The Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails preserve is a bit run down but it remains one of our favorites---for no identifiable reason. We weren't able to park in our usual area because part of the road to it was washed out by the recent (and ongoing) California rainstorms. A frequent visitor told me that the road to that section gets washed out every time there is a substsntial storm here. One might think they should design a solution to avoid a recurrence. But there are very few people here now, so it's not a problem.
Soledad Canyon is in Acton, an hour away from Pasadena, but we made the trip a total of four times, including one to shop for, among other things, two new sport coats for me. We combined the clothes-buying trip with lunch with Honoria Vivell, her son, Stephen, and her new friend, Richard. They seem to be quite an item. Our lunch was at Taylor's Steak house in La Canada, a favorite restaurant of ours.
We spent Christmas at Becky's sister Wendy's home in Pasadena. The usual Shelton gang was there, and we had a great time. It was the first time since 2002 that we had spent Christmas with the family. The next day we returned to Wendy's for a visit with their cousins Bill and Steve Boggs and Steve's wife, Kathy, and their son, Jason. We hadn't seen them in quite a while. It was great catching up, and we even talked about having a reunion of the entire family next August.
We had only a little of the rain that pummeled southern California, but the drizzle was pretty constant. Tuesday, the 28th, was a clear day, however, and we actually played pickle ball that morning for an hour with one of the guests, Paul Earle, a very nice gentleman Becky had first met at the Palm Springs preserve. I hadn't played in several months, and was understandably clumsy, while Becky was her usual superb jock self. Later that day, we returned to Taylor's to have lunch with my brother, Bob. It was good to see him.
The last night, Wednesday, we ventured into downtown Los Angeles to have our free wedding anniversary dinner at the Jonathan Club. It is one of the perks of membership. We both had bone-in filets mignon, a treat we'd never had previously at the Jonathan Club. They were delicious.
It was altogether a nice stay.
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