I again woke up and did some writing, eager to catch up (much like I am now). Mimi got up early as well and began making stuff for breakfast. We were in need of a few ingredients, that I swung out to pick up on the bike down the street.
When I got back, Mimi decided to cook up a storm. She bought some extra stuff they wouldn't normally eat and decided to cook it all for us before we left, including steak! Everyone in the house came up to eat, and we had a nice large breakfast. We watched some tennis for a while during and after, as we delayed our departure a little. Mimi kept insisting that we could stay another day if we wanted, but it was time for us to keep going, otherwise we might not ever leave.
We said goodbye , and I again promised I would return. Mimi said not to promise, and that men always do that, so I'm determined to make good on it. When we got back to the road heading south, we encountered some of the most challenging riding of the trip. This time it was not the terrain, but rather the populous area. The book had warned of the difficulty of riding this certain section, and it was a little hairy at times, but we clearly made it out fine.
When we exited the busy area, we were out of L.A. County, and had entered the O.C. (Orange county), home of fabulous shows like "The O.C.", and "Laguna Beach" that primarily focus on Americans obsession with people with real intelligence, good acting ability, and worth rather than superficial glamor. Gotta love it.
We stopped at Huntington Beach, a well known, massively popular and massively massive beach. It was really a very beautiful beach, with very beautiful people everywhere. Okay, I'll stop doing the double double thing. Paul and I put out the vibe near the volleyball court, but unfortunately all the girls were so intimidated by us that none of them mustered up the courage to approach us. Understandable. It was really embarrassing… for them.
However, as we seemed to be much better at attracting old men, we began talking to this guy named Carl who was planning on doing a trip from San Diego to Florida… sort of reverse of what we did. Good luck