Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Colorado Blvd. Urban Hike - from Glendale to Arcadia.

The Colorado St bridge is closed for some reason. Taking it anyway #urbanhike
On the Colorado St. bridge heading into Old Town Pasadena (photo credit: Caroline on Crack)

Once again, this month's Urban Hike was a hit - this time traversing most of Colorado St./Blvd. from Glendale to Arcadia. And even though I cheated a bit with a Metro Gold Line ride following a pitcher of sangrias @ La Grande Orange -- with all the side street twists & turns I still logged about 14 miles that day (Here are the maps for my hike before & after Metro-ing.)
Colorado St. Bridge
Overlooking Arroyo Seco & Colorado Street Bridge

Of course, making this hike even more fun was the company this time, from Nancy who joined me for the first half (before her legs gave out from a hill-run in flip-flops incident the day before,) to Gourmet Pigs who did a brief stroll with us through Eagle Rock, to Caroline on Crack who accompanied me for the final stretch through Pasadena and Arcadia.


As always, despite a few boring blocks, there were plenty of interesting sights and finds, such as:

1. Some funny signage, not that they got us into church for Sundays... or the dental exam chair.

2. Finding a seed bomb dispenser machine outside Little Flower Candy Co. (to which Caroline and I first thought were some funky, beyond-expired gumballs;) Caroline and I both bought one and used them on the grounds outside Eagle Rock Brewery. Here's hoping there'll be some wildlflowers there next time we go.

3. Discovering that Eagle Rock has a Sunday farmer's market at its mall parking lot, though I found its music choices (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha) questionable, or as Nancy puts it "someone isn't letting go of their Saturday night!"

4. Learning from Nancy how Eagle Rock has become a Filipinotown of sorts, exemplified by the businesses in the mall, including a Seafood City supermarket, Jollibee & Goldilocks and even a Pinoy Blockbuster.

5. The number of rampant peafowl that escapes the LA County Arboretum and into the surrounding residential area of Arcadia ~ enough to warrant a "do not feed" sign.

Like previous hikes, I'll post about my eats & drinks along the way on the foodventures blog. In the meantime, if you want to join next month, it'll be an easy afternoon five-miler criss-crossing downtown LA via Hope & Spring, starting with Aug. 29 noon-ish brunch @ Nickel Diner and hopefully ending with a fun downtown-area Happy Hour with a good dose of fun sights & stops along the way -- from Olvera Street to all the live venue spaces along Hope & Grand to Grand Central Market and maybe a swing by of L.A. Live too.

Here's the route for your preview, hope you can make it:



View Larger Map

Here are Caroline & Nancy's posts on the hike; and the more photos on my flickr set here.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Colorado Blvd. Urban Hike this Sunday!

Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach, finish line for my Beach Blvd. Urban Hike last month

Just a reminder for those interested in joining, my Colorado Blvd./St. Urban Hike will start 8 a.m. this Sunday at Colorado & Kenilworth in Glendale; approximately 14 miles long, it'll go from Glendale to Arcadia, hitting Eagle Rock and Pasadena along the way.

As far as landmarks go, we'll be skimming by the downtown Glendale (maybe a sidetrip to Porto's is in order?) the main drag of Eagle Rock and Old Town Pasadena, wrapping up with a swing-by of LA County Arboretum and Santa Anita Park & Racetrack.

I've pasted a map of the route below & here are some eats and drinks options along the way. Hope you can join! If you have questions regarding logistics, parking, etc. feel free to e-mail me or send a tweet over.

And as always, I'll be live-tweeting along the route on my @LAOCFoodie account so feel free to join for even a part of the hike.


View Larger Map