We went on a very nice road bike ride this morning in Martinez, CA. We recently bought a book full of fun mountain biking and road biking trips all over this area of CA. We had initially thought we'd go on a bike trip yesterday, but when we finally got outside it was far too hot. We decided to postpone the trip to today, and leave early in the morning in order to escape the majority of the heat. Martinez is over the hills so it doesn't have the sea to cool it and as a result, it is always 10-30 degrees hotter than Albany and the other cities by the shore. The particular loop that we chose to ride was an 18 mile loop that was easy for us to drive to, so after walking the dog, we packed our two road bikes into the car and set off. It was a nice drive with no traffic, and soon we were on our bikes and on our way. The first two miles went kind of slow because someone kept having to stop to change various things on his bike, but after that the going was smooth. After biking 3 or 4 miles, we noticed these two cows on the side of the road. It was very strange because there was a fence behind them with more cows on the other side...so why were these two cows on our side of the fence? We hadn't passed any cattle guards which meant these were cows on the loose. There's not much we can do about that and the two cows were ignoring us so we kept biking on and a mile later, a cop car coming the other direction stops us and asks if we've seen any loose cows. We sure have! We told them to look on their right about a mile down the road to find the two loose cows and then we giggled for the next mile of biking because that is an odd and rare situation to be in. The bike ride was one of the nicer bike rides I've been on lately. There were nice shoulders or bike lanes, and the roads were smooth. There were lots of cows to see, and we often overlooked parts of reservoirs, bays, and straits. There was a train chugging along the shore, and lots of boats crossing the water. Two miles of the bike ride were on a road that is closed to cars because it was washed out a few years ago by a landslide. There were plants growing through the asphalt, and lots of people walking their dogs. At one part, parts of the road were painted bright colors. It was a really cracked up section of the road, so someone must have come and decided to paint each part of the asphalt a different color. I liked it a lot because bright colors make me very happy. The terrain was full of rolling hills and it really was a wonderful ride. We found our way back to the car easily despite my copying the directions wrong, and just before the day's heat really set in. We stopped at an In N Out on the way home and had a delicious burger for lunch. We also saw a dog that looked like a lion. When we got home, I decided that we would go for a dip in the pool, which turned out to be a nice way to cool off and get the salt off our skin. The pool was nicer than I expected it to be, so I really should swim more often in it. The only downside is it tastes kind of odd. There's normal pool taste, and then there's this. Oh well.
I just tried making a second batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream today. I made the custard yesterday, and it needed to chill in the fridge overnight before I put it in the ice cream maker. I put it in the ice cream maker when we got home, and it is much better than my last batch. I made the last batch with spearmint herbs, and it was not a yummy result. I cannot find peppermint anywhere in the stores, so I went to the garden center at Target to see what they had. I found a chocolate mint plant, so I made this batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream with leaves I harvested from this plant. The chocolate mint plant grows very fast! The ice cream still has to freeze a little more, but Tim and I tried a bite. It's still not perfect, so this is going to become some sort of an obsession. I MUST find peppermint, grow it, and try this again with a combination of leaves from my chocolate mint plant and a peppermint plant. That's my next plan. If it doesn't work, I think I will end up buying every type of mint plant on the planet and trying different combinations until my taste buds are satisfied at last!
I just tried making a second batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream today. I made the custard yesterday, and it needed to chill in the fridge overnight before I put it in the ice cream maker. I put it in the ice cream maker when we got home, and it is much better than my last batch. I made the last batch with spearmint herbs, and it was not a yummy result. I cannot find peppermint anywhere in the stores, so I went to the garden center at Target to see what they had. I found a chocolate mint plant, so I made this batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream with leaves I harvested from this plant. The chocolate mint plant grows very fast! The ice cream still has to freeze a little more, but Tim and I tried a bite. It's still not perfect, so this is going to become some sort of an obsession. I MUST find peppermint, grow it, and try this again with a combination of leaves from my chocolate mint plant and a peppermint plant. That's my next plan. If it doesn't work, I think I will end up buying every type of mint plant on the planet and trying different combinations until my taste buds are satisfied at last!
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