a view from above

it's strange, i lived in claremont and newport for so many years and yet i never did make it to the observatory or griffith park. so i was super excited when sarah had mentioned that we could go for a hike and see where dave had proposed with its amazing views. so thursday morning, we set off for the park and parked near the bottom. it is beautiful there! i definitely should have gone there sooner... anyways, we get started on our hike and it is a gorgeous day. fairly clear and warm and sunny. we get going up the trail and pretty soon i am out of breath! well, not completely, but it definitely was not as easy for me as i would have thought. i generally like to think i'm in pretty good shape. i mean i work out at least 4 or 5 times a week and i ran (& walked) a marathon for goodness sake! but i guess i generally do flat runs and workouts and hills use different muscles. i guess i really outta start doing some weight training.

once we get to the top, we explore around the observatory and sarah showed me where dave proposed and i must give a round of applause to the dave as the view was great and sarah said that there was almost no one up there when he did it so they basically had the whole place to themselves. the same was true for us, though i'd imagine our trip was significantly less romantic!

after taking in the view and asking a few strangers to take our picture, we went on the hike that would take us closer to the hollywood sign. again, i'd never done that one and it was a lot of fun. i love doing things on the weekday when things are so much less crowded! after this small hike, we went back down the hill and to the car.






that afternoon we went to pasadena to do a little shopping in old town. it was a great day to wander around and do a little shopping though neither of us bought any of significance. we did, however, stop in at 21 choices and indulge our sweet tooths! i had a peach banana flavor with fresh raspberries mixed in. that was perfect for a warm afternoon. i forget what sarah had but i know she did half peach banana and half something else. once we were good and tired, we headed home with a pitstop to the grocery store. we decided we were both tired and a home cooked meal where we could sit on our bums and watch tv and relax would be great. sarah made us sweet potato wedges and chicken with her famous mango salsa. yummy!!


we tried to document our visit, but apparently the sun was not cooperating with our photographer.

and with that, it was another fantastic day!!!