So, since I was in Chamonix away from Deanne on my birthday she decided that we would have a second birthday when I got home. That birthday was today.
Here is my day from start to finish. Woke up early, or so I thought. After about half an hour of total confusion we decided that last night was the night when the daylight savings adjustment happened. That meant, we just lost an hour and didn't wake up as early as we thought. Oh well, not much we could do about that. We packed the car with Deanne's bike and the awesome bike she had rented for me, made sure we had all our stuff and headed to the Rose Cafe for some breakfast. After breakfast we took a quick trip to the Patagonia store next door where I bought myself a really nice soft shell. After all, it was my birthday. Again.
When we were done with the short shopping streak we headed out on the roads. We went on the 10 east heading for Perris Valley. Highlights along the way: a shell station where the bathroom and 3 of the pumps were broken where we lost precious time getting to our first destination.
At 1.07 pm we rolled in to the Perris Valley indoor skydiving place's parking lot. I was so excited at this point. We went inside to register, get our ugly t-shirts and pay. After that we walked in to the indoor skydiving thingy and met our instructor. They started with a lame instructional video followed by handing out the gear we would be wearing in the wind tunnel. I got the purple suit (oh, great, thanks) and, after Deanne had pointed out that it was my birthday, I also got the neon green birthday helmet. Thanks Deanne.
We had paid for four minutes. They said it felt like way more (they were totally wrong). First thing we got to do was to just lie down on the bottom of the wind tunnel, assume the skydiving position and then they turned the fans on while the instructor was adjusting your body position and stabilizing you. Second time he let me fly a bit more on my own. Third time he just walked out of the airflow letting me float on my own! It was so much fun!!! A bit of a balancing act. He then showed me how to go higher and lower. I did, a few times. It was such a blast!! I could turn, rotate, go forward and backwards and up and down. My time in the tunnel felt like seconds!! I didn't want to get out! But, I had to. I came out with the biggest smile. Deanne had gone before me and the instructor had flown with her high up in the tunnel. When she came down she just smiled so big at me through the glass walls separating us. It was such a great place. I had a blast and didn't want to leave. But we had to. We had more stuff to do this day.
After a quick food stop at Wendy's we headed west over the mountains. This part of LA is so beautiful with green hills and nice lakes. This is a big wine producing part of California. We even got to see all of Lake Depressu. Nice place.
At about five we arrived at Aliso Woods Canyon State Park. We unloaded the mountain bikes from the trunk of my car and got the gear on. After asking for some tips from some dude that looked like he had gone there a lot we decided to do the Mathis Canyon trail up and then the Rock-It trail down.
Mathis was a hard trail! It was such a steep and rocky uphill climb for over 30 minutes. We had to stop so many times along the way since our thighs were shaking. Even after my week of skiing in Chamonix! Once we made it up the view was really great. You could see the ocean from there.
The way down Rock-It was a blast! Single track at first with high bushes and grass next to it made it feel even more narrow. Really curvy and fun. After that we hit a really technical section with a LOT of really bumpy rock. Once we got over that section it was more curvy dirt road all the way to the bottom. At the bottom the trail turned into a really nice curvy forrest trail. We got back to the car at seven exhausted and smiling so big. We started heading home after loading the bikes in the car.
Once we got home we headed over to canal club (after a much needed shower). We ended the day with my favorite Escolar Sushi and a Corona.
Such a good day.
More of these please.