On Easter Sunday, for the past eleven years, people in San Francisco have gathered for what it is probably the strangest and most fun way to celebrate the day: Bring Your Own Big Wheel, a race down San Francisco’s windiest street. The race began on Lombard Street and eventually moved to Vermont Street at 20th Street which is the real curviest street in city, despite Lombard Street’s fame.
Once those who are brave enough have secured a kid’s plastic tricycle or Barbie truck or a large toy truck or a trashcan (really, anything dubious with plastic wheels on it), they take to Vermont Street and race down the street on whatever precarious method of transport they’ve chosen.
It’s not an event to spend too much time thinking about, it’s just a day to laugh a lot and revel in ridiculousness and sigh and say, “Only in San Francisco” with utmost fondness for the city.
The race happens regardless of the weather. As you can see above, this year, it was a sunny and pleasant Easter afternoon. Check out my write up and photos from last year’s slick and rainy BYOBW race here.
We hadn’t quite reached the entrance for the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve when we started to spot fields and hills brushed with orange and yellow. How could we not pull over?
On that day, the wind blew freely and forcefully in the Mojave. As I stepped out of the car, I felt its chill and massive strength. We ran across the street and over to this field. There was a little path in the middle of it leading to nowhere in particular. I imagine the path was created over the years by people like us who were not content to continue driving past so much beauty, so they pulled over in the same spot to take a closer look and let the wind consume them.
Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
I’ll probably say the same thing about summer and fall when they come, but right now, spring is my favorite season.
January just doesn’t seem like the right time to start over. In the Northern Hemisphere, so much of nature is resting or escaping to a warmer place.
But spring has a freshness about it. The thawing and first the sightings of spring’s colorful floral emergence remind you why the winter has been worth it. It can bring a renewed understanding of the world’s possibilities.
When I spotted this Pacific Coast wild iris on the Point Reyes National Seashore, the detail of it seemed beautifully unreal. It looked like it had been streaked with purple ink and that the fog condensation and rain had spread the pigmentation to the edges. And on the petals, the little water droplets lingered as if to say, “Love me, look at what I created.”