The other day I rode to the beach– what else is new, right? :) This time I rode with Charissa and she took me on a route I’d never been on before! Normally, I ride up Alliance, over Spear and then cross over to Upper Bay Road. But since Charissa hadn’t been on a bike in over a year she was terrified of riding through that much city traffic, so we went straight through 11th to Jane’s Road.

There were lots of sights to see that I didn’t even know existed. Most notably this very creepy ‘abandoned’ Victorian home. There was a good deal of crusty looking furniture, plus a guitar and Casio keyboard hooked up in the living room. We assumed someone had turned it into a college house.

I wanted to take loads more photos of the place, but my imagination started going wild and I became very creeped out, very fast! Everytime I held the viewfinder to my eye I thought I’d see some decrepit zombie-woman with a widow’s peak and dusty old 17th century dress peering out of the window.

One thing I love about riding out to the Bottoms is how most everything is so time-ravaged. I’m sad that, being a girl, I went through the typical “take photos of your feet” phase while all the boys were taking their cameras through the “explore abandoned buildings” phase. I’m trying to make up for lost time, but I am a total, utter chicken, so it will be a long time before I get shots of anything remotely interior!

When we finally got to the beach we locked our bikes up to some sign posts. I’ve been leaving my shoes in the basket of my bike and relying on good faith that no one will steal them. Charissa, on the other hand, looped her bike lock through her shoes! In her defense, they were extremely cute.

I’m not sure how long we were at the beach, but it was definitely long enough for me to get some color on my legs! I should’ve worn shorter shorts, though, because my jean bermudas left a line that makes me look like I’m wearing sunburn-colored knee highs. VERY classy, hah!

It was a pretty leisurely afternoon, digging our feet into the sand and watching the tide come in. Charissa played some tunes on her ukelele and I took photos of everything in sight (natch). We certainly enjoyed ourselves– and others, as it was pretty crowded. To be expected on such a gorgeous day! There was also this bee that wouldn’t leave us alone. It wasn’t a mean bee, though, and Charissa seemed to develop quite the friendship with it!

When it was time to go home we swung by the boat dock to use the restrooms. I talked to a guy who was letting his dogs run up and down the ramp into the river– he had a golden retriever that was 110 lbs! Incredibly huge pup. Unfortunately, they were too excited by the prospect of guzzling river water and getting their owner drenched to get any good shots of them.

And, if you can believe it, I actually toned this post down a bit. There are at least eleventy million other photos of this particular bike adventure at my Flickr!

Now that we have hired a ridiculous amount of folks at work, hours have slimmed down a bit. I’m very okay with this, as it gives me time to actually sit back and enjoy the summer… Something I didn’t get to do at all last year thanks to summer school. I requested two days off this week– the fourth and the fifth– so I could enjoy a proper Independence Day, but it looks like I get to have the first through the third off, too! Five day weekend? Hell yes!

Lately I’ve been going on bike rides like mad! I never rode much in the two years we’ve lived here ’cause it’s so easy to get around on foot– unless you’re going to a neighboring city, there’s no real reason to ride a bike or drive a car. Unless, of course, that reason is the Bottoms!

“The Bottoms” refer to the rural part of Arcata between the city and the beach. It is the best reason to hop on a bike in the late afternoon, just when the sun starts to make its descent towards the horizon. The road is pretty rugged and not really made for skinny tires, but it zig zags between vast amounts of farm land. And where there’s farm land, there’s cows!

Oh, how I love cows. They are such gorgeous beings, though some of these looked a bit sad with warts or tumors on/around their faces. Poor guys… Er, gals! A few days previous to this particular ride I had gone on the same route with Chris and two of our future room mates, Kristina and Katie. We stopped a few times for photo shoots with the cows and they were not having it! This day, though, they couldn’t get enough! They kept following Chris and I up and down the fence, hamming it up for the camera. Too precious.

I also finally got to take photos of this spooky, seemingly abandoned house that I frequently pass by. I have no idea if anyone occupies it, but the prayer flags above the porch are really intriguing to me. Usually abandoned homes are so nondescript aside from their decrepitude. Maybe someone does live there? I’m too chicken to knock on the door!

If you keep riding past the scary house for a few more miles, Mad River Road will eventually take you to the beach. From my house, it’s just shy of an extremely satisfying 15 mile round trip– one that is littered with these fantastic signs warning you about entering/leaving the Tsunami Hazard Zone. I know tsunamis are serious business, but these signs crack me up.

Between bike rides and work, I’ve been doing a ton of vegan baking! The other day I made lemon bars, which disappeared in a matter of seconds. And today I finally got my hands on some wheat germ (you’d think this hippy town would be overflowing with wheat germ!) so tomorrow I will be tackling oatmeal and date cookies. I may throw some coconut in there, too, ’cause that’s how I roll!

I also finished designing my new web page so I can start selling prints / dino dude earrings and generally existing under the guise of an artist, rather than my usual outfit of lazy-bones gamer girl who loves to cook and update her Flickr.

My only problem is my moniker… Or lack thereof. I’m having trouble coming up with a good domain to register. Suggestions would be helpful! Unfortunately, my name is so painfully boring that any sort of formation of it is already taken a hundred times over. There goes my easy way out! Drats.

How amazing are these? They’re made by Diem Chau, who hand carves them out of crayons. The last one is from a pencil and utterly blows me away.

Over the break we bought Felix a chintzy leash and decided to give him his first taste of the great outdoors. It went relatively well, but he’s definitely been raised to enjoy the indoor life. I’m just glad he finally got to romp around in grass and sniff tree bark; two experiences we’re incapable of supplying him with in our meager coastal apartment.

A friend of mine is throwing a dinner party this evening, so I decided to take the time to get creative with my midday snack in lieu of preparing a delicious meal later tonight!

The idea is pretty simple: take an apple and slice it into 1/2-1″ thick pieces. Cut out the hard star-shaped centers, slather a minimal amount of choice nut butter onto each piece (I enjoy the MaraNatha line), then stack it back up!

Pretty impractical for a quick snack, but definitely a fun once in a while treat.