Chino Hills State Park: After The Fire
January 3, 2009
I finally got out to go on a mountain bike ride after a long time of not riding. I decided to go to Chino Hills State park with a friend. I have to admit we could have chosen a better day though. The reason is two-fold. One is that it was wet which made it muddy. While this was fun at times; it was annoying at other times with mud sticking to my tires like super glue. The other problem is that it was foggy which is not great for photos. Still the photos I took capture how the park is now post fire. 
Basically I was surprised at how quickly the grass has come back. The trees on the other hand are not so lucky. Most of the trees in the park grow in small ravines or valleys and it appears that this is where the fire was the hottest. The grass that is growing back looks similar to yard grass. This is nothing like the shoulder high wispy grass that used to be there. The park is green but you can tell that life is only starting to return to normal. Most of the wildlife has no place to hide so the only things we saw were small birds who can quickly return. Jack Rabbits and insects where nowhere to be found. The ground still smells kind of like a wet camp fire. I fully expect the park to bounce back this spring and in a few years the place should look like normal again. The only thing which will take some time is for the trees to come back. That really is the saddest part about the fire ravaging the place. It was nice to see the park again and get some riding in. A small part of me was happy the ride ended with me being coated in mud from head to toe.
I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
December 25, 2008
Every year Bryan and I try to see multiple family members during Christmas. We usually switch off who we go see on Christmas day. This year we went up to see Bryan’s mom and siblings in Crestline. Crestline is a mountain community just near Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead. As most of you Southern Californians know we recently had a big winter storm come through in the last week and that dumped a ton of snow in our mountains. We decided to drive up the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we heard another storm was coming through and we wanted to drive up before it got to us. On the drive up the weather was perfect but cold. We watched as our in car thermometer dropped as we went up the mountain; 50…45…38 degrees! That’s cold for us here in SoCal. The scenery was beautiful; snowy hilltops with snow flocked trees.
The already narrow mountain roads were made even narrower by the berms of snow created by the snow plows. When we got up to the house we were lucky to find the very steep driveway already dug out. It was a shock getting out of the car, I had three layers on and I was still freezing.
We were greeted by his mom’s dog Mimi upon our arrival, she didn’t seem to mind the cold. His mom was at work but all his siblings including his sisters, brother and his step dad were home keeping warm. While we waited for his mom to come home, Bryan decided to help by shoveling the snow off the driveway and deck. There was so much snow on the deck that Bryan made a little snowman. While Bryan was shoveling, his siblings and I sat by the fire and watched various Christmas movies. I also baked a red velvet cake for dessert. When Bryan’s mom came home from work we all ate a lovely dinner of spaghetti and let everybody open the presents that we brought up.
Mimi
In the morning the kids opened all their presents and the living room was filled with wrapping paper and boxes. We sat around in our pajamas for a while partly because when we looked out the window it was raining pretty heavy and the wind was blowing fiercely. It was nice being inside next to a roaring fire, it was just like the song… “Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful, but since we’ve no place to go…let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!” But it wasn’t snowing, it was raining…hard. 
The trees looked like they would be blown over. We decided to leave before the weather got more frightful. The rain made the snow slushy and the roads into rivers. Once we got on the main highway to go down the mountain the fog was so dense we could hardly see a car length in front of us. We made it home safe though and will always have fond memories of our very own white Christmas.
Hastings Ranch
December 23, 2008
Five years ago Bryan and I went to see the Christmas lights at Hastings Ranch. I remember vaguely driving around this suburban neighborhood. What I do remember was Bryan telling me that we were close to the Arcadia Arboretum and that was where he wanted to propose to me. He didn’t, but I guess he couldn’t after telling me his plans, but more important to me was that he told me on that night that he wanted to marry me. At that point we had probably on
ly been together for a couple of weeks. Later on that night we went to a small coffee shop called Bean Town and ordered white hot chocolates. It’s funny how the mind remembers those little details but that was a night I will never forget. Although I don’t remember the beauty of the Christmas lights, I do remember driving in the car with Bryan, listening to Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas album. Now every time I see a Charlie Brown Christmas I remember that night when my future husband told me we would be together forever. Oh what a night…okay I’m done reminiscing now.
Claudia & Jimmy
I wanted to go back to that place again, partly because I didn’t remember the lights and partly because it had a special place in my heart. Hastings Ranch is a neighborhood in Sierra Madre, a city just next door to Pasadena. This time around I invited our friends Claudia and Jimmy. They were a little confused about why I wanted to drive so far to see Christmas lights, I knew they would never really understand. The community of 
Hastings Ranch gets together every year and decorates each street based on themes. There are many different themes, from snowmen to Santa, stars to snowflakes. While there are many houses that decorate elaborately, the majority have very few decorations and some none at all. This is probably why I didn’t remember the lights. Also unlike other “Christmas light” neighborhoods I’ve been to, Hastings Ranch is meant to be driven. The other places we’ve been to are areas that you walk around, but this time we got to enjoy the Christmas lights by car. It was much warmer that way.
