The Grotto

This afternoon Doug and I googled hikes in Ventura County. We found one that sounded interesting in between Pt. Mugu and Malibu, up in the Santa Monica Mountains (miles and miles away from Santa Monica, go figure). We drove out there for the afternoon after packing some pineapple, peanut butter and crackers, and a camelback full of water. It took us a bit to find the turn off from the PCH, which we laughed at, and finally found the long and winding road that went to the trailhead. There were a lot of nice houses up there, but we decided we wouldn't want to live half an hour from civilization. It'd be annoying to drive that small winding road every day. It'd only make sense to live there if you were a hermit or a writer.

I wore my new shoes today too to help break them in. Although I wore them on a short run yesterday so they weren't completely new. But I did wear preemptive bandages just in case blisters tried to form. But they didn't (probably because of the bandages). But I decided I really like my shoes!

The trail was about 1.7 miles to a grotto cave (redundant, I know). The trail wasn't too hard either. I think there was more uphill coming back, but that was ok. It was a pretty trail too. Surrounded by mountains and some flowers. And then when we got down to the creek it was really pretty too. We only saw two other men on the trail the whole time we were out there, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We reached the grotto and waterfall and it was pretty. If it had been super hot out we could have dipped in the pool below the waterfall, but it wasn't that hot and the water was chilly. We sat and ate our pineapple and crackers though and talked. I think what I like best about hiking is our conversations. We talk about anything that comes up. Today we talked about our Joshua years and different events that happened that year. We also talked about our future and our Europe trip (I kept peppering Doug with all of the information that I read online that kept popping in my head). We talked about how even though we want to have kids, and sometimes it's hard when people who have been married longer are already having kids, we really do like our life because we're able to play. We're able to spontaneously go for hikes and go to Europe for a month. We know we'll have kids someday, and we both want them. But we're really enjoying the time with each other that many couples don't get to spend together while they're young.

Starting out


On our hike last week, Doug was telling me how you can make a leash for a lizard out of a long piece of grass and tie a knot in it so that when you loop it over the lizard's head, it doesn't move (cause it's used to being touched by plants), and then you can pull it so that it's tight. We didn't find a lizard last week but did this week. And it works! We caught him, then looked at him (he was a blue belly), and then let him go. He was mad and scurried off like crazy.


Some of the views around us




Some of the flowers and such




Hiking






The Grotto!


Some perspective


The Waterfall




We hiked back and drove home, enjoying the beautiful afternoon sun on the ocean. We got home and made steak, corn on the cob yams (for me) and rice (for Doug). It was delicious. We cleaned the apartment and ourselves and then had our friends over to hang out. We watched Bolt which was fun, and then played bananagrams, Old Maid, and Battle of the Sexes. All while feasting on watermelon, pretzel M&Ms, Reese's, banana bread, and kettle corn. It was so much fun with laughing till our sides hurt.

The amazing banana bread that was finished tonight and that I need to make more of. Sooo good. Oh, and my banana breads always have chocolate chips in them :)