So anyway, yesterday I decided I wanted to bike up the coastline to Rancho Palos Verdes to see the Wayfarers Chapel. Also known as the Glass Church. For those of you that don't know, it's a Chapel dedicated to Emanuel Swedednborg--the creator of the Swedenborgian Church--and was designed by the architect Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright). It's a very beautiful chapel set up on the cliffs above the ocean in Rancho Palos Verdes. It's a very common place for weddings (in fact, there was one going on when I got there today!)
As I said, I was heading up the hills toward the church, but it was crazy difficult! I wasn't sure what was going on, but simply biking along the level straightaways was more difficult--and going up hills was way harder than I expected. I was beginning to wonder if I had regressed backward during that week or so that I hadn't biked. But it was odd because it seemed even harder than the first time I biked after years of having not. So I wasn't sure what was going on. After I tackled a particularly difficult hill and was riding down the other side, I looked back and noticed Berta's back tire was wobbling. I stopped, flipped the bike over, and peddled. I figured out what the problem was--for some reason the wheel was either mis-aligned or warped and it was causing it to rub against the breaks, making me have to do a significantly larger amount of work simply to ride. I was trying to figure out if I had actually bent the rim or if I just needed to re-align, when another biker (one of those guys wearing the spandex and on a super-nice street bike) stopped to help me out. I told him what was going on and he said it might be a busted spoke. Sure enough, after looking at it for just a couple seconds it became obvious.
The biker asked me if I knew how to loosen my break, and I did, so he said that I could probably ride it like that to a repair shop. Let me tell you, after loosening that break, things went MUCH better. I was glad to find I hadn't lost all my leg strength.
Anyway, that was what I did next--I biked to a repair shop. The nearest one was only a couple miles away, but they said I'd have to leave the bike overnight. I didn't want to do that, so I biked to the one that was within a mile of my boat (and car), and left it overnight there instead--then walked home. They actually finished it just before closing, so I was able to pick it up and have it ready for the next day to try again.
This morning (and by morning, I mean when I woke up--slightly after noon) things went off without a hitch! Berta grabbed her gear:
And off we went. We made our first stop at what appeared to be some kind of kite-flying festival toward the south side of Redondo beach. It's kinda hard to tell, but those are kites in the background.
When we reached the end, there's a very steep hill that takes you up to the road. There's a sign on it that specifically reads "ABSOLUTELY NO SKATING, BIKING, ... EXTREMELY STEEP HILL ... AVOID INJURIES TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS". Sure enough, it was a steep-friggin' hill. You can't tell how steep it is as well from this picture as I'd like, but I was only able to ride up about half way. I got a nice shot of Berta catching her breath.
After, we went along the road where there are a lot more ups and downs than I'm used to from biking that path along the ocean. We stopped most of the way up a particularly long hill because Berta saw some beautiful daisies and nasturtiums in this guy's yard, and thought I might like to stop for a snack.
There were some sweepingly beautiful vistas from the cliffs we were riding along.
We saw a lighthouse and just had to stop. Sadly, they wouldn't let us in.
After about 12 miles, we finally made it! (That's the visitor's center in the background, not the Chapel. The visitors center, however, was designed by Lloyd Wright's son, Erik Lloyd Wright).
Sadly, they didn't like Berta's kind there, so she had to hang out by the trash can.
The chapel and the grounds are very beautiful. There's a rose garden out back, along with a grass amphitheater, and a river-thingy.
I was sitting, admiring the roses and taking pictures. When I tried to take a picture of the giant column-spire-tower-thingy, I noticed the sun was exactly over the top. It was quite a picture--and completely random. It made for a lucky shot.
The front had a beautiful fountain, and a lawn with gorgeous sweeping views of the ocean and cliffs--and Catalina island in the background (you may be able to see it in some of these pictures). Not to mention the chapel itself, which is very small, but still beautiful.
Apparently they transplanted some northern California coastal redwoods to surround the church, as well as for the wood in the architecture. The concrete on the bottom is a slight greenish color, and the ceiling tiles are a slightly blueish color. Lloyd Wright wanted to make it seem like nature inside and out. And it is quite an amazingly well-done job if I do say so myself.
On the way back Berta and I stopped for a delicious meal. I love how they offer to put avocado on the Subway sandwiches here!
While this trip wasn't quite half the length of my sixty-mile adventure to Malibu and back, I think it was harder and wore me out more. The trip to Malibu was pretty much entirely flat (except for the last ten or so miles--which were a low-grade incline). This trip, however, had a great many hills. So I was constantly going up a steep hill, then down, then up, then down. It really wore me out. Not to even mention the winds coming off the cliffs that blew me about.
But all in all it was a great trip! I think Berta enjoyed herself too :)
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