Cycling Monte Sereno California
Hello all, this is my road bike ride from this afternoon to Monte Sereno, home of Villa Montalvo park. It was a large parcel of land purchased by California Senator Jame Phelan in 1912 and the house you see in the background below was built.
Before he past away, he wanted the estate to be a showcase for the arts, so various art displays are held during the spring through fall months. There is also a summer concert series. The garden also holds numerous varieties of indigenous and foreign plants.
My ride was 26 miles and 1k of climbing. It was a cool 62*f, overall nice day for a Sunday ride.
GPS data is from a garmin vivoactive HR and uploaded to Strava
If you had the income back in the day, why not install a few greek style statues around the gardens? I think she approves of my bike...
There is some condo style bird houses attached to a tree
In back of the house, there is a small amphitheater where the summer concerts are held
Here is one interesting flower, it is cone shaped and has small pink flowers all the way up.
This is some of the art scattered around the park, a artists statue of a child with a stick in his/her mouth with birds chirping.
A small garden area off to the side, the bird house tree is in the background along with the house.
We have an early spring here in the bay area with a lot of flowers blooming. It appears that my Galaxy S8 does not do a good job with very bright objects as there is no definition of the flower, just a pink spot. I may need to dig further into the settings...
Happy beautiful Sunday!
The spring colours are coming out nicely.
Yes, spring is here along with warm weather. I'm sure there will be an increase in the beautifulsunday tag going forward.
Amazing, thanks for introducing this breathtaking place with us with some historical details. In my opinion this place also contain some unique artistic statue pieces and it's really great to see. And it's reflecting as this building is created in the center of beautiful natural piece and i think this is an great place for jogging, walking, cycling and fitness stuff because this place have nature at it's best. Thanks for sharing and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂
Thanks for visiting the blog, and yes it's a very nice place for hiking, jogging, weddings, etc... I always enjoy visiting when cycling through.
Welcome and it's great to hear. 🙂
The housing market for the birds seems like it is at an all time high as well... Rent for those 1 bed 1 bath bird houses must be outrageous! haha
Great post! I still can't believe how many miles you can tackle on that bike!
Your right about those bird condos...lol. I looked at the real estate site Zillow and the average price for homes in Monte Sereno looks like an average of 5 million or so. There was one home for 29.9 M...
Depending upon a persons fitness level, quite a few miles are achievable on a bike, even for 'older' people like me...
I took a look at your blog and you appear very fit yourself!
Oh my gosh that is expensive!!!
Don't sell yourself short! That is a long way and inspiring for everyone that reads your blog.
That is so sweet of you to say! I try my best to keep up with fitness and help spread health and wellness along the way :)
Oh this looks so cool! It's great when something like this gets public access.
Hey nice to see you..@glennolua
You always post something difference from others.
your create i like so much.
This place so nice dear..Thank.you so.much for.sharing.
Everyone likes a good bike, even statues.
Nice exercise man.Moreover some more fitness related posts..
Photographs capture a lot.we saw the entire views by images.these antique place are great to see.
Nice ride.
I am quite surprised the S8 has killed the details in the flower. My much older S5 (still going strong!) doesn't have this problem.
I am unsure if it is the angle of the camera, but your bike appears to have quite the aggressive posture. And considering you had earlier said, you are in the masters category, then you must be very fit!
I'm not sure what it is with the S8, I've taken some great shots with it but sometimes the processing of bright colors messes it up for some reason.
The bike is a Giant TCR SL which was their race bike in 2010/11. (They still make the TCR) I have the stem setup as low as possible with no spacers, so it is in a race setup.
So you can say I'm pretty fit based on age as most riders my age are not able to ride with a slammed stem due to back issues or flexibility. (Or they are unable to ride in a race position for 3 hours plus)...
Nice Blog entry! Never saw bird houses like that on your picture before :D Which bike are your riding?
It is a Giant TCR SL, their race frame from a few years ago. Giant makes some very good bikes for the price!