Que Pasa?
See my blogger notes at the bottom of this post.
We’ve been having so much fun down south that I’m having to play catch-up on my travel blog. Normally I’d be reporting every day, but anyway that’s enough excuses. As I type this, on day 4 of our trip, I notice a whole squadron of hummingbirds flying around and descending on the feeders on my sister-in-law’s back deck in Valencia (aka Santa Clarita). If you read my blog, you know I love birds, so it’s a real treat to be able to sit here and work on my blog, watching the birds, Rufous Hummingbirds I think, some with beautiful, bright colors and others more muted colors, I’m able to hear their wings flutter as they approach the feeders. Truly one of God’s wonderful creatures. So to recap the last few days, here we go.
Mystery Music:
Day 2: Tucker and Carly
I skipped Day 1, because it was mostly a travel day, flying in to Burbank, checking in to our hotel, and going over to have lunch with our sister-in-law. On Day 2, a Wednesday, I had a light breakfast and did a run, while my wife hung out at the hotel. Southern California has very nicely accommodated those of us who like to get out and do physical stuff by building trail systems in many locations. The trail I was on was the San Francisquito Trail that winds its way around the roads and communities in the Santa Clarita area. Running on a trail is obviously much better than running on the street. I’ll include some pictures to give you an idea, or you may have seen a previous blog from when I ran the same trail. I have new pictures.
I met Tucker and Carly on this trip near the end of my run as they walked with their owner Dave. They’re Shih Tzu’s. Really cool little dogs. Dave told me that Carly was blind but still had that wonderful doggie sense of smell. I bid them a good day and continued running. I thoroughly enjoyed my run on Wednesday.
That night we went out with our friends to a favorite hangout that we like when we come to visit, a place in Valencia called JJ’s. Music, food, and conversation kept us occupied for the evening.
Day 3: Relaxing and Stuff
OK, we’re on vacation, not supposed to do much except relax and have fun, right? Well, we did lots of relaxing, in our very nice hotel that has a pool and other amenities and a full breakfast (omelets made to order, etc.), no complaints about any of that. So we logged our fair share of time around the pool, including swimming and hot tub time.
The “stuff” was yours truly researching and looking at medical insurance options since we are in the enrollment period and have to decide what we’re doing about that for 2019. The many, many choices make that process a bit intimidating, trying to choose the best plan. That evening we had a visit by my wife’s brother, who lives in Venice Beach. We had dinner at the hotel and talked a while. It’s always a lot of fun to spend time with people you don’t see very often.
Day 4: Winding Down and Watching the News
As it happened, we were in California when the catastrophic fires occurred, not terribly far from where we were. Also, the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks happened while we were there. Quite a disaster for so many people living here, to have their homes destroyed. I don’t mean to downplay any of what was going on, being here in the midst of the massive fires, loss of property and life, and the mass shooting too, it was a bit surreal literally being so close to all of it. Knock on wood and pray for us getting out of town safely.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the pictures.
Blogger notes: I substituted my dogs Wiggles and Zoey for Tucker and Carly that I met on my first run (didn’t have a picture of them). The music was a random choice, selected quickly before I checked out of our hotel, not sure where it came from, but it sounded cool.
blazinbernie
Looking for a Rufous 