daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
Tonight we flew home. While leaving LAX, the plane made its U-turn around Palos Verdes and we got to see all the cargo ships hanging out off the coast. I guess this is part of the supply-chain issue. At any rate, the ships added to the dazzling lights that I always enjoy. 😀
I hope you had a nice day!
We can’t get enough of Mexican food and while we’re visiting Southern California, a visit to La Capilla or Alfredo’s is usually on the agenda. This time we opted for the latter, which serves huge burritos. I had the Burrito Boxito which was excellent. Koa had the Burrito Trio (pictured) which was also fantastic. I really like Alfredo’s because of the delicious food, no wait time, generous portions, and proximity to my parents’ house. So good!
Today my marathon training schedule recommended a 10-mile run so I asked my brother and sister-in-law, who I am staying with for the weekend, to recommended a nice route. They told me I should run the “Mountains to Sea Trail”, which starts at a park near their house. As the name suggests, it goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean, but my plan was to turn around at 5 miles which would make the round-trip a nice 10 miles.
At the start of the run (going North to South), there’s a couple of trails to choose from in Peters Canyon Regional Park. The trail that goes up the ridgeline is more difficult, and the first hill is named “Big Red”. At first I was going to go for it, but then decided I should just take the easy trail since I was just starting a long run. But at the last second I thought that I should just go for the hill and see how it was. And it was tough! I ran up the first part of Big Red, but at the first viewpoint, I started walking and continued up to the first summit.
The view was awesome! Well worth the effort. The ridge trail goes back down before gaining elevation again, however, I decided to take the shortcut back down to the lower, easier trail, then continued my run.
The trail left the park boundaries and continued down Jamboree Boulevard, with a bike path and gravel path. It was really nice! At the 5.5 mile mark, I turned around and headed back, which pretty much all uphill. But the incline was very gentle and with only a couple nice hills, which I am enjoying more and more.
I had fun running the north section of the Mountains to Sea Trail and would definitely like to run or bicycle farther on it someday.
I spent the day working from my parents’ house in Torrance. It was fun to hang out in the kitchen of the old house and watch my mom make one of my favorite comfort foods: submarine sandwiches. I make them at home, but of course they don’t taste as good as when my mom makes them. It’s kind of a tradition that every time I visit their house, she makes subs for me. 😀
I also visited the nearby CVS to get my Moderna booster shot. I didn’t feel the needle at all, and my arm is just a little bit sore. The person administering the shot recommended some exercise to help with the soreness, which was surprising. I thought she would tell me to just rest and take it easy.
With that in mind, I went for a 3 mile run around the neighborhood after work. It was chilly but I really enjoyed looking at the old houses and even ran down some streets where old friends used to live. I suppose most of the houses have different families living there now, but it was still interesting to see how many memories it brought back.
Later that evening, we went out to eat at Ladybug Cafe, which is a Hawaiian restaurant formerly known as Bob’s Hawaiian Style Restaurant. The food was delicious! I had the grilled hamachi plate, and Koa had the Poké Bowl (with ogo in it!) and spam fried rice. Yum! The rest of the family had classics like kalbi, teriyaki chicken, teri salmon, etc. Good stuff!
It was a great day in my old hometown. Here’s one last photo from the kitchen which is pretty much unchanged since the 70s. 😄
Koa and I are masked up and traveling to California for the weekend. I’m taking him to a front ensemble (band) camp, and then visiting my family. Looking forward to some good food and mahjong! 😀🀄
