Beaches, bobcats and brunch

Hello everyone 😊 It's Emily, I'm here again to bombard you with pictures and stories which you or may not find interesting, but happened to us all the same.

Your favourite Emily and Mitchell

I think this week has been a pretty good one. Apart from Sunday morning. On Sunday, we woke up with the worst Covid jab hangovers. We both had headaches, neither of us had slept very well and were just achey and tired all over. We felt really bad and wanted to spend all day in bed sleeping it off, but we had arranged to meet our friends from Switzerland for brunch at 10am. Luckily, we wake up quite early so we had a few hours to drag ourselves into the shower and prepare for the day. 

By the time we arrived at the cafe we felt a bit better and once we had some food (and coffee!) in us we were good to go! We spent a few hours there talking about food in our respective countries, local places to visit and improv. Apparently on Sunday mornings there's a yoga class at the top of Mount Rubidoux, so I'll have to go and check that out one day.

After brunch, we walked back to our apartment, which is only 5-10 minutes away, but we were still pretty tired out by that so we had a lazy day of reading and video games. By Monday we were still a little tired, but basically back to normal. 

I started doing some more volunteering this week. So far I've been helping in the wild gardens, but Wednesday I went to go and see the curator and see how I could help her. She seemed very interested in my Science Communication experience and is setting up a project for me to create an online interactive map! While that gets going, I'll also be helping to identify some new ferns they have aquired and some labelling of plants in the greenhouses. 

Doing some weeding

Weeded this, but apparently the Native Americans would use this plant for their bows as it grows so long and woody.

EXCITING WILDLIFE UPDATE: While I was volunteering at the gardens, there was a call on the radio that someone had seen a bobcat in the butterfly garden! We ran around and began (carefully) searching for it. We thought it had run away when I spotted it at the edge of the garden. It was lankier than I thought it would be, like a small cheetah and about the size of a medium dog. I only saw it for a second before it jumped through the fence and away along the trail. 

In less exciting wildlife news, we were just finishing dinner one evening with the balcony window open, when a bird flew in! It was blackbird size, brown with a red fluffy head and sat on the curtain rail for a couple of seconds before flying out again. We immedietly shut the bug door and have renamed it the bird door! (Our patio door and windows have a regular glass door and a netted screen door behind that so we can enjoy open windows without letting the bugs in at night). 

Some other things that have happened this week:

We bought dinosaur sheets for our bed (we're adults)

Our air conditioning got fixed

We bought a bag of cherries which was far too big and have been eating so many cherries this week

It rained. VERY heavily. With thunder and everything. For almost 20 minutes.

I've been learning Spanish online. It's been going well. It's similar enough to French to make it easy to pick up on and learn from similarities while also being an easier language (in my opinion). 

I made the best pancakes I've ever made

So smooth!

On Saturday we went on an adventure! We drove to Laguna Beach to spend the day by the sea. I decided to take the longer route 74 over the mountains to get there, mainly to avoid the freeway, but also because I thought there might be some nice scenery to look at as we went and we were not disappointed. The road itself was isolated and curly which was fun to drive and looked over Lake Estelle. Mitchell was on picture duty while I drove so we have some great shots from up high. 

The view from the road

Once we got there, the town seemed very busy with people parked all along the road and pedestrians walking towards the beach, but I'd seen seen online that the hospital had free parking all day on the weekends so we pulled in there, even though it was empty and made me worry just a little bit considering how busy it was outside. But, we parked up and gathered our picnic and towels and went to the beach! We'd been recommended 1000 steps beach by one of Mitchell's co-workers and it was lovely. It wasn't too busy and was away from the tourist area, but the only way to get there was down 1000 steps (well, maybe not actually 1000, but certainly a lot). And the only way to get back up was to go up all these steps!

Worth all 1000 steps

ANOTHER EXCITING WILDLIFE UPDATE: We saw dolphins while we were at the beach! We think there were three of them and we saw them pop up a few times before they got too far away. 

We ate our picnic, paddled and read on the sand for a bit and then tried out the free trolley service the city puts on in the summer. This took us from 1000 steps beach, along the not very pedestrian friendly road towards the main part of town and main beach. 

I really mean trolley

We got off early, trying to find a landmark called Pirate's Tower, but couldn't find a way down to the beach. We wandered around for a bit and eventually found some steps to Moss Cove which was very small and very pretty, but no tower. Giving up on the tower, we got back on the trolley and went straight to Main Beach.

Moss Cove

Main Beach was very busy and full of tourists and people playing volleyball on the beach. We got some ice creams and walked along the boadwalk with them. We then bought some tacos and took them back to 1000 Steps Beach for our dinner which were very tasty. 

Mint choc chip and butter pecan

We watched the sunset before heading back up all those steps to the car to take the freeway home. Luckily it wasn't too busy and it took us just over an hour to get home. All in all, a delightful day by the beach (other than the sunburn).

Sunset over the ocean

Love to you all

Emily and Mitchell

xxxxx