Hello! Good news, bad news... Good news is I've been having a wonderful time running and hiking around LA! Super hilly and quite often gorgeous weather and scenery and goodness gracious the smells! It's like running through the conservatory, being intoxicated by the florals. Ooof! I took an adventure to Temescal State Park, which is tucked away off of Sunset Blvd. Absolutely beautiful. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, just that there was hiking. I started down this windy dirt path until I came across a wooden sign pointing toward a waterfall. So of course I was obliged to follow it, and a good sweaty climb later, I did come across a darling little waterfall. But more importantly, there were all sorts of hardcore people running by, more like zipping by, which made me feel a little bit like a pansy but also resolved to come back another day to run. Anyway even more importantly, I saw FIVE lizards!! The honorary "Reptiles Rule" club I started in 2nd grade with my dad would have been proud. As I continued up the ascent, my entire family call me on separate occasions, coincidently enough. Not important, but I was entertained. The view got better, the flowers slowly took over the bushes and trees, and the panorama at the top was well worth the climb! Behind me were more ridges, to the left and front was the city below (you know how there's dtwn Mpls and St. Paul with a whole bundle of skyscrapers? Well LA has like 6 bundles from what I could tell), ocean straight out, some incredibly large mansions that I had to take pictures of, just in case. Vineyards to the right. Well done, California. Add some snow and a girl could get used to this place.
Okay, I suppose you don't really want to hear the bad news. No one ever does, but I might not have a whole lot to say for another week or so. There's a whole lot of soreness that happens when you when beginning the transformation to barefoot-hood, but I was having such a fun time with it, I didn't really give much recovery time or switching between normal shoes and the 5 fingers. Bad plan. I am not an exception. I forgot. I often forget this. I could keep on about this, but basically my right ankle needs some time on the bench. This actually works out nicely, because I'll have plenty of time to sit around on the plane this Tuesday. Maybe less pavement running there too- I think that was the problem.
