Happy New Year!
Before we get into into my festive reportage, here's a picture of Pippa and I going mountain biking in Squamish. I forget what we were discussing. That happened last year, but not so long ago.
Now, let the holiday rehash begin. To make this an authentic hash, I have uploaded the pictures in a random order. Ok, that was not really on purpose. To kick things off for this trip, we drove pretty much the entire length of the United States down to southern California. We spent Christmas Eve in a rest Area outside of Los Angeles, sleeping the the back of the Elephant. How's that for Scrooge?
Once we were there, an assortment of sunshine-fueled activities too place. Here's a Christmas-stocking full of such things:
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| In this carefully posed diorama, we see Lina expressing wonder at a majestic palm tree, whilst clinging to one of the pillars of the casino on Catalina Island. |
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| Now we are transported by the Ghost of Christmas Past to San Onofre beach, where SUP surfers are allowed to huddle together next to the nuclear power station so they won't bother all the real surfers too much. Except when one of the real surfers comes over to the SUP ghetto to be weird. I don't know why they do that. |
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| No, no, no. |
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| Collective noun for young SUP paddlers? |
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| When you have a paddle, you can surf a ripple. |
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| Apparently we rode bikes at some point. This was probably Wood Canyon, behind the Howsen's house, where we stayed. Most excellent people in a most excellent place. |
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| The Elephant, holding steady in a foreign land. |
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| Some kind of fool enjoying Wood Canyon. |
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| Apparently this was cold weather for Laguna Beach. I think I might need to become a snowbird. |
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| Visiting Crystal Cove on one of Robert's scenic mountain bike tour of the Laguna environs. I need to do more of those some day... |
Even more photos, as if that was even necessary,
can be found here. After some truly A++ times with the Howsens in Laguna, we headed east for Arizona, where it failed to be arid at all. You're going to need to stay fascinated for that part of this thrilling saga. And also part three! Now I've promised it, I will have to deliver.
