Happy trails

August 25, 2020

Happy trails

I have been wondering about what to write about for my first post after our arrival in Los Angeles. There is a lot of newness, so where to start?

We have been going to every grocery store we come across, in an effort find our new food items. As you probably know, we love our food. I think we are starting to get the lay of Grocery Land now -- a month after arriving. We have cooked some great meals and gotten back into the baking swing.

But there is still a lot to discover!! Grocery shopping also happens to be a good activity, since LA County is still on the state's watchlist for Covid-19. There are, as a result, limitations on what we can do. Food side note: we have picked limes, lemons, pomegranate, figs, and grapefruit from overhanging trees. We have also regularly seen many other fruit trees, like mango, avocado, orange, tangerine, peach, and apricot! It is pretty fun to come across those.

Mango

Josh has started his new job here, working at the USC Keck + LA County Pain Medicine Centre. The hours are longer than anticipated, for all three of the program's fellows, but hopefully that evens out with time and some adjustments to the routine.

It will also be a huge weight off Josh's (and my) shoulders when he writes his postponed Royal College anesthesia licensing exam at the end of this week. We are actually heading to the Bay Area tomorrow, for Josh to write his exam on Thursday and Friday. Down to the last 48! The timing is unfortunate, given the state of the wildfires in California. We are still hoping to be able to traverse the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) for most of the way, but we will likely need to venture inland for parts as a result of road closures.

I finished teaching my online summer course at the end of July and have been enjoying some time off this month, with Bertie of course. She and I have been exploring LA county. Speaking of which, for those that might not know the region, here is a map of the county and surrounding area.

L.A. County, IBM to Develop Data Sharing Portal for Child Welfare ...

Obviously this is the Pacific Ocean (!!)

We rented a furnished house in Altadena, an unincorporated area in the San Gabriel Valley. As you can see, it abuts the Angeles Forest (and the San Gabriel Mountains), so hiking trails abound! We are only 2 kilometres from base of the mountains. This also means that there is a lot of wildlife in our midst, including parrots, hummingbirds, coyotes (a lot!), bobcats, mountain lions, bears, rattle snakes, deer, and big horn sheep. Unfortunately, there has been a record-breaking heat wave here (with high humidity which is very uncommon) and the daily highs have been around 40 degrees since we arrived. There have also been a number of wildfires in our immediate area. In fact, the Angeles National Forest is located within one of the driest, most fire-prone areas in the United States. This isn't good for the humans or any of the creatures. The animals are very thirsty. The air quality is fine at the moment, but was definitely poor for much of last week and the week before. This, the high temperatures, and exposed nature of the trails here have sadly limited our outdoor activity to the early morning and after dark -- the only exception being if we are heading to the coast, which is routinely 10-15 degrees cooler than the valleys and the mountains! We are looking forward to a time when the weather is more inviting here than back home (I'm looking at you November!). For now, we are mostly doing some of the shorter trails in the early morning and exploring different urban areas in the evening.

Some of you have been interested in a house tour, so here is a little walkabout:

Below is a series of photos taken over the last month of some of what we have seen:

California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena has become one of our favourite places to walk

Angeles National Forest

Santa Monica

Walt Disney Concert Hall (Frank Gehry design)

Union Station Los Angeles

Grand Park

In-N-Out Pasadena

San Gabriels

Backyard and guest house (landlord occupied) - Bertie has made herself quite at home and likes to invite herself in. They have a senior Pomeranian dog.