A Beach Bike Tour, Classic Car Show & Well, Almost A Happy Hour
My day began when, on the #TravelSkills social media Twitter chat, in response to one of the questions I posted that my perfect Southern California day would involve giving a bike tour in Hermosa & Manhattan Beach, meeting friends for a Happy Hour, watching the sunset and capping it off with a live local band at a bar.
And as luck and fate would have it, about an hour later I got a call to give a bike tour. Nice! So I hopped aboard my Kona Brewing beach cruiser and changed from PubClub mode into Beach Cities Bike Tours tour guide.
The group was visiting from Seattle and Portland and we immediately bonded. I’ve been to Portland many times and they showed a bit of civic pride when I pointed out that that city is home to the original craft beer craze, long before there ever was a craft beer craze.
We also laughed at the fact that, because there are seven bridges across the Willamette River downtown, I was constantly getting lost but because that area is so small, I knew I was only 10 minutes from where I needed or wanted to be at the time.
The tour I gave them was the standard two-hour South Bay version, but I could tell they were itching for some cocktails and nightlife so I instructed them on where to go for drinks, from Old Tony’s with its local legendary Fire Chief drink to the “beautiful people bar” (Tower 12) for Happy Hour, to the beach volleyball mecca watering hole Shellback Tavern to the rock ‘n roll live music cantina at Pancho’s.
I love giving these tours. It’s all along The Strand – a bike path that runs along the beach – and I get to brag about this cool part of Los Angeles.
Then, no sooner did I return when friends texted me to join them at Happy Hour. Wow, that was two-for-two on my “perfect” list!
Before I met them, I stopped at the weekly classic car show in Redondo Beach. This happens every Friday from 4-6-ish and it’s a true part of Southern California culture. The show had the usual classics: mid-50s Chevys, 70s muscle cars, some styled-up VW Bugs in true SoCal style, even an immaculate Rolls Royce.
While there, I bumped into a friend, Wayne Sterling, who was there with his meticulously restored 1930 Ford Model A. He let me get behind the wheel of this fine machine – which he said can do 70 mph on the freeway – for a couple of photo ops. Cool!
By the time I reached my friends at Kincaid’s on the Redondo Beach Pier, they were just closing up their tab. And their tab was $250 – at Happy Hour! They were out of my league in the cocktails consumption department, so I then pedaled back to The Strand to catch a small sunset, which was not as spectacular as usual due to early evening June Gloom clouds that clouded the view.
At this point, I decided against going out on the night to hear a band and settled in with a few drinks at home to reflect upon how the day transpired from a mere vision to actual reality.
Cheers!
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