I'm back!
En route home to Chicago from Dublin, I had an unexpected side trip to Montreal. My flight from London was delayed, causing me to miss my connection from Montreal to Chicago - the last of the day. Air Canada comped my hotel and meals, so although I was exhausted and ready to be home, I embraced the opportunity to see Montreal for the first time.
In the morning, I woke early and Mr. Dottie and I set off to spend three hours wandering around downtown before we had to catch the 1:45 flight home. Th...
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Mr. Dottie and I are in Denver this week vacationing and visiting Melissa and Chanh. We're staying at a B&B downtown and so far we love the area. Today was devoted to B-Cycling. We picked up a couple of bikes a block away and made our way across town to the Platte River Trail, where we biked several miles, stopping for lunch and an excursion to the flagship REI store. We biked about 12 miles total for the day.
B-Cycle is Denver's bike share system. There are 500 bikes at 51 stations, mostly serving the...
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I'm back from Trishaville, aka Nashville. Although I lived there for only three years and moved away four years ago, Nashville is my favorite city to return to again and again, simply because of Trisha and other friends. And there's something about the South that calls to me, although I spent my youth hatching escape plans.
My three days with Trisha were full of awesomeness, of course: used bookstores, a British sitcom marathon, a discount designer warehouse, French breakfast, fancy ice cream, duck fat tater tot...
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The scene: Versailles, a city outside of Paris renowned for the Palace of Versailles.
After taking the RER train from Paris to the suburbs and walking a short distance, you are greeted by the imposing statue of King Louis XIV on horseback. The surroundings are a bit ominous, but don't be scared - continue on and you will be rewarded.
You encounter the palace first.
Then turn around and gawk at the decadent and expansive grounds.
Okay, this is still a little scary. Sorry about that. No, the...
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Hi. I go by “beany” online as I'm a bean counter. I'm a brownie who is car-free in San Diego and blog at Brown Girl in the Lane . While Dottie and Trish are off galavanting in France, eating the most delectable of meals and drinking the finest of wines, they have asked me to write a post for you. So here it is 
I had the incredible pleasure of meeting Dottie and Trish in person earlier this year. It is easily one of the most memorable blogger meetings I've had because meeting women who ride a bicycle is ha...
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This weekend I took my first official bike camping trip. I've camped plenty of times and taken my bike before, but I'd never biked to the campsite or carried my camping gear on my bike. Rivendell has termed this kind of small adventure the S24O, for sub 24-hour overnight trip.
The basics:
Packed a change of clothes, essential toiletries and some food and dishes into panniers. Zip tied sleeping bags to racks.
Biked to Union Station in downtown Chicago.
Took Metra train one hour out of the city....
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I just came back from spending a week in New York City. Though I didn't get to actually ride a bike during my time there like Miss Sarah (damn you, work responsibilities!) I did enjoy observing the bicycles and boring my non-cycling companions with comments on the NYC cycling scene.
Such as the dominance of front-attached wire baskets.
There were also scads of folders, not many helmets, and crazy peeps who did things like run red lights. Many crappy MTBs in midtown, but vintage 10-speeds and even a few Dutc...
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We are back from a trip to San Diego for our annual girlfriend reunion. We will have intelligent stuff to say about the city and its bicycling culture later - which includes cruisers and meeting the fantastic Beany of Brown Girl in the Lane. For now we'll leave you with pictures.
I'll put them after the jump to spare loading time...
San Diego Birds
San Diego Plants
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Last month fate (and couchsurfing.org) brought a special guest to my door. I'm normally very selective about who I choose to host on couchsurfing, perusing their profile and references with care, but when I got Victoria's request, I couldn't email her back fast enough. Riding from Boston to LA by bike? on her own? In four months? this was a person I wanted to have a conversation with.
Intelligent and inspiring, Victoria did not disappoint. It only took a few minutes' conversation for me to feel comfortable enoug...
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Yesterday, in between thrift store visits, we stopped for lunch at the Earwax Café, where the food was much more delicious than the name might suggest.
Public bathrooms aren't usually the best photo venues, but I couldn't resist documenting this piece of graffiti. If you're going to deface a wall, you might as well say something worth saying. Just one of the reasons I love visiting Chicago!
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