I saw a sandwich board with this ad by the Central Avenue trail head on Stevens Creek Trail. It piqued my curiosity. I figured "Why not show up?"

Turns out I got a new camera the previous afternoon, so this was its first test ride. I just wanted to take pictures and see what they had scheduled, just like everybody else that saw the ad. I got to the start just before they started moving, so I didn't get any pictures there. The first interesting stop was in the park behind the German International School on Easy St.

  

  

The Mayor thanked us all for coming on the ride and listed the speakers we would be seeing at various stops along the way. First we would hear an Audobon Society lady talk about bird life. Then we would ride to Rengstorff House where Bowl of Heavan would be treating everybody to snacks. The next stop after that would be Google. After that we got back on our bikes and started riding again.

It would be hard to imagine more comfortable riding conditions.  Not that hot, not very windy, but extremely sunny. Just right for pedaling on nice trails.

        

Bowl of Heavan turned out to be a bowl of crushed and stirred frozen fruit somewhere between gellato and a smoothie with toppings like banana morsels and good granola. It was quite tasty. Ken Rosenberg had good things to say about the stuff.

Janet LaFluer and Cheri talked about Bike To Shop Day. They are getting lots of local businesses signed up to offer special promotions that day, May 23rd. Visit BikeToShopDay.com for more information. They are hoping everybody comes out for the event and shops by bike that day!

     

The lady from Rengstorff House explained that the structure had been an important landmark in Mountain View when it was first built in the 1870s. That was when it was on Rengstorff St. It was moved to its current location a decade or two ago now to make room for the community center there now. It's a great place to host a particularly memorable event like a wedding. She's the one to see about stuff like that.

After that we rolled on again. This time we stopped on the baylands and the woman from Audobon told us about their weekly birding tours. She invited us to come out and enjoy taking memories of the wildlife doing their things home with us. Right now the snowy egrets have chicks and they are super cute! She also mentioned that Shiloh Ballard was known to have come through last night's earthquake in Tibet okay, and is on her way back from there now.

  

The we rode on to the latest jewel in Mountain View's park system. This ball field will be opening soon, and then there will be another place for youth sports to flourish. There was lots of pent up demand, so hopefully this helps. It's not far from google, still on the bay side of the freeway.

  

The next stop was at Google. They had some "google bikes" on the plaza where we stopped. People tried them while the rest of us milled around and mingled and took in the sights. They're basic cheap bikes. Coaster brake on the back. No gears. Good basket for carrying whatever. Highly available near google. Perfect for going from one buiding to another on the huge google campus. Tiring if you want to go more than a few miles though.

  

Officer Cerns took us on a tour of his police bike. He explained that what makes it a police bike is the red and blue lights and the siren on front and the "POLICE" markings on the side. He explained that when you hear the siren and see the lights pointed at  you, you are legally required to stop and talk to the officer.

  

The Google lady explained that she's the company's transportation policy bigwig. She wants all of google's local employees to get where they need to go. They have a variety of ideas to work with. People that just need transportation from one building to another can use google bikes. People that come in on bikes with technical difficulties can have maintenance done by the staff in the bike parking stable. People that come in by bike or transit that need to use a car for some reason can rent one if they need to. She pointed to their fleet of rental cars behind us.

  

After that we rode the bike boulevard to Shoreline.

There Greg Unangst from the Bicyclists and Pedestrians Advisory Committee (or was it Commission?) (BPAC) talked about the plans for Shoreline. They want to make it into a "complete street", and add a separate bridge so that bicyclists can cross 101 without jamming up access for car coming off of or getting on the freeway.