Bike Riding and Swimming

Our 2 missions: get bikes so Mary and kids can ride to the pool where they will swim, swim, swim, and get Bella able to ride a bike. We also helped Mary hang her wall panels.

First up, a visit to Omega Bike Shop where Edith gamely talked bikes to us while the kids interrupted, and Bella was only interested in having a bike with a basket. We rolled out with 2 new-to-them for less than $500. Bella’s is a 21” with hand brakes. Probably a stretch. Grant and I bought the crystal-cover bell for bling. 

Mary’s is a 26” mountain bike that had been donated to the shop. She needed a tag-a-long for Remi, if not used, then shipped overnight new. Lots were listed on the local swap shop. 

But timeout to drive to LA to see the La Brea Tarpits and the new David Greffen addition to LACMA. A quick glance at the pits without going inside that museum, then lunch at Franny’s inside the Museum of Motion Pictures just up the block. 

The reviewers of the new art museum loved or hated the lack of chronological order and the placing of objects somewhat by geography within 4 ocean areas. I loved that some pieces were sitting on tables without glass between me and it. For example, one grouping was 5000 year old pottery pieces that we could have touched. I hated that there were no numbers on the galleries, so when we got separated, we couldn’t find one another. Security guards were no help since they didn’t know the numbers either.

Definitely a place to be visited more than once.

A surprise was performance art, first by a violinist and a singer making haunting noises while moving as if they were in gelatin, who were joined by a man juggling a soccer ball, then a man on a bicycle. At one point, all were lying on the floor slowly writhing. The concrete walls made the sound incredible.

The next morning, Memorial Day, Mary went to checkout a $25 used tag-a-long. She was ready to buy, the guy dropped the price to $20, then as she was ready to drive away, came out saying his wife said to give her money back. I guess space in the garage was payment enough.

We have created a monster. For the first 15 minutes, Remi was not enthusiastic about riding on the tag-a-long. He recovered and now wants to go on the pedal bike over and over. Now I think Mary should buy the small bike at Omega for him. Two little boys up the way ride their bikes in front of their house, and the older uses a skateboard, another desire of Remi.

Bella, on the other hand, was much more hesitant. I started her coasting down a short grassy hill, using the back wheel hand brake to get comfortable. Mary rode her around on the tag-a-long to get her used to going faster. Eventually, with a couple of times of overwrought boohooing, she got fairly good, if I helped. Meeting Emily who rides like a banshee and lives next to the park helped. She showed Bella how she coasts then pedals around the park. Encouraged, Bella tried starting herself. Voila, a new bike rider.