one week in so cal

Last Saturday I packed up my car, said goodbye to my parents, and drove off.  I picked up Belinda at her aunt's house in San Jose, and after chatting a bit with her aunt, we headed south.  We made a stop at Casa de Fruta in Hollister.  Everything there was SO expensive, but they had a deal going on fudge so I splurged.

belinda at casa de fruta

We made it to Judy's place in Valencia in good time, enjoyed dinner with Judy, Debbie, and the Chans before going to see the movie version of Les Miserables.  After having seen the Broadway musical version three times, I was still definitely impressed by the movie.

velda, dominique, judy, deb, bel, sam, me, and gary

Bel and I stayed at Judy's that night, and the next morning we drove the rest of the way to Bonita.  I emptied my car into the house, met the neighbors and friends, dropped Bel off at the airport to return to Northern California, and did my best to settle in.

view from the back patio

you can see the ocean from the street right in front of the house

The next morning I went to Paradise Valley Hospital for the first day of my acute care rotation.  My clinical instructor is an energetic, teaching-focused PT.  I believe I will learn a lot from these ten weeks, whether or not she succeeds in her goal of converting me into an acute care PT.

outpatient pavilion of paradise valley hospital

sunset view across the street from the hospital

Saturday I slept in, then took a walk to the post office 2 miles away.  Along the way, I passed a fire station that had a cool old fire truck parked behind it.

cool old fire truck

I also passed a mega-church, Bonita Valley Community Church, that looked like it had about 3 acres of parking - since it had a Saturday evening service, I checked it out that evening.  It wasn't as crowded as I expected, but the next morning there were a lot more cars in the parking lot as I drove by on my way to Bonita Valley Baptist Church.  There I was able to reconnect with a soccer teammate, Kendra, from AYSO soccer during my senior year of high school.  Kendra's husband is the youth pastor at Bonita Valley Baptist Church.

Later Sunday afternoon I took a walk to the Von's about a mile away, starting out by walking briefly uphill to check out the view before heading down, and explored a trail that took me way out of my way.  I walked back up the hill for the sunset and got some pretty nice shots.

view from the nearest cross-street - the house is the second down the hill

panoramic view from just up the street

sunset view from up the street