Last Friday was a great 1st Friday ride. The streets were rather clear of snow, it wasn’t too cold in the beginning and the weather was great for the beginning of February. The meetup started at the monument at 6pm, which is normal, but the snow banks around the monument we not. Then again if your always downtown and see the massive piles of snow bigger than cars, it might be normal.
Three of us, Claire, Ken and I (Toni), hung around talking and we were joined by Jim. We stayed there till 6:30 getting cold and waiting to see if anyone else was going to join. At that point we decided to head to Broadway Arts Center, which meant going down the ‘hill’. The hill is State street which normally isn’t bad, but for one I hate that hill and two the slush on the road just sucked on State. We all made it safely to the bottom and checked out some very nice pieces at BAC. I particularly enjoyed the painting in the back room that had a cyclist in it. It caused a lot of where is waldo jokes around around for the night, except waldo in this case is a cyclist in the any kind of artwork.
After BAC we went to the Albany Center Gallery. The show was rather interesting with a mix of cute paintings and artwork by Radical. From there were headed up to Lark and picked up a cyclist who was heading home. After the ride down Lark we headed to Davey Jones Locker which had a great showing. The fish are always really cool, and I love looking at the sea horses. The art show was really great. I actually saw a few pieces that I might decide to purchase.
Once, everyone was ready to head out we went to the Wine-n-Diner for dinner and the show. Dinner was awesome. It was my third time there and I have it down what to get. I recommend the hummus appetizer and the Hawaiian burger. Both are great. Dinner was the last stop on the ride and from there we all went home, by that point it had gotten rather cold out. So, yeah it was an awesome 1st Friday ride. Good art, good conversation, great riding and great food. I hope to see ya’ll next month.
Albany Bicycle Coalition 