Los Angeles

 We landed and drove immediately to Venice Beach and ate Mexican food.  Why not?

 The owner of this set-up was very, very proud of the fact that his dog was "The most instagrammed dog in Los Angeles."  Andrea instagrammed it.

 Venice boardwalk.

 When in Los Angeles, I buy all my pipes at the No Hassle Discount Pipe Shop.

 $30.  Not bad.

 Because they're charging $40 down the beach.

 Fashion.

 Muscles.

 Michael.

 And super grom.  Sponsored by Element.  I think we'll see him soon.

We stayed in Manhattan Beach.  Where they fish at night.

 And the next day got really crazy.  And went to Santa Monica Beach.

 And the Getty.

And so much for Los Angeles.  Because DISNEYLAND!  Oh.  If you haven't heard it yet, ask to hear our Jay-Z story.

 And then down to Laguna Beach.  Where we had a beautiful beachside hotel room that I hardly saw.  Bike story here.

 I did a ride with the Crank Brothers folks and other assorted media.  It almost killed me.  We just climbed and climbed and climbed.  And I didn't think I'd make it.  But the other media almost died on the way down, so it all kind of evened out.

 For any mountain bikers...this is a photo of Hans Rey playing foosball.  He never seems to take his helmet off.

Chicago and New York Fall Trip

It took me a while to get this one going.  We'll start in Chicago.

This photo felt a bit Ghost Worldy to me.

 Speaking of Ghost World, there was a Daniel Clowes exhibit on.

 Meat and sunshine.

 We went on an Architectural River Cruise.

We always seem to spend a bunch of time in Wrigleyville.

 

 Didn't even think about going to a game this time around.  The Cubs, White Sox, Yankees and Mets were all pretty much at the bottom of their division.

Did several Civvi Bike scenic death marches.

 And spent a lot of time in zoos.

 You can go to the lounge at the top of the Hancock Center for free if you "buy a drink".  Had to wait for the elevator for about 15 minutes though.  Once we got to the top it was so frazzled we just walked around for 10 minutes, checked out the view and left.

 This is my favourite spot in Chicago.  Standing in front of the Wrigley building, looking down the river.

 On to New York.  This was the view from our Brooklyn apartment.  A train went by every 15 minutes or so.  You get used to it.

 Had a picnic in Central Park, surrounded by dragonflies.  Had to at least try to get a photo of one.  Tricky buggers.

 Did I mention we spent a lot of time at zoos on this trip?  Just try to go here without Old Dirty Bastard shooting "Brooklyn Zoo!" in your head the whole time you are there.  Unless you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.  Then you should be fine.

 The bear on the left...oh my goodness.  Walked over in front of us, took just the massivest dump I've ever seen...over the edge of the cage into the moat (so I guess bears don't shit in the woods)...and then climbed into the pool to clean himself off and wrestle with his buddy.  Worth the trip up just for that.

I took this photo right around the lowest point of our entire trip.  Lots of walking.  Bad food.  Things not open.  It got better after that though.

I'm sure somebody probably doesn't like this photo.  But I do.

Remember the Sopranos episode where Paulie is trying to sponsor the statue for the festival and the church doesn't want his money or whatever?  We went to that festival!

Lots of fat men tried to sell us amazing looking food for way too much money.

Oh.  As well.  We had a crazy, crazy comedy experience.  Short version - The Comedy Cellar is awesome.  Long version...It resulted in Judah Friedlander fighting corrupt New York comedy promoters on my behalf.  Honestly.

We saw the 10:30 show.

Other than that, some random NY photos.

Alright.  Now to work on something for Los Angeles...