Jack and my BFF
November 28, 2008
Kricket
Today I got to visit my best friend Tara and her new horse Jack. I should probably tell you the back story to Tara and my friendship. We met in a combination class in elementary school. I believe I was in 3rd grade and her in 4th grade, but I can’t be sure, it was so long ago. I apparently approached her and struck up a conversation, this is extremely rare for me but luckily I did because we have been friends ever since. It’s been 15 years! So anyway we bonded over our mutual love of horses. Okay to be fair all little girls love horses when they are that age, however, we never seemed to grow out of it. Eventually Tara bought a horse of her own, Kricket, a beautiful dark bay Arabian mare who we adored. We visited her all the time and spent hours down at the ranch riding and caring for her. Eventually Kricket was sold but the bond that she created between Tara and I has remained constant.
Jack
It’s been years since Tara had a horse but luckily for her she found a really great NSH gelding that she purchased about a month ago. I had been trying to see Jack since she bought him but every time I tried to visit him something would come up; high winds, fire, scheduling conflicts, etc. Finally today I got to see him in person. He is a gorgeous boy; standing about 16 hands tall and full of personality. Tara let him out in the arena so he could show off for me. He worked himself up into quite a sweat with all the running around he did. He somehow managed to even pull off one of his shoes! After his workout he got in a few minutes on the hotwalker to cool down then we proceeded to groom him. As Tara and I brushed out his fur it felt like old times again. It’s nice to know that after all these years we are still bonded by our love of horses. Before Bryan and I left we posed for some pictures with Jack, we hope to see him and Tara again real soon.
Bryan, Jamie and Jack
Red Rock Canyon
November 26, 2008
Jamie and I are back from vacation at Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our vacation started on Sunday November 23 and we have done and seen a lot. We chose Red Rock as our destination based on an LA Times article about the new resort and the nearby Red Rock Canyon from where the resort gets its name. The resort is about 10 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. The draw of the resort for us was to go to Vegas but have a completely different experience then we normally do. I think we did. We of course played on the casino floor and enjoyed the jacuzzi of the resort but we also spent two days exploring the Red Rock Canyon and the various hiking trails within the canyon. We have taken hundreds of photos of the amazing geological features of the canyon as well as the plant and animal life. 
See more pictures from our trip to Red Rock in our GALLERY.
Living Desert
November 16, 2008
advance, we figured that mid-November would be the perfect time to visit the Living Desert because the weather would be cool. Well despite the fact that we had many cooler days last week, Saturday was freakin hot. Did I mention this place is out in Palm Desert? Bryan actually brought a Camel Back filled with ice water along with our cameras. The Living Desert is out in the middle of nowhere; you could easily pass it on the road. When we arrived we immediately lathered on sunscreen; this is the desert after all. We walked in and the first exhibit we visited was the giraffe and ostrich exhibit. I love these animals. Giraffes are so impressive to look at and they are amazingly beautiful. There are four giraffes and one ostrich in the exhibit. It took us about half an hour to move on from that exhibit because we all couldn’t stop photographing.
We ate soon after entering the park. I have to say, even though the Living Desert is considered a “theme” park you definitely don’t pay theme park prices for food, which is always good. After our meal we moved on to zebra exhibit. Zebra’s have always been one of my favorite wild animals, probably because they resemble horses so much, and because they have really cute floppy ears. Next to the zebra exhibit is the cheetah exhibit. We spent a lot of time photographing the one cheetah we saw. It kind of just laid there lazily as we took it’s picture, we actually called out to it to do something but all it did was get up and walk to some tall grass and laid down so we couldn’t see it. Cheetah’s don’t seem to take direction very well. After giving up on the cheetah we moved to the gazelle and oryx exhibits. Next to them was a large rocky mountain where the bighorn sheep were. Standing out there for that short time to photograph the bighorn sheep really reminded me that I was out in the desert, the heat was unbearable.
We then made our way over to where the mountain lion exhibit was. We didn’t actually see any mountain lions but we saw a lot of other animals including meerkats, some animals that looked like domestic house cats and a really cool bobcat. The bobcat had the biggest feet I’ve ever seen. I was amazed how big the cat actually was. The last thing we got to see while we were there was the Mexican wolf. Even though they were sleeping when we saw them we still got some pretty great photos. We left around 2pm, we didn’t want to be there when it got really hot. Even though the trip was short it was a lot of fun and I would definitely want to go again. Hopefully when it’s actually cooler.