Southern California Tours

I think living in Memphis for four years has helped me to fall more in love with California. As someone that is very active and loves to be outside as much as possible California is the perfect place for me. Now that I am back in California I try and take advantage of all possible outdoor adventures.

This past week my friend Theresa came to visit me from Michigan (where it's cold for over half of the year) and we had a blast! We visited the beach, the mountains, we went berry picking, and of course did a little bit of shopping. It was so much fun too see her face and expression as we drove up the mountains, I think they are quite a site as well but I don't think I appreciated it as much as she did. I remember T (short for Theresa) saying to me, " If I lived here I would never sit still." She is so right! Between LA and the San Bernardino mountains there is just so many great things to do.

On Monday we decided to take full advantage of the public Tran system. With the gas prices lately I know everyone is trying to find little ways to save and I am one of those folks. So being the active person that I am, I have decided to start taking the bus to work. I was so thankful that my friend T was here to test it out with me. We first rode our bikes down to the bus stop that's only about a half a mile ride. We reached the bus stop nice and early because we did not want to risk missing it and riding down the hill 14 miles, I would have been fine with it but I think T would have killed me! lol...The bus arrived and we put our bikes up on the nice bike racks on the front of the bus. We stepped on and were welcomed by a friendly bus driver that said we looked like pros putting our bikes up. We both looked at each other and laughed, seeing that it was our first bus ride ever. Then we headed down to downtown Redlands, it was a nice ride not too long and everyone was real nice on the bus. We got off at Redlands Mall, and grabbed our bikes to ride around town. Definitely worth $1.35, I will be taking the bus to work at least three times a week for sure. I just found out that if I carpool at least 12 days out of the month my work will pay me $3o, and I will be saving so much money.

I still got up at the crack of dawn and ran this week. We did a 12 mile run on the 4th of July that I absolutely loved. We ran pretty fast and it flew by, it's nice to have people pushing you when you are ready to throw in the towel. On Wednesday we did a 6 minute track test, O my goodness I thought I was going to faint. The goal of the test is to run as hard as you can for 6 minutes. It took us all a bit to figure out our Gar men settings, which was kind of funny, and when we finally did we took off hard. The first lap I ran so fast and by the second lap I thought for sure I was going to quit but I pushed through it and ran even faster my third lap. I ended up doing about a quarter of a mile short of one mile in 6min, which is great for me! I was proud and I am glad that we only have to do the test once, not my favorite but hey it did kick my butt and it pushed me mentally and physically. This Friday we are coming up on our 14 mile run, hopefully I feel as good as I did last week, I need to buy a water bottle to run with!

Here are a few pics from the week:

Berry Picking in Oak Glen

Up in Big Bear Mountain