i just don't stop!!

My story continues with a week where a few days DID end a little early, and I finally got out on the longboard I borrowed from JD, Christine's husband.  It feels SO good to get out and do something active...  I think I've said that before.  I went out to the Silver Strand Bikeway, a paved trail that starts in Chula Vista and heads around the South Bay (San Diego Bay, not San Francisco Bay) and up the Silver Strand isthmus to Coronado.  The first day, I drove out to a parking lot along highway 75 not too far from the entrance to the state beach.  I skated about a mile and a quarter, then headed back to the car.  I did learn from my sore calves experience from running on the beach!  I still had energy but my feet were sore, so I went out and walked on the beach and took more photos (surprise, surprise).  The next day, I found a place in Imperial beach where I could park my car and get onto the trail earlier. I skated out to the parking lot from the previous day for a round trip of about 3.5 miles.  The third day I found the start of the bikeway and my roundtrip was 5.5 miles.  At the very south end of the bay there are salt ponds and a wildlife refuge, along with a gorgeous view of downtown san diego.

view of the south bay from the bikeway

skate in motion

not too often you see a bird of prey in flight from slightly above it

beautiful view of downtown san diego and the coronado bridge

salt pond reflections

great egret staring at me

Thursday and Friday got busier in the hospital, with Friday being the craziest day with which I'd dealt yet.  I had been texting back and forth at lunch with Renee, a friend from Sierra-at-Tahoe who recently ascertained via Facebook that we were both in the San Diego area.  She tossed me the idea of taking a free surfing lesson on Saturday - even though I didn't need a lesson, it sounded really fun, but I wasn't thrilled with the idea of wearing a rental wetsuit, and also heard that there are warnings to not go in the water the day after a rain (it rained both Thursday and Friday) because of sewage runoff.  Then late in the afternoon she texted about an opportunity to go snowboarding!  She belongs to an online meetup group for skiing/ snowboarding, and a girl posted that she was going to Snow Valley and had 4 spots in her car.  THAT sounded like an irresistible idea, so Renee was able to get one of the seats in the car held for me.  I got up at 5:30 am, met Renee, and we together headed to meet our driver, Jenny, and the other passengers Cassandra and Aaron.  The resort is a couple hours drive from Jenny's place in North County San Diego, on the way to Big Bear Lake.  It was a very relaxed group of people, so with various delays and stops, we were finally getting on the chairlift at 11:00 am.

here's where we turned off from the road to big bear

looking at snow valley from the lodge

It had snowed somewhere between 14 and 18 inches in the previous 24 hours, and most of the lifts were closed due to a transformer mishap earlier in the week.  There were only 4 lifts running, 3 of which accessed exclusively beginner terrain.  While Aaron went off and took a lesson, the four girls rode together.  We solved the problem of limited terrain by hiking up from the side of a run and discovering the elusive "Lake Run" of which Jenny (a Snow Valley passholder) had heard but never found.

view from the top of lake run

cassandra, renee, me, and jenny

We met up with Aaron for lunch after his lesson, then took a run with him before leaving him to practice on beginner terrain while we went up higher again.  This time, we hiked about 1/3 mile up the groomed snow to the top of the nearest closed lift (about 200' elevation gain).  From there, we could access a run of pure untouched snow.  BEAUTIFUL!  Not quite Tahoe powder, but beautiful nonetheless.

renee, jenny, cassandra, and me hiking

view from the top

The resort was open till 8 PM.  We rode until 5:30 or 6 pm before heading back toward San Diego.  On the way back we stopped at an In-N-Out.  It's a little hard to believe I've been in Southern California (home of In-N-Out) for over two months, and this was my first trip to In-N-Out!

in-n-out - best fast food burger and fries i know

Sunday I got together with Lisa, a friend from high school.  It'd been TWENTY-FIVE years since we'd last seen each other!  That's a long time.  She's now working as an orthopedist in the LA area.  We met up in La Jolla at the Contemporary Art Museum and strolled along the shore for a bit before stopping for a delicious brunch at the Crab Catcher.

lisa and me across the street from the contemporary art museum

If I thought last Thursday and Friday were tough, I had another thing coming...  This week has been even crazier.  More on that in the next post.