We had a wonderful day cycling through LA. We headed back towards the coast and followed the ocean front bike path. It was mostly filled with locals walking and jogging, and an incredible number of surfers. There were many surfers cycling and they have a special rack to hold their surf board along their bike which we found really neat. We past by many very nice homes along the beach.
At the end of the bike path we had to head inland to get to Long Beach. There is unfortunately no way to cycle along the water here to get through. We did some research the night before and decided to take the route recommended by Adventure Cycling as opposed to our guidebook which recommended the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) which is very busy and has a lot of parked cars on the shoulders when they exist.
The Adventure Cycling route turned out to be fantastic for riding through, with very reasonable courteous traffic and a descent shoulder for most of the way. We rode through an industrial section with the refinery. One cyclist we read online said that section looked like ‘the end of the world’, and we could see how that could be. It seemed like we were on another planet at some sections.
Once we hooked on to the Long Beach bike route, we couldn’t believe how nice the bike path was. It looked brand new and it was in top notch shape along a very dry river going out to the ocean. In the distance behind us, we could see the thick smog over Los Angeles. Once we were inland we definitely could notice the thickness of the air. It was very evident crossing over some major highways. There were so many cars and trucks driving around LA it is really unbelievable. Combined with the refineries and other plants once you are inland the air isn’t the greatest.
Once we arrived at the waterfront, we saw the famous Queen Mary ship docked at bay (it is permanently docked there as a tourist attraction). We cycled past many recreational boats docked along the touristy area. The bike path was very easy to ride on as there were very few people on it during the the middle of the week at this time of year.
We throughly enjoyed cycling by the beach in the tremendousness sunny weather. We could see a few oil rigs out in the ocean along the way.
At Newport Beach we turned inland towards Irvine to our priceline hotel. We past by a school just as the kids were getting out. When we were stopped looking at our map, we could hear a group of boys nearby discussing among themselves to see if they could talk to us. Eventually they decided they would and asked us what we had in our bags and where we were going. They were really impressed and inspired and said they wanted to do a similar trip one day. You know you have made it when a group of 13-year-old boys think you are cool! 🙂
We headed inland on the well marked bike path towards Irvine. We couldn’t believe the number of school kids riding back home on their bicycles. It makes sense we suppose when the weather is so nice even in December! We eventually arrived at our hotel and throughly enjoyed another night of staying indoors. We are now officially out of Los Angeles!
Trip Around The World 
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