Before the holidays

I am trying to update my blog but its cold so my fingers aren't working very well. I am going to do a quick post about our last weekend before I flew home to New England.

First, on Friday I got in first socal bodyboard session for over two months. Its just not worth the traffic, the blown out waves, small surf, and polluted water. Sorry if that is kind of negative but believe me I grew up, and later traveled to, all kinds of places that have much much cleaner water. Fortunately, this time there were actual barrels. It was great to be able to just drop in and watch the lip pitch. I had a great time taking tons of waves since it was extremely uncrowded for once. It was one of those days where nobody talked about the swell and it kind of happened under the radar of the internet surfing scene. The downside was the next day unhappy staph infection showed up. I am still trying to deal with it and make it go away without taking antibiotics. Which in some ways are evil. If I had known all of this I wouldn't have moved here, but life takes its own path sometimes.

Saturday was a climbing day. Josh and I headed out to saddle peak. Since I got enough sleep and enough food, it was actually a good climbing day. Josh lead a couple of climbs, one which was brand new, and top roped a few others. Josh on the last climb of the day:

I somehow pretty easily flew up a climb I couldn't even do before and felt great climbing it. Too bad I can't do that more often. It felt good to actually use technique. Me starting a new climb we hadn't done before:

Belaying was cold even though hiking out was hot. By the end of the day, Josh decided to do a quick run of a fun 5.10. The only issue was it was getting dark and we had brilliantly agreed we wouldn't need headlamps when we started out in the morning. Josh lead and finished the climb but forgot his belay device so he couldn't clean it. Which mean I had to run to the top, rappel down, and get all the gear as the twilight was fading. After some unwelcome issues with getting the rope stuck, the gear and I made it back down to the ground. We packed as fast as we could and set off on the hike back to the car. As it turned out, we didn't need to rush. We have done so much night trail running that Josh and I were perfectly comfortable enjoying the hike back in the dark. There was enough moon/star/city light that we could make out the trail without getting lost, so we took our time on the return. The view was amazing...we could see the moon reflecting on the ocean west of Malibu. Sometimes, for certain things, headlamps are overrated.

Sunday, the LCPC orchestra performed at church so I was up at 6:15. A helicopter was flying overhead and police were blocking our street as I was leaving for rehearsal. Later I found out and escaped felon was somewhere in our neighborhood. Anyway, I am lucky to play in an orchestra and perform lots of Christmas songs! After church, I went over to Josh's house to celebrate and early Christmas with him and his mom. Yay for good food and gifts! It was a really nice way to spend my last day in Los Angeles before the holiday vacation. My last night in warm weather (for now) ended with Josh's mom driving us to the airport so I could fly home! :)