CicLAvia: Participants bring their own music, scooters
Under a June-gloom sky, thousands of bikers filled Wilshire Boulevard in the first hours of CicLAvia.
Some had speakers in their bike baskets blaring hip-hop, rock and other kinds of music — one man blaring Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” — as they passed one another on the street. One rider made his own music, singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” as he rode along.
Others rode slowly, peering up at the buildings as they passed and pointing out features they otherwise might have missed driving by in their cars.
One man pointed to a group of apartment buildings. He used to live around there, he said to a friend.
Another man rode a unicycle, his arms crossed as he made his way west down Wilshire.
J.J. Keith, 33, a writer from Hollywood, clutched the shoulder of her husband, Alden Keith, 35, as she tried to maneuver on a pair of roller skates without falling. Alden pushed a stroller with their son, Kasper, 2.
Their daughter, Beatrix, 4, rode ahead on a silver Razor scooter. Wearing a blond ponytail, pink tank top, purple tennis shoes and pink helmet, she smiled with delight as she got too far ahead and her mom told her to slow down.
This was the family’s first CicLavia.
“She’s just always wanting to scooter,” Alden said, laughing as his wife tried to catch up to Beatrix and work her roller skates.
“We don’t have a lot of parks without cracks and potholes,” he said. “This really is one of the only places she can do it,” he said of his daughter’s scootering.
Alden said it was a nice chance to “slow down” and admire the city. They had just gotten to admire the Scottish Rite building.
J.J. admitted her skating was “a little rocky.”
As her parents slowed down to talk, Beatrix turned around and stopped, looking up at them.
“What’s wrong with you guys?” she said. She was done relaxing, she said, and was ready to scooter.
A few blocks west, her parents were grinning. Beatrix rode in the back of the stroller while her dad carried the scooter on his shoulder. J.J. had traded the skates for a pair of sandals.
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