Our Day At Mount San Jacinto

Saturday, we decided to have an outing day and went to Mount San Jacinto.
Because all the rain we've been having the mountains were nice and green. But once we got to Palm Spings the moutains were very rocky and dry.
It was a little more than a hour drive from Temecula to Palm Springs.

This Arial Tramway is what takes people up the mountain. The trip up is about 10 minutes.

Waiting for our time call to take the tramway up.
It was in the 70s down here. We almost wanted to take off our coats.

When we first got up there, we started on the hike but there was a snow storm with strong freezing winds. So we went back into the lodge until the storm passed.
(If we had gloves and Gordon a hat, we probably would have tryed the hike in the storm)

Spectacular views from up there! A view down to Palm Springs on one side.
A veiw of great mountiains full of trees and snow on the other side.

My handsome husband

After the storm was over we decided to take a hike down the trail. It was still very cold but at least it was not snowy and windy any more. My hands got very cold, they froze. But other than that it was a very fun hike. There was lots of snow, rocks and trees.

Lots of inches of snow here. Here we are at a picnic area. Gordon is standing on a picnic table. They were all almost completelly covered with snow. I am glad we did not bring a picnic lunch:-)

I was very happy here because I LOVE TREES!
A tree forest! Lots of trees here!

After a fun day in the snow, we went down to Palm Springs and ate at a really good Indian restaurant THE GREAT DELHI PALACE. If you like indian food, we highly recommend it.

See the full album of this day HERE

Line Dancing Adventurer

We Joined Matt and Heidi and two of their San Diego friends Line Dancing last Saturday night.

We have done Square Dancing once before and had a lot of fun. But, we discovered that Line Dancing is nothing like Square Dancing at all. Line Dancing requires learning the steps, practicing them and knowing the steps to be able to participate in the group line dancing that happpens. Matt and Heidi's friend was so patient in teaching us a few steps that night. Heidi was doing well in learning the steps. Matt, Gordon and I were struggling.

For me, the best part was watching people dance. There was a particular girl there (una linda gordita) that was especially good. She was great to watch:-)

Heidi teaching Matt a few steps

La Jolla Mormon Temple

Sabbath after church we took a drive toward San Diego. We ended up heading to La Jolla, but since it was a clear blue sky day, the roads leading to the La Jolla beaches were stop and go. So we decided to take a turn and went to visit the Mormon Temple instead.
We did not go inside the temple since only Mormon Church members are allowed in. But we met this really nice young girl that showed us pictures of the intererior and explained the symbolisim of each room in the temple.

A more distance view of the stunning structure. It bears the image of an ice structure. Here we can see the two towers of the temple.

Here I am enjoying the garden around the temple. Beautiful!
This angle of the garden with the temple on the back looks like if I am in a fairytale land. But I am not. I am really there and the garden and the temple are real.
This temple's celestial look makes me think of the mansions God is preparing for us in heaven.

Close up of some of the flowers

Torrey Pines Gliderport

After the Mormon Temple Sabbath afternoon we also visited the Torrey Pines Glideport. We stayed there until sunset watching people glide. It was very entertaining, fun and relaxing. We think we will come back here in the future so Gordon can get the training that is require to go gliding so he can go gliding and fly.

I noticed this flowers there.

Field Trip to Temecula

Today was a field trip day. Our school took a field trip to KZSW TV Station. This is the Temecula local tv station. The parents of one of my students owns the station so we got the special treatment.
The kids learned a lot about how a TV station is run and got to see first hand how the news and the weather
report is done.

After, we went to the Temecula Children's Museum.
It is a hands on museum. There were so many things for the children to touch and discover.

Griffith Observatory

We visited the Griffith Observatory this weekend.

A trolley for transportation can be use if you are parked too far down and don't want to walk.
We did not use it. It was a beautiful walk up to the obsrvatory and our car was not that far down.





View toward the mountains



The Holywood sign!

View of Los Angeles. This picture does not show it well, but the view was clear to the ocean. Was a great blue sky day!

The entrance door

Gordon enjoying the exhibits of the observatory

Sitting with my friend Einstein. Einstein is holding up his finder to cover a
very small part of the night sky. The wall that he is facing is a very large picture,
floor to ceiling, showing the stars and galaxys by the thousands that would be
covered by Einstein's finger. Sorry, no peicture of the wall exhibit. The picture of the wall I took did not turned out well at all.

When it got dark we were able to view through this telescope. I think this was the highlight of the day for Gordon. His telescope at home is not this powerful.

Cross Walk Church

Sabbath we visited the Cross Walk Church in Loma Linda. We really enjoyed the Sabbath school and church service. Above is a picture of their praise time. The music was great.



This church has a big emphasis in Mission work in Africa. Their whole church service was dedicated on the different projects they are sponsoring in Ethiopia and had beautiful displays and art work on the wall ways and lobby of their church. They have a trip planned in November to Africa. It sounds like they go every year. We were very impressed with all the great work they are doing in Africa.