A spooky mine and a party (not in the spooky mine)

We've been busy this week!

On Monday we went to go and see Thor with some friends. This time I got to pick where we went for dinner, so I chose IHOP, the International House Of Pancakes. I got hashbrowns and eggs with chocolate pancakes, because I am an adult. 

The movie was good, and I even had a chance to get popcorn this time, which I haven't the last two visits which made me sad. 

Mitchell went to improv on Wednesday which he hasn't done since his season of shows ended a few weeks ago, and on Thursday I went to my Yoga class.

The international scholars department at UCR is finally having in person events again, so on Friday, Mitchell went to a coffee meet up and met some other international post-docs. They invited us to a party for Bastille Day on Sunday, so we had to go and look up what Bastille Day was. 

In the evening, we had dinner out at a different plaza where we got some chipotle and then a smoothie from Jamba Juice. We'd driven a little way down the freeway, but then turned off and driven through empty mountains for several miles. I'd set the map up right, but I was still concerned that we were heading further and further into the middle of nowhere. We did eventually arrive back to civilization, and picked up the new TV we had bought. Our old one cuts out on the audio sometimes and we'd been waiting to get a new one. We got a pretty good deal on Amazon Prime Day. 

Saturday morning we called Mitchell's family, and then in the afternoon I picked up Laura and we went to the mall. It was one I hadn't been to before, it was all outside and felt more like a town. There was still a huge car park all around the outside, and miles from anywhere else, but while you were walking around on the little streets, it could have been any high street (if you also ignored the 38c heat that day). We had fun, both of us needed to buy some shorts and like little dresses. We also got some ice-cream to help us get through the day.   

On Sunday we were up pretty early and immediately set out for the Los Angeles National Forest. We had a hike planned for the morning and wanted to get going before it got too hot. We arrived at the trailhead at about 8:30 and set off along the path. It wasn't too steep and it was fairly easy to follow. We crossed a couple of small streams and had stretches in both forest areas and exposed, rocky areas. The view the whole way up was great, you could see right across the valley to the mountains on the other side. 

We reached the end of the trail in just over an hour, and here we found the old abandoned Big Horn mine. It has open beams right next to the edge of the mountain, which look over the view. There was also a very friendly dog up there called Benji. In a little hole under the mine, I found two notebooks which people had filled up with notes and drawings from their hikes. We left a little message ourselves too.

Books in a hole

Explorin'

The view from the mine

The mine from the trail

We saw some people go out behind the mine, so we followed them up and reached a mine shaft which had been cut open. We squeezed in and followed the mining cart tracks along until it got too dark to see. We had torches on our phones, so we turned them on and went a bit further in. We came to a junction where we could go left or right, and there was water running through. It was so much colder in there and kind of spooky being all alone in a mine shaft with no safety features, so we headed back out. 

Had to climb over some fallen beams to get in

Into the dark spooky tunnel

Completely dark inside!

Once out, we took another path to see if there was anything else to explore, but other than a small metal shack, there wasn't anything else to see, so we started back toward the car park. On the drive home, we had to suddenly brake very hard because a whole family of quails crossed the road right in front of us! There were two adults and about five or six tiny baby quails. Our tyres made some squeaks, but we didn't hit them and they ran back to the side of the road. I hope they made it ok for the rest of the day! 

Later that evening, we headed out to the party put on by the international scholar department at UCR to celebrate Bastille Day. It was held at one of the staff's house in their garden, which was very nice of her. 

Because it was Bastille Day, a French holiday, they had made crepes and a fondue, so we had a lot cheese to eat. We met a lot of new people which was nice, and we hope to go to more events as they happen. 

Lots of Love,

Emily and Mitchell

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