five 5 mile laps around the rose bowl.

wet roads, and newspapers

a startling development in my pasadena life - it rained. we had been told it was always 75 and sunny, but today proves that theory wrong