San Francisco part two

 

We kind of did a vacation in a vacation.  Rented a house for a few days just off the beach in Santa Cruz.  

 

Maya and her cousin Lucia came running up from the water shouting Help Help!  It wasn't until they were much closer that I realized they were saying Kelp Kelp!

 Water was cold but fun.  The beach was sandy. 

 The drive south from San Fran to Santa Cruz along highway 1was scenic as expected. 

 Fun boardwalk/beach/fair kind of thing in Santa Cruz.

Lot's of Santa Cruz bikes all over.  The shops had tons.  This Santa Cruz shop told me the area of Santa Cruz is kind of a pocket in the country still selling primarily long travel 26 inch bikes. 

This is a pic Guitar Ted put on MTBR from Euro bike?  Seems relevant to a Santa Cruz post.

Yes those are Big Fat Larry's like my Moonlander has on a full suspended Santa Cruz. 

The quality time Ella and Maya got to spend with the cousins was some of the best time of the trip. 

San Francisco part one

 

Went to San Fran to visit Kin folk.  The girls had a great time with their cousins.  The Mustang convertible wife wanted and I poo pooed turned out to be a good site seeing vehicle. 

 We saw cool stuff at the San Francisco Academy of Science. 

 We drove around the city to all the must see areas including the financial district, China town, some big market place and Lombard Street.  The girls favorite parts of San Fran were the toothless homeless guy who waved at them and feeding pigeons part of their ice cream cone. 

 I really wanted more pics of this rocket thing but the guy with the baby and his wife were the slowest pic takers I have ever seen.  I just kept waiting and waiting for him to be gone. 

One of my highlights of the trip was when I drove into Oakland to a bit of a rough area to see Sweet Maria's.  I was lucky enough to have Tom the owner present and although he was clearly very busy he took time to talk all about roasting, the business and to reminisce about some old activities on the home roasting forum from years ago.  He then went and filled a box with about 20lbs of very good coffee and gave it to me.   I like Sweet Maria's a lot. 

I made Lefse

 I have been intending to make homemade lefse for about 15 years.  I have no idea why it happened tonight but glad it did.  I used to think you needed a special lefse grill, turning stick with little red Swedish style horses painted on it and a recipe to make it.   In reality all you really need to make lefse is left over mashed potatoes and flour to make a dough.

 I love Yukon gold potatoes for most potato needs.

 I had no clue how much flour to knead in so I just used enough to make the dough not too sticky to roll out.

A hot dry cast iron gill did help to get the right look.

I have never had lefse still hot from the grill.  mmmmm

 Since you are rolling it out thin and adding some flour it took very little mashed potatoes to make a bunch of lefse.  

Fat De Lorean

 Can't tell if this pic is from the past, present or future


Pic from DMC-12 on MTBR

Salsa Full Suspension Fat Bike Prototype

One of the main things keeping full suspension from the fat bike world is the lack of suspension fork options.  People use Maverics, Flames and modified lefties mostly.  It seems like all it would take is a new crown on a 29r fork.  Mendon Cycle Smith has made their own leftie crown.  If one little bike shop can do it it seems like a larger maker could easily put a new crown on a 29r fork. 

Carver County Fair

 Took the girls to my favorite fair today as we do every year.

 Small grounds, not over crowded, lots of animals equals fun each year.

 I posted the pics below with a Q quote in mind.  Years ago at the Chanhassen 4th of July kids parade a fire truck went slowly by and everyone took a pic of it.  He pointed out how dumb this was as everyone would be getting home later wondering why they now have a pic of a fire truck.

 Now what am I going to do with these pic's of birds at the fair?

 Glad I have a blog to dump them onto.

Gobble 

Majestic in death

http://instagr.am/p/OIn0X5tE61/

Fat Bike Whale Rider

This is a repost from 2009.  Not sure of the actual origin.
 If I am every dead on a beach and it seems like it would be funny to ride your bike over me please by all means go a head and do it. 

Minnesota River with Ella

 

We rode a little over 7 miles from Chaska to Shakopee and back on Sunday.  

 Weather was great.

 Unlike her sad eyes in this pic would suggest, Ella rode like a champ and the ride was easy except when the barrier above took her out.   

 This was our turnaround spot.  To see the pics on the way back just scroll back up through the post ignoring the crash.  

I turned my Moonlander into a Pugsley

Salamandre Cycles

Salamandre Cycles

The French take on Fat bikes