View from Santiago Canyon Road
Looking South toward Laguna Beach from just off the PCHGreat cycling, luxury accomodations, B. rules and I'm going to assemble a cabinet.
Landed late Sat. night at a small airport, Long Beach. B was waiting. Short wait for the bags. All in good shape.
30mins to B's incredibly clean abode. I've since imposed all kinds of disorder and messiness.
In bed by 3a.m. ET.
Sun. we slept in a bit and watched bits and pieces of the LA Mary which was broadcast live start to finish. Pretty cool. The women had a head start (16mins?) and held onto the lead, got some extra prize $ I imagine. A "nasty" day according to the locals - 50's and cloudy.
Then it was out and about to stock the frig, and similar errands. Stopped by her gym to nab a free pass for me while I am here. I hit the pool for 25mins and B found a treadmill. Not an easy endeavor, a few dozen mills but they seem consistently full. Picked up a map, stopped by a bike shop and started to plan some riding in the area.
B has a cough thing she's fighting, and I was wiped out, from travel I guess. Early bed Sun. night.
Mon. I dropped B at work. She's letting me drive the LandRover. Can you believe that? Nice ride. Plenty of room.
I went directly to the gym (which is nearby) for 30mins in the pool. After lunch it was off on the bike for a little over 50miles, windy, but periods of sun, ~55F. Big fat bike lanes galore out here. If that wasn't enough, lots of super wide paved paths that parallel the roads but go under cross streets and intersections - no stoplights or cars.
Flatted 2miles into the ride. First flat in quite a while. Oh well, I was due. No prob, pulled out the spare tube. Ffffft. $#!*^%! One spare tube, dead. Walking back to the car, bike on shoulder, tire-less wheel in one hand, a good samaritan drove me the last mile. I knew where the bike shop was, not far. Hop in the Rover and 60mins later, new tube in and back on the road.
Map in jersey pocket, I pedalled my way down to the Pacific Coast Hwy via a mix of path and bike lanes. Got on the PCH at Laguna Beach and rode N to Newport Beach then back inland and home. Stopped for a pic of the coast at Vista point, just before Newport. Looking south, north, and at the vantage point, then one more further north on PCH before it hits Newport.
No shortage of hills anywhere. Quite a few long hills, some steep hills and some that were both. No such terrain can be found less than an hr or two drive from the DC beltway. Hence, something I've never done. Shendandoah (Skyline Drive) or maybe WVa. rides are on my list, someday, or weekend.
So, I was looking forward to the chance for some real hills out here, dare I say mountains. They're here for the me, I plan to keep hitting 'em, soak it up while I have the chance.
The evening excitement was moving B's stove to it's proper position, a good 2 inches closer to the wall, and, at her instruction standing far away and watching as B lit her gas fireplace for the first time. I was to call 911 if things went kabloouey. Bed early again.
If Mon. was hills, Tue. brought something closer to mtns. Another morning swim, an attempt at some house cleaning by way of dishes, garbage and such. OK, yeah, I'm begging for points here. I fear painting will not happen and I'm trying to offset that now! Altho, I suspect it's a project of such magnitude (the whole house almost) that B may not be quite revved up for it just now herself.
The ride today (upper 50's, breezy, but near zero clouds) was Live Oak Canyon to Santiago Canyon, then turn around and do the roller coaster backwards. These canyons lie along the west side of the Santa Anna Mtns.
Great stuff! And turns out it's not more than 5 or 6 miles from B's front door to where the nice low traffic, winding, scenic, heart thumping, leg burning hills kick in. One minute it's nice modern strip malls (as they go), and then suddenly when you turn into Live Oak Canyon it's zero development save for some discreet driveway entrances leading no doubt to pricey hillside homes.
Live Oak Canyon Rd starts off with some nice twisting shady stretches with a canopy of low hanging trees over the road. Georgeous. I actually considered stopping for pics but feared I'd never get going again as it was all uphill at that point.
Then Santiago Canyon opened up more with higher climbs to less forested terrain, winds were more significant as were the ups and downs. I stopped at the top of one climb where there was a view and snapped more pics. 
I turned around at the top of another climb. Savored a banana and clif bar as I looked down on Yorba Linda then headed back.
Picked B up from work and got the tour of the Y&R bldg. A pretty snazzy set up. 2 floors. The whole bldg. 200+ employees. Lots of cubes but not the typical cube farm - no Office Space (I speak of the movie, not having watched the TV series) set this. Met B's close co-workers Becky and Ashley. Seemed like cool gals. Attractive, fit, on the ball, like B, of course.
Went by Ikea and picked up a nice dark wood TV cabinet piece. I can't paint, but I can try to assemble this puppy (not ass-emble, I hope) over the remaining 6 days. If I don't do the job, and do it well, B may kick my butt across the county lne. And she's wearing just the boots, er slippers, to do it.
The early over/under on cabinet completion time is 4 days. Hmmmm. We picked up some Indian food on the way home from Ikea.
Zooey (has this become the official spelling? I haven't examined her collar tag yet.) seems not bothered by me. She is, perhaps, more amusing than E&H of Devereaux fame, in kind of a spectator sport way. She's got a little 180 hop that is just goofy, and she goes nuts for no apparent reason just often enough that I keep an eye out for it. She can really zoom around. Pure gray blur. Pretty talkative too. No way will B get away with walking in the door and then disappearing in the bathroom, not without some real meow complaining at the bathroom door.
Looking ahead- B works Wed. but the night will be a trip to Anaheim for a hocky game. Becky and her husband Dan will be along. Former triathletes, they're already cool in my book of course. Guess what? I may spend Wed. exercising and putting together a cabinet.
B is looking at a half day Thur. Not sure how we'll fill the p.m. yet.
Fri. plan is for me to ride down to San Diego along the coast in the a.m. B will sleep in or not, and drive down to meet me before we hit the Museums in Balboa. That's the plan.
Maybe LA one day.
1 comment:
i feel like I am there! Great pictures. I'm tired just trying to keep track of the miles.
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