The white gravel spread across the landscape at the Frog Spot, the activity center for the Friends of the Los Angeles River, is blinding in mid-summer sun so I won’t be posting photos of their cafe — only the fish-mobile that was parked at the back of their lot.
Because it was mid-day on the first full day of the Olympics there were few bicyclists on the pathway that runs for 7 miles along the river. (The Men’s Olympic Road Race was on in Rio and I watched the end of this 5+ hour race after I arrived home.)
When initially developed, the pathway was supposed to be only for bicycles, but people in the neighborhood objected and the path is now used by people, like me, out for a walk. I walked on the shoulder because the cyclists came tearing along a high speed.
Some things I found:
Near the Frog Spot, instead of water in the river bottom, I saw a woman walking her dog. No flowing water was visible along this stretch, but there were definite paths leading into the dense stands of trees and bushes so perhaps some homeless people were clearly living in there.
A little further along I came across a nifty cafe called the Pancake Epidemic tucked into the middle of several buildings that house art studios and architecture offices.
Artist Frederick Gautier (more about him in a future post) was taking a quick coffee break before he returned to work in his studio. Benjamin at the Pancake Epidemic was serving up Stumptown Coffee. The Pancake Epidemic is a Korean-based restaurant/coffee house and this location seems to the their first in L.A.
And the food did not stop there. A short walk along the path brought me to the Spoke Bicycle Cafe, where cyclists could get their bikes repaired by Dane or the owner, Laurie, or stop for a snack at the shaded cafe.
My next stop was Marsh Park, a haven of shade and green grass. One family from Glendale had cycled over with their children to play in the children’s area. At this point I was getting overheated so I walked back down the path and came home to spend the rest of the day watching athletes in great shape win prizes in Rio.
Oh, the Frogtown Art Walk is here.
