Cycling around Diamond Valley Lake

This week marks one whole year since we arrived! One whole year of adventures and one whole year of blog posts too. 

On Tuesday we went to the mall pick up a T-shirt we'd got Andrea for her birthday. As we were close by, we went to get dinner at Tofu House, a place we'd been to before with the lab. I ordered the kimchi soup again and it came out still bubbling it was so hot! It was very tasty (if spicy) so we had to go get frozen yoghurt afterwards. The nice place by our apartment has shut down (so sad) so we tried a place near to campus instead. It was fine, it tasted good, but there wasn't quite as many options and the inside wasn't as cute. 

Asian food is great because it comes with extra veggies!

Mitchell would like to talk about his very good science poster now:

Hi, I basically presented my recent paper as a poster at a symposium on the UCR campus. The day was filled with talks from other researchers at the University and it's always interesting to learn about other people's work. Over lunch, several people had posters up that we used to talk people through our research. The posters were outside and it was quite warm, although fortunately in the shade, and it was nice to talk people through my research. It's reassuring to remember that I actually do know my stuff pretty well. The symposium ended with awards for best talk and best poster and I won best poster! It's a small cash prize and I get to put this on my academic CV so all in all it was very good for me!

On Saturday we went for lunch at Panera Bread. It certainly lived up to its name, as Mitchell had a bread bowl, filled with mac and cheese, with the top of the bread and then a side of bread. I had a salad with a side of bread and a papaya iced tea which was bright green! They had a few good options and a bakery section too, so we might go back for breakfast one day. 

Bread, bread and more bread!

After our lunch we went to go see the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the cinema. It was a very hot day, so I was just wearing a sundress, so when they turned the air-conditioning on I got very cold! 

I had to sit outside in the sun for a little bit

To help warm up, we walked over to Trader Joe's and stocked up on snacks. We haven't been in a while and they have the best stuff! We got some cheese and chile tamales for dinner, frozen ready to bake croissants, cookie butter, vegetable chips and some trail mix, the good kind with just nuts and chocolate chips and no fruit. 

In the evening Mitchell went to go and see an improv show with his group and I stayed home to eat the snacks. 

Sunday was our adventure day! I'd seen an advert in one of the Riverside County newsletters I subscribe to (because they also print information about our libraries) about renting e-bikes at a local lake. It was about 45 minutes away and in the middle of nowhere (like most of the county that isn't city is). 

We had to wait a little bit as the only bike small enough for me had been lent out, but the borrower was due back in an hour, so we did the wildflower trail while we waited. There weren't many wildflowers left as it's pretty late in the season, but it was a nice way to pass the time.

Once we each had a bike in our size (there were tons of mediums available for Mitchell), we set off for the 22 mile trail around the entire lake. The e-bikes were very cool, you had to peddle, hard, but you could turn on the assist and it would just add some extra power to help you go a bit faster or make the hills a bit easier. They also came with little insulated boxes on the back to keep your water and lunch cool. 

We're off!

We started off fast, testing out all the settings to see which was best for the very rocky ground. It was pretty bumpy, but after the eight mile mark, we reached a very smooth, paved, part of the trail which was a lot nicer to ride on! This side looked like a reservoir, but there were plenty of fishing boats out in the lake. Most of the people at the lake had brought boats, or at least rods, to go fishing, and we only saw three other people on the trail that day. 

We stopped frequently as although it wasn't super sunny, it was still a pretty hot day, but there was a nice breeze coming off the lake. So although we were hot, sweaty and dusty, we weren't uncomfortably so. 

We stopped for lunch at about the 14 mile mark (made with nice bread from Trader Joe's) and then powered through. We'd originally hired the bikes for two hours, but if we wanted to stay out longer we could just pay the extra when we got back. At about two and a half hours we still had eight miles to go (we like stopping for pictures) but decided that we could make it back before we went over three hours. We went as fast as felt safe (it was very bumpy on this side and very twisty) and with ten minutes left we still had three miles! Fortunately, the last two miles were paved again, so we could really speed up and use the electric power from the bikes to sustain our pace. We made it back at 3:15 on the dot and ran inside to let them know we were back. 

This is what happens when you are not specific about your posing instructions

We could not have done 22 miles up and down hills in three hours on regular bikes, and it was fun to try the electric bikes. Writing this on Monday evening, I can tell that it was easier, as I didn't feel anything in my legs when I woke up, despite cycling not being my regular exercise. It was still a workout though and definitely got my heart rate up!

It was a lot of fun! When we got home, we cooked up our vegan meat lovers pizza and cheesy bread balls and ate some chocolate ice-cream made with coconut milk (all from Trader Joe's). 

Until next time,

Lots of Love,

Emily and Mitchell

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