Serene Week

Brandon, Ben and Sharley flew home the Monday after the wedding. Once again, I was up at 4:30 and my poor sleep deprived body was crying to go back to bed but I wasn't going to miss a minute with my kids.

Serene and the girls however stayed until the end of the week. It was wonderful to have them for an entire week with no distractions. Lisa played a lot with them daily going to museums at Balboa park and other stuff but unfortunately I had to work. Sydney kept telling me that she wanted to climb up Black Mountain so Friday morning I went into work late and Lisa and I hiked up Black Mountain with Sydney and Haley. They were so excited.

As we were driving to the tail head I was rather confused when Sydney kept talking about how we would have to go on our hands and knees. I finally realized that she thought we would be scaling some cliffs. I hope she wasn't disappointed to learn that we would be able to walk on a trail all the way to the top. 

So we reached the trail and started walking and immediately Haley was complaining because she was too tired to walk. She then decided that rather than walk to the top she would be an Eagle and she would fly to the top. Of course Sydney couldn't be out done so she started to fly as well. I was surprised by how long that lasted. It is a two mile hike up Black Mountain and I think they flew for the first half mile. They eventually had to come down and get a drink of water but then they were off again. I'm not sure where the Vulture came from but they would switch back and forth between being an Eagle and being a Vulture. 

The inevitable finally happened though and before long the little eagle (Hayley) made a crash landing and skinned her knee. After that I had to carry her on my shoulders. So much for flying. They did make it a full mile though before I had to carry anyone and Sydney hiked the whole way. The last mile can get fairly steep in places too. 

Even though Black Mountain is scarcely more than a big hill, the view from the top is rather nice. If you look closely in the picture you can actually see the ocean from the top. The hike down was a whole lot faster than the hike up and then it was time to say goodbye to my darling little granddaughters. Serene and her girls flew out on Friday. It really stinks that my grand-kids all live so far away from me. I don't think I get to see them again for at least another six months. 

----------trivia----------

Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

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