California is much more bike friendly than Virginia.  When we moved here, Forrest bought me a pretty amazing new bike and I've been working on getting used to riding it.  You see, until a few years ago, I had never ridden anything other than a beach cruiser!  Learning to use gears was intimidating and scary, but as a lover of indoor cycling, I knew I needed to leave my comfort zone and hit the road outside.  As I learned to ride a geared bike in Virginia, I rode on flat roads, wide paths, and managed to keep my balance.  But these northern California hills are another playing field!  One of the first weekend things we did after settling in was to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and down to Sausalito for lunch.  The hills and traffic were certainly something that I will need to get used to, but it was such a fun adventure!