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Take a ride on the waters of Echo Park Lake

The pedal boats are back in business on Echo Park Lake! It’s been around four years since the city shut down pedal boat operations at the Boathouse due to budget cuts. Yesterday the operators of the pedal boats, Echo Park Lake Pedal Boats, Canoe & Gondola, greeted lines of people renting the bright yellow boats on the newly renovated Echo Park Lake.

The boating company is operating on a 90 day pilot program for the summer, after which the city will review whether or not it was successful. The cafe vendor will also operate under the same trial period – Square One Dining is expected to start serving on August 1.

Cost is $5 per child and $10 per adult for both the pedal boats (up to one hour) and canoe rides (the latter includes two laps around the lake with a guide). A gondola ride sounds like a nice date night – a half hour for one couple will cost you $50.

Wednesdays will be a great day to head down and rent a pedal boat – called “90026 day,” local residents can rent a pedal boat for just $10.

Hours right now are Monday through Friday, 11:00 am-7:00 pm, and weekends open at 9:00 am until 30 minutes before sunset. We imagine hours will fluctuate depending on the season.

The menu for the cafe has not yet been released, but according to The Eastsider LA will include “park fare” such as hamburgers, hot dogs, juices, and brunch items. Currently the sample menu on the Square One Dining website looks pretty delicious – gourmet cold and hot sandwiches, salads, soups, and more. Hopefully the price tag at the new Echo Park Lake Boathouse won’t reflect that menu – the cheapest lunch sandwich is listed at a whopping $10.50.

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Celebrating another July 4th in Echo Park

The past few years, we’ve made a nice tradition with our close friends of the usual July 4th BBQ and beer, followed up by an evening walk around Echo Park. Since the Dodgers were out of town, our normal visit to an overlook in Elysian Park to watch the Stadium fireworks was quickly replaced by plenty of unsanctioned pandemonium. In our part of the neighborhood, it turned out to be one of the largest celebrations we’ve ever seen.

And the entertainment was so plentiful, we didn’t even make it to our usual Echo Park Lake visit, which in past years has included homemade M-80s (hate those), young children shooting Roman Candles, palm trees on fire, and lots of garbage (ick!). Now that the Lake is open again, we expected there would be a return to illegal fireworks at the lake, but according to our Twitter followers it was fairly mellow, while the rest of the neighborhood sounded like a battlefield, loud booms sounding constantly off the hills from all directions.

Grand fireworks displays on this Echo Park street

These guys were prepared with safety goggles, helmets and a leather jacket

What was your July 4th experience in Echo Park this year?

Visit our Facebook page for more fireworks photos!

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Pedal Boats may be back in Echo Park Lake soon!

Flickr photo via atezrm

While the city has not yet released the list of food vendors being considered for the recently rehabbed Echo Park Lake boathouse, one thing looks good depending on how the paperwork goes – the pedal boats may be back by the beginning of August.

A Facebook page by the name of Echo Park Lake Pedal Boats Canoe & Gondola claims they are in the process of finishing up some paperwork to be the official vendors of the boats. A recent status posted on the page states:

We have had to close our Atascadero Lake site due to lack of water for the rest of 2013 so all of our safety gear and pedal boats are available for Echo Park. We are currently in the paperwork/permit process for Echo Lake. It is a lot more involved than expected, for example contract and compliance papers come to over 120 pages. City staff has been great in helping us wade through it all. Current hang up is trying to get our existing 1 million insurance for water craft upped to the required 2 million. Stay tuned…..

From what we remember before they shut the pedal boats down a few years ago, it cost about $10 per hour (per person!) to rent. We haven’t confirmed how much the rentals will be once things are up and running again, but the Atascadero Lake location mentioned above appears to be about the same.

Will you be first in line to rent pedal boats on Echo Park Lake?

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