Since switching from driving to bicycling a while ago, I’ve really discovered a lot of joy in riding to eat at restaurants I like, particularly if they’re a little further afield and there’s plenty of time to enjoy the trip. Yesterday we finally took the opportunity to ride to one of my favorite restaurants in Tijuana, Erizo Cebicheria.

The ride itself was super, we went through Logan Heights and National City on the way to the Bayshore Bikeway, which goes south along the eastern bayfront. Where it met with Palomar Street across from the Salt Works, we ducked into Ocean Bikes to pick up a couple items, and it turned out to be very fun visit.

We learned that the shop is run by a group of guys from Tijuana, who also are involved in art, food, film and television, and so on. They buy older frames and build them into sweet bikes both custom and for retail. Their is work is not unlike that of our friends at Velo Cult, but it’s also quite different (naturally, because places like these are very personal). I particularly enjoy meeting and talking to people who love bicycles in a whole context of art, food, culture, and city life. ‘Cause that’s what resonates with me, too.

The bike path and IB streets took us down toward the Tijuana River Valley. I noticed a nice looking farm in the distance, near some of the horse ranches, and lo and behold it was Suzie’s Farm!

You may know of Suzie’s farm because they drop their CSA at Grant’s Marketplace and they also sell at the North Park Farmers Market. I always think their stuff looks great, it’s been on my list for a while to work with them to get it in here at the Linkery too. The farm is scenic but it was too far away to see in this picture I took from my phone. I wanted to trespass to get a closer pic but decided that would be unneighborly.

About then we decided to take the scenic route through the park there, and past all the horse ranches and so forth. A warning to anyone else doing this: not all the roads shown on Google Maps actually exist! Not to mention that one important road is dirt. But beautiful:

Saturn Blvd/19th Street south of Sunset Ave. Sunset Ave supposedly goes west to Hollister St but doesn’t actually exist there. Saturn/19th is gated and locked but bikes can get around the gates. It’s also too sandy in spots to navigate on a road bike. A much more sensible (but surely less scenic) route is to take Leon to Hollister.

There are horse ranches everywhere. We even saw some caballeras.

The border crossing itself was simple. A couple notes for others doing this, that I didn’t see on the web when I looked:

1) Two years ago Caltrans completed a bike lane for southbound crossers, the signs still direct bicyclists to the lane but it is blocked off now. You have to use the turnstiles and the pedestrian crossing.

2) When using the far (second) turnstiles, you have to roll your bike vertically on its rear wheel to get through the gate.

Unsurprisingly, actually riding in TJ was quite easy and fun. I suspect that drivers in Tijuana are more used to having to pay attention because the roads and traffic are less predictable. Also, in my experience, people I meet in Mexico are typically quite courteous, and the drivers we encountered were no exception. Of course, we didn’t ride much on the big, 3-lane, one-way arterials. The neighborhoods that run along the south side of Agua Caliente were particularly pleasant to ride in, with little traffic, nice houses to look at, and some really cool signs on the businesses. I wish I took a picture of the Tropicana Auto Service sign, it is amazing.

We ended up at Erizo for a great lunch with some neighbors we previously knew only by email. The wine, food, and company were all wonderful. And Erizo’s pulpo carpaccio was the second time this week that a dish has just rocked my world with stunning deliciousness (tagliatelle with trotters was the first time).

Nicely, parking was no problem either:

After lunch, it was getting dark, so we made our way to the Dandy and enjoyed a couple Bohemia Obscuras, bought some Faros for the gang at a liquor store, and chatted on the sidewalk with the Xolos supporters club who were celebrating a victory over Dorados.

The pedestrian line to return was huge but fortunately we were packing SENTRI, which allowed us to walk past the thousands of people who were waiting. I think a lot of people thought we were cutting to the front because we had our bikes. One guy said something to us to that effect, and I said, “No, we have SENTRI”, and he said “I don’t care, I’m French.” So there you go. C’est la vie.

On the trolley home I checked my Facebook and saw that Blind Lady had tapped 30th Street on cask, we made it there just before 10pm and got the last pours off the cask, and a great pizza right before the kitchen closed.

There are some days when it is just wonderful to live in this city. Or, these cities.