Bicycle Fun Club: Christmas Lights Edition

[baiskeli]

@Judd 149541 wrote:

look for the tall bearded white guy in bike gear.

That narrows it down to about 80% of all cyclists.

Seriously, I may be able to make it to one of these. Thanks for organizing.

[Nadine]

@baiskeli 149642 wrote:

That narrows it down to about 80% of all cyclists.

Lol nah, most female cyclists don’t look like that 😅
Judd, thanks for pointing me at these rides. I’d love to come. I’ll probly hafta wait for the 2nd (because conflict.)

Have you already been finding cool lights to share in these places?

[bobco85]

I’m up for the boat parade! TBD on the Zoo Lights ride, but I am interested.

[ginacico]

In for the Boat Parade, also — I should be at CCWP at 4:30.

[Kitty]

Cool cool! I’m similarly busy this weekend (got to decorate the apartment!) but am going to try to do the Zoo lights one! I want get get my 2016 mileage up to something nice and round. Target = 4,500

[accordioneur]

I plan on joining you for the Boat Parade.

[Judd]

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow night!

[KWL]

I’m leaning heavily toward joining you tomorrow. Will you be running down the MVT to Old Town? If so, in case I’m late I may take that north to the CCWP rather than my usual Potomac Avenue ► Crystal Drive route.

[Judd]

@KWL 149781 wrote:

I’m leaning heavily toward joining you tomorrow. Will you be running down the MVT to Old Town? If so, in case I’m late I may take that north to the CCWP rather than my usual Potomac Avenue ► Crystal Drive route.

Yes. I’m planning on heading down the MVT.

[bobco85]

Thanks, Judd and komorebi, for hosting this bike event! Here are some pics I combined together from the Alexandria Holiday Boat Parade:

(left) our group starting out from the dry Crystal City Waterpark; (right) we found a spot at Founders Park to watch the boat parade since it was crowded
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(top left) decorated with Stars of David, people dancing with flashing blue/white sticks, and a dreidel for the anchor, I called this the “Jewish Rave Party” boat; (bottom left) one of our favorites, a steamboat complete with animated wheel and smokestack; (top right) candy canes and snowmen; (middle right) a choo choo train; (bottom right) Xmas trees
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a collection of the blurry pictures I took while trying to get this tropical-themed boat (right)
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(top left) reddish boat with lots of decorations and a blow-up Santa; (bottom left) sailboat with Santa’s sleigh and reindeer hung on it with other things; (top right) Santa’s sleigh; (bottom right) another of our favorites, decorated like a gingerbread house
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(left) docked Cherry Blossom riverboat with its lights; (right) after starting to freeze while standing outside, we headed to Bilbo Baggins Global Restaurant for food and drink – my white chocolate bread pudding on the right was about twice the size of any of the other desserts (I made sure to ride a little bit longer on the way home to help burn it off)
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[Judd]

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Alexandria Boat Parade last night! We had 9 bikers. Several awesome things happened:

1. We were joined by Sam, who will be a first year Freezing Saddles participant.
2. We were joined by Sophie, who is now *just* tall enough to be the stoker on a tandem.
3. Got to see Ian and meet his wife and son who made it out for some of the boat parade.
4. Ed’s wife and daughter were able to make it out for the boat parade and dinner.

Several folks have told me that they’ll be able to make it out for the zoo lights next weekend. Stayed tuned for a third event, which I should be posting soon.

[Judd]

@bobco85 149818 wrote:

Thanks, Judd and komorebi, for hosting this bike event! Here are some pics I combined together from the Alexandria Holiday Boat Parade:

Thanks for posting the pictures, Bob. I’m glad you were able to get some less blurry ones. I should have ordered the bread pudding.

[secstate]

Sam here. Thanks for leading, Judd. The boats were cooler than expected, and Bob gave a few of us a nice tour of new bike infrastructure (e.g., the Potomac Yard Trail) to kick off the ride home.

I’ll be in Minnesota for the first two weeks of my first FS. Boot camp!

[Judd]

@secstate 149830 wrote:

I’ll be in Minnesota for the first two weeks of my first FS. Boot camp!

Minnesota rides should count extra… Someone (I forget who) was in Montana for part of Freezing Saddles last year and rode in what I consider to be ridiculously cold rides.

[bobco85]

Funny coincidence, I just found out that while we were at the Alexandria (VA) holiday boat parade, my sister was at the Dunedin (FL) holiday boat parade! She got better pics (jealous), but the boats also came closer to where she was standing. Maybe for next year, I’ll borrow a kayak and camouflage to get up close to the boats (the camo would be to hide from any officials trying to get me out of the way)

@secstate 149830 wrote:

Sam here. Thanks for leading, Judd. The boats were cooler than expected, and Bob gave a few of us a nice tour of new bike infrastructure (e.g., the Potomac Yard Trail) to kick off the ride home.

As a way to remember how to get to the PYT from Old Town, I always think of Cameron St as starting from the north side of the Torpedo Factory. It leads straight to the PYT. Also, just an FYI video if y’all want to see it in the daytime along with it leading into Crystal City (we rode it from 0:16 to around 4:43 on the video):
[video=youtube_share;rzkqkJwsJy4]https://youtu.be/rzkqkJwsJy4[/video]

[Author]

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