skiing in berkeley

11:30am - 1pm

Instead of taking the bus to go to the Bay Trail (which I already did yesterday for all you faithful readers of my blog), I decided to explore the streets near my apartment. I live on College Ave and thought it wouldn't be very steep, so I first went south on that street, but having to avoid cars got to be a hassle and pedestrians always get wary of me. So I turn right (east) onto a small street and through some blading through some small residential streets, I fortunately accidentally find Bicycle Boulevards (http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/transportation/Bicycling/BB/WhatisaBicycleBoulevard.html)

So that's great and all, but here's the fun part. I find the Russell Ave one that runs east-west and the next thing I know, I'm rolling really fast down this street without having to exert any energy. Woila! Skiing on a street! =) So I just keep going and going and finally I pass Berkeley Bowl and reach Martin Luther King Jr. But now this area is getting sketchy so I decided to U-turn at King and turn back.

On my way back, I talk to these women who were on bikes and they tell me about how bicycle boulevards are great in that we can just hog the center of the road.

And one obvious thing I realized later on is that if I went down on a road very fast, that meant I'd have a really tough time getting back. So that's what I was doing, huffing and puffing all the way back up. I got to Ellsworth, and thought "Dammit, going down was way more fun, I'm gonna go down again."

So I did. Weeeeeee!!!!

I got back to Berkeley Bowl again, thinking I could get something to eat (I'd only had a banana). But alas, it was closed, so I took a few minutes to have fun in the parking lot. Since I've gotten my rollerblades in Berkeley, I haven't had the chance to make any sharp turns, so this was good refresher in the parking lot.

And the rest of the story is boring, I rollerbladed all the way back up to College and decided to take sidewalk and kill as many pedestrians as possible before I got back to my apartment. Yep.


Did I mention I love rollerblading?? =) So I think I can safely say that I'm pretty darn good on skates. I think.... but please don't try to challenge me.