TVC - Day 69 - Chillin'

I brought my Canondale Bad Boy bike with me to SoCa specifically so I get a ride in to the top of Mt. Rubidoux, and Friday morning was the time for that ride....I finished writing my daily blog about Thursday just after 7 am and was on the road for my 10 mile loop by 7:15.  It's about 1.5 miles to the beginning of the climb up Mt. Rubidoux and at the 2.5 mile mark I was wondering why I was huffing and puffing so much....after all I've been riding at 6,300' altitude all summer.....shouldn't I be in better shape than that?  Well, I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was pushing over 10 mph up the hill....then I looked down to see what gear I was in and saw I was pushing a 'taller' gear as well......when I was here in January I was only able to push up the hill at about 8 mph.....okay that's the reason.....I'm actually in better shape than I thought.......

......the view, as always was spectacular, however, you could see some haze creeping in along the valley....a byproduct of living in an urban area with too many vehicles per square mile.....

I was back at my daughter's home by 8 am, and we were on our way into Claremont for TLE's hair appointment by 9 am......we took my grandson, Elijah, with us and while TLE was getting her hair done we walked around Claremont Village.  After the hair appointment we continued on into Arcadia having lunch at Chili's.......

Grandpa and Elijah at Chili's

.....Elijah's dad picked him up about 12:30 and then TLE and I went shopping for our niece's wedding gift at Macey's over at the Santa Anita Mall.  We had checked in with Embassy Suites, but the earliest we could officially check into our room was 2:30, so we ran a few more errands before heading back to Embassy Suites and having a drink in the restaurant located in the 'atrium'.......

As promised, we were able to check into our 6th floor room at 2:30, and none too soon as the local heat and humidity were taking their toll on us.   The humidity was not really all that bad, but compared to Lake Tahoe where it is routinely in the 'teens' it feels quite humid here, and then add to that the 95 degrees temps and we feel totally out of our element.

Around 5:30 we met up with my two brothers, Dwyer  and Philip, and their wives, Lori and Jeannie, and Dwyer's daughter, Ingrid at the original Panda Inn in Pasadena on Foothill Blvd. for dinner.  I think the last time we were all together in one place was a Ingrid's wedding two summers ago.....now we are gathering for the wedding of Philip's daughter, Danielle.

We had a great time at dinner, and then retired to Philip's Temple City home for after dinner drinks and more conversation.......

Left to right: TLE, Jeannie, Lori, Ingrid

Left to right: Dwyer, moi and Philip

We were home a little after 10 pm a wee bit tired, but with big smiles on our faces after a very fun day.....tomorrow the wedding!

Thanks for stopping by!