Colorado Bound

Greetings all from downtown Los Angeles, CA! We're wrapping up our time in California this week staying at a friend's amazing loft in the Art's District near downtown LA. It’s been great being in California for the past month and a half but it’s time for us to move on to our next adventure. We do love it here but it's gotten so expensive so it's not really the best place for early retirees like us living on a fixed income. At the very least, we're hoping to find gas prices below $6 when we leave California (see photo below of gas prices in LA).

In my last post, I mentioned that I was struggling with some injuries leading up to the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon. In fact, I couldn't even get out the door for training runs up until two days before the marathon due to nagging groin and rib injuries. I was pretty close to throwing the towel in but then miraculously my body started feeling better on the Friday before the race. So I felt really fortunate to make it to the start line and was less concerned than normal with how the race would go. As I often do, I started off running faster than I should have as I was just happy to be running pain free and it's always exhilarating to be up front running with the race leaders (even if it only lasts for the first 400m!). In the end, I finished the race in 2:48 which was good for 20th place overall and was one minute faster than the last time I ran this race in 2010. Ginny and I enjoyed the weekend visiting with old friends from San Diego which was the real weekend highlight!   

After the marathon, we went to Anaheim to see the Red Sox take on the Angels and the Sox won a pitching duel 1-0. It was pretty boring but at least it was over in less than three hours! Then we spent the rest of the week visiting my aunt in Santa Monica which was great fun! We've also really enjoyed our extended visit to Lake Arrowhead where we were staying with another aunt and uncle. Last weekend we spent a few finals days there and got out for a hot but beautiful hike to the Pinnacles (see photos below).   




On Friday, we go back to life in the van! It's been great to have a break from the van and we're feeling recharged and ready for some more van adventures! We've added bug screens, sun shades and bought an outdoor rug which should entice us to hang outside the van more. We're heading out to Colorado and will do a brief stop at the Grand Canyon on our way there. Stay tuned for more regular updates now that we're back to life on the open road. Thanks and happy trails! 




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