Tour de Cupcake + Incubus Concert

Posted by Lauren

I squeezed every ounce of fun out of Sunday! Imagine a washcloth dipped in FUN water… I wrung that cloth dry!

My Sunday morning started out with some eggs + spinach + assorted red peppers.

I ran around like a chicken and got everything into my backpack. I had to get to SF, so I hopped on my bike and rode to Caltrain. About an hour later, I was in San Francisco bicycling to the SF Bike Kitchen. Check out my shoes!!

As the proud owner of Boo Radley’s Cupcakes (77 totally unique, peculiar little cakes NBD), I feel entitled to partake in as many local, cupcake-related events as possible. When Cupcakes Take The Cake posted about SF Bike Kitchen’s Tour de Cupcake, I immediately signed up. $15 to a good cause, cupcakes, bike riding through San Francisco? YES! YES! YES!

The event was an alleycat style ride. We were instructed to visit each checkpoint on the “manifest” they handed out BEFORE reaching the finish line. Prizes were awarded based on finishing time and bonus points earned at checkpoints.

This wasn’t Tour de RideEveryHillInSanFrancisco… this was Tour de Cupcake! In addition to the 7 manifest stops, there were five cupcake pit stops!! Cupcakes were provided by Mission Minis and were just delicious! Those were definitely my favorite spots along the route! ;)

While checking in, two friendly SF-savvy bicyclists befriended me (THANK GOODNESS!) and said I could tag along with them. I have NO idea what I would have done without them! Christine and Adam knew to avoid 17th street by taking the parallel Corbett Street and they also helped plan the BEST route possible: Get the hills out of the way first!

Our route:

1. Bike Kitchen > > gather at Franklin Square Playground (Bryant & 16th)

2. 766 Valencia (custom bike shop)

3. Corona Heights Playground – the top of a hill!!! ooph!

Great views of the air show from up here! (Fleet Week FTW)

There was a bonus challenge AND a double bonus challenge at this stop. Adam was a champ and completed both.

The first challenge: eat an entire tub of frosting! Double bonus: drink a PBR immediately after. Instant respect for a man who can down a tub of frosting!

4. Clayton & 17th Street – this hill is the “cherry on top of San Francisco” and it is the other bonus challenge spot! Again, Adam was game to try it out. The challenge: take 20 lbs. of sugar and run down the GIANT hill (the one we just biked up) and then bring the 20 lbs. of sugar back up the hill. How he did this after the frosting/PBR I have NO idea…

5. Spreckel’s Lake, Golden Gate Park – beautiful ride!

6. Trader Joe’s (3 Masonic Ave)

7. CUPCAKE STOP: Alamo Square Park – hello chocolate peanut butter cupcake!

8. CUPCAKE STOP: Duboce Park – hello [slightly dry] red velvet (there’s my bike Luke Francis in the background!)

[at this point it was 4 pm and the race was over, but we weren't finished :(]

9. 49 Stevenson Street – nobody was there so we biked back to Bike Kitchen

We missed three cupcake stops and one of the manifest stops. I was really proud of our team for getting that far though. In total, we rode about 17 “San Francisco Miles” (read: hilly!) Truth be told, we actually tackled every hill but one: the dreaded Filbert & Fillmore stop. Not bad, not bad.

Extra cupcakes went straight to the finish line party! (and into my tummy)

Afterwards, Christine and I went to CellSpace (Bryant St @ 18th) for the after party: beer, snacks, DJ, raffles, and an awards ceremony.

The Bike Kitchen staff brought all of the extra cupcakes to the party and that made me a happy camper! :) I might have had a cupcake for each finger on my pair of hands haha…

Instead of taking Caltrain down south, Andrew KINDLY picked me up outside CellSpace and dropped me off in Palo Alto on his way to Mountain View. I changed quickly, posted about Saturday’s track workout, and then drove over to Shoreline [to meet Andrew, Krizia, Jake, Kevin, and Julia] for the INCUBUS concert!!

I’m a NEW fan of Incubus. Admittedly, I primarily listen to their most recent album, “If Not Now, When,” but I like almost all of their older stuff too. Their performance at Shoreline last night was CRAZYGOOD.

Incubus sounded amazing live. Plus, I had pretty great company :)

Question: What was the last concert you went to? Any Incubus fans out there? What do you think of their [slightly different] sound?

Angels & Airwaves with Nicole!

Question: Fill in the blank with what YOU think would be the most fun: Tour de _________?

Tour de ICE CREAM!
(…craft beer, wine, chocolate?)

-Lauren