That time the car broke down and we lived like peasants for a week

We had so many plans! But we think we found a cursed hiking trail and have therefore not been able to go out and do anything this week! 

We were going to go on an early morning hike last Sunday, try out a new place for breakfast and then meet up with some of Mitchell's work friends in San Diego. 

However. 

We got up super early and were ready to go by 6:30am to hike before it got too hot and to catch the lovely morning light. We headed down to the car, got in, turned the key, and nothing happened! Well, it sputtered and all the lights flashed erratically at us, but the engine wouldn't turn on! Being 6:30am on a Sunday morning we couldn't exactly call out a mechanic (not without it costing A LOT) so we went back inside and I went back to bed for a few (four) hours. 

We called a guy, but he wasn't free until Monday so we had a chilled inside day instead. We even went out for consolatory doughnuts in the evening at a bakery close to us which had the most enormous doughnut crossed with a cinnamon swirl. 

On Monday, Mitchell walked to work and I waited for the mechanic. He pulled out the car battery and it was all corroded across the bottom, so no wonder it wasn't working. So now we are $400 poorer, but we have a nice new battery and are safe to travel up mountains again. We are so lucky that this happened at home and not when we were in various National Parks which have no phone reception!

I happily drove it to the gardens this week where I've started to make an online tour for the herb garden, which when I'm finished you'll be able to see on their website.

Now, this weekend we were due to go camping by Lake Arrowhead, but the due to hazardous trees at the campsite (whatever that means) our reservations were cancelled and due the ongoing fire risk, all National Forests in California have been closed. So we couldn't even drive up and spend a day hiking and exploring there!

So instead, this Saturday we got up early again, ready to attempt the smaller spooky hike, and our car wouldn't start again! We're beginning to think that this trail is cursed! This time I didn't go back to bed and we decided to walk to the local nature park and take in the sunrise there. We explored a lot further than we had before and even discovered a bench which gave lovely views. 


And then for breakfast

We got a jump start that evening and found a light in the back of the car which had been left on and caused all our issues. So hopefully, all is settled now (fingers crossed!).

Even though our camping trip had been cancelled, we still decided to drive up and visit Lake Arrowhead Village as it takes less than an hour to get there. We couldn't go on any hiking trails, but we could visit the village where they were hosting their annual Oktoberfest. There was a tent with live (German) music and stalls selling bratwurst, corn on the cob, beer and pretzels. We found a stand selling vegan sausages (yay!) and then went for a pretzel. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the 11 inch Munich pretzels so we had to settle for a regular sized one each (which I couldn't finish anyway). 

The face of happiness

The village is a very posh area and you can't actually get into the water unless you own property on the lake edge, but it's very pretty. It's way up in the mountains so there's trees surrounding it and the water was so blue! The village itself is built in a European style which is odd to see as it looks just like a village, but with a huge amount of cars parked in the middle of it. 

A lot of very expensive boats

There were a lot of independent shops selling antiques, clothes and local foods and we've picked out a Belgian waffle place to try next time we visit. They had a rock shop which had some great fossils inside, so I was very happy and we also went into the sweet shop and had a look at all the varieties around. They had mystery treat bags for sale so we chose one of them to open and share. 

Who moos what treats are inside

So that's all we managed this week. Hopefully next week will go better as I've planned out every weekend from now until November!

Tune in next week

Love

Emily and Mitchell

xxxxxxxxxxx

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