Willa’s Wonderings

I spent a wonderful, relaxing weekend with my good friends Pat, Jenn and Leigh at a house in the Shenandoah. This is a trip I’ve been taking every year for 12 years.

When we first started, we had little kids and little money. We stayed in a condo in Ocean City owned by a friend of a friend who rented it to us for $5o for the entire weekend. We had SO much fun and often, this trip ended up costing less than spending the weekend at home.. Back then, we were all runners and a large part of the trip was focused on getting runs in with eating good food coming second.. Over the years, our focus has… shifted. We are still active, a little older and MUCH more spoiled. We’ve been renting houses with hot tubs, gourmet kitchens and enough room for each of us to have their own comfy bed.

This years trip, our house looked like this: http://http://www.allstarlodging.com/home/property/129 very nice! We hiked Old Rag, which was probably the hardest hike I’ve done in many, many years… but boy, was it fun! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Rag_Mountain As is customary, we ate some fantastic home cooked meals, got lots of rest and spent plenty of time outside, enjoying the porch and the hot tub. I’ll add some photos later:)

Notes from a recent trip to Southern California.. I was at a Dirt Biking Convention for 3 days, in Anaheim. Our hotel and the convention center happened to be hosting the World Championship of Cheer leading during the time I was there– let’s say I’ve seen enough pom-poms to last me a lifetime.. After my work engagement was finished, I was able to tack on an extra day to explore and have fun.

I started at this well known whale watching spot, Crystal Cove State Park

I got there at 6am and saw a whale and about 10 dolphins.. it was amazing and I struck up a conversation with Kelly, a “professional surfer” aka, a guy who spent the last 49 years traveling the world and surfing. He had some great stories!

Then I went to: http://www.danapoint.org/ exploring the harbor and watching a kayak race that happened to be going on.. got back in my car, looking for breakfast and found this: www.bonjourcafe.com/

Next, I drove to San Juan Capistrano and toured an amazingly beautiful historic Mission: http://www.missionsjc.com It reminded me of being in a castle in Europe, surrounded by Flowers and lemon trees heavy with fruit.

After that, I got back in my car and drove to Laguna Beach- spent time lounging on the beach (with sunscreen) playing in the tide pools and then climbing up to this place: www.innatlagunabeach.com/laguna_photographs8.html

I also managed to have Gelato 3 times while in California—the best one was here: http://www.tuttoamoregelato.com/

Finally, I returned my car to Long Beach, changed into some semi-clean non-sandy clothes and took a short flight to Oakland. Carrie, Lynn and Lily picked me up and took me to dinner—a 4 hour layover well spent.

I took the redeye home and got to MD in time for Breakfast (admittedly, somewhat exhausted).