Downtown Los Angeles Tour

In December, Shifting Gears had planned a special sight-seeing ride touring downtown Los Angeles.  I had never ridden through downtown on a bike before, so naturally, I was very excited.  Sadly, the ride was rained out during the December downpour.  Fortunately, the Shifting Gears folks brought the ride back and scheduled it for Super Bowl Sunday.

We met up with other riders at the Los Angeles Music Center, home of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre.  It was supposed to be a short ride, approximately 12 miles, so the meet time was an hour later than usual (9 am).  Shifting Gears leader, Beth, treated everyone to some muffins.  I was a little hungry, so it was just the thing I needed.  Then Chris, another training ride leader, showed up with home-made muffins filled with…wait for it…Nutella!!!  YUM!!  Thanks Beth and Chris!

I was a little surprised that there were only about 20 riders.  Since it was such a unique ride, I had thought that a lot more riders would show up.  Perhaps the Super Bowl stole the crowd.  Nonetheless, we had about 20 riders eager to tour downtown.  What I didn’t know was that one of the leaders, Shawnet, works for the Los Angeles Opera, and she offered to start things off with a quick “walking” tour around the Los Angeles Music Center facility.  She even took us inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and showed us around.  Cool!

After Shawnet’s tour, we were off on our bikes.  We rode past the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Stanley Mosk courthouse, City Hall, the brand new police station, Union Station and Olvera Street.  We also rode through Little Tokyo and Chinatown.  Once we hit the Theatre District on Broadway, Devin, another ride leader, took the lead and gave us a tour of this section.  That was really cool, especially since I didn’t even know the Theatre District existed.  As it turns out, we have a lot of historical theatres downtown that used to be the hot spots in town.  Devin showed us pictures of the insides of many of these theatres and they look absolutely majestic.  If the opportunity presents itself in the future, I definitely would love to go inside and check out these magnificent theatres.

Afterwards, we headed east and rode through the Fashion District and then the Flower District.  Having lived in Los Angeles for almost 20 years, I can’t believe I’ve never been to the Flower District.  I’ve only heard about it, so it was cool to finally see it in person.  Apparently, you can get some really good deals on fresh flowers, but you have to get up really, REALLY early in the morning to get the best selections.  After the Flower District, we continued east and rode over the historic 6^th Street Viaduct that runs over the Los Angeles River and railroad tracks.  It is a beautifully designed bridge with two steel arch segments and offers a stunning view of Los Angeles, including the downtown skyline.

Boyle Heights rests on the other side of the 6^th Street Viaduct.  There, we took a quick break and turned around.  That is where Sam and I parted ways with Shifting Gears.  The group continued on to a lunch pit stop at Urth Caffe and then cruised on by Pershing Square before returning to the Los Angeles Music Center.  Sam and I had plans in the afternoon, so we had to call it a day.  While it was not a long “training” ride by any means (we rode about 10 miles), it was definitely a unique, fun ride that gave us an opportunity to tour downtown and see Los Angeles in a new, exciting way.  Thanks Shifting Gears!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Christen M.; Clara C.; Peter H. & Michael O.; and Teri O.