Today we had a fabulous time out on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, at the CICLAVIA event. Hundreds upon hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were out on their bikes, roller skates and skateboards cruising down the streets of a 10-mile stretch of roads that had been closed specifically for this event. It was awesome! Jacob and Natalie were so excited to try out their new bike bells. Watching their thumbs happily and repeatedly ringing their bells, listening to that sweet bell sound as I watched them pedal pedal pedal to keep up with the steadily moving pack of bicyclists, I was just soooooo proud of them. I was so impressed that they could keep up with the fairly fast moving crowd of bikes. They were soooooo happy…….Steve was sooooooo happy……..I was soooooo happy. We were one big happy bunch.

Being out as a family on an adventure brings me such intense joy. There was SO much for us to look at! Natalie’s favorite was the bike trailer that a person was towing, that had a dog sitting in it. My favorite was watching one man carefully balance on his unicycle and ever so smoothly dismounting when everyone had to come to the occasional stops for vehicle traffic crossings. Jacob’s favorite was seeing all the tandem bikes. Steve’s favorite was getting to experience this grand-scale community feeling in L.A.

We made several stops along the way. One to buy sunscreen at Walgreens so that our arms and faces wouldn’t get toasted by the blazing sun. A few stops for water. One stop to help a man who had flipped over the handlebars of his bike when his skinny bike tire got caught in a gap in the street. Another stop to sit and treat Jacob & Natalie to newly discovered Pez candy. And the last stop was awesome! To watch a community game of dodgeball that was underway in one of the side streets. Jacob was totally intrigued and ended up jumping into several games. I was hoping with all my might that he wouldn’t get whacked by the balls that seemed to be flying through the air at crazy speeds! Natalie was on the curb with me, equally worried with me. But daddy and son were there together dodging the fiery bullets.

Finally, after getting back to our car we then began what seemed like an eternal, circuitous route of trying to circumvent miles of road closures for both this event and some big parade event happening in Chinatown. Thankfully we finally made it to the Yogurtland in Koreatown. A fabulous way to end the event! My tastebuds enjoyed the awesome flavors of pumpkin, pistachio and chocolate frozen yogurt topped with cinnamon toast crunch cereal and fine graham cracker powder.

Oh the delight of this day! It’s more than I can adequately explain. I am so thankful.