More About California.

I told my father about my husband and my attempts to have day vacations. Local things where I could get us back in time to have dinner at home.

So, my Dad said, "How about San Francisquito Canyon?" (Think: San Francis Quito. Then you can pronounce it.) My dear husband and I traveled the complicated route off the Golden State Freeway into Saugus, some strange directions through very populated areas and made a left. My goodness. Such a wilderness! Thanks Dad! We traveled up and up over a very circuitous route and then up and over the San Andreas Fault and back again.  We saw desert wildness and calmer woodlands. We found a pasture with American Buffalo! I've never seen them in California before! Llamas, yes, Ostriches, yes. But Buffalo? Too cool and new.

The adventure was completely new and took us 3 hours from home.. round trip!

It stuns me how much is right here.

My mother traveled to Italy once, and the Italians asked her, "Why would you come here when you are from California? We want to go there!"

She also told me, "There is a no more beautiful place than California." She showed me the state when I was a child. She took me to Yosemite, to the Muir Woods, to San Francisco. She showed me Tahoe and the High Desert, the Sierras, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur and San Diego. She took me to every mission in the state.  I have to agree with her. What a GREAT place to live and learn and continually discover. I am constantly discovering and re-discovering new dimensions to this wondrous place. I think California might be heaven.

Phil and I can walk out our door and within 5 blocks be in the wilderness. Within 2 miles we are in the Angeles National Forest. In the car we can be at 5000 feet in about 18 minutes. Oh! What a gift.

I miss the ocean, but he does not. I drag him to the sea every now and again. It is a little farther. But, Oh! the Ocean! And there it is, about 45 minutes away.

My home. My California. My big open spaces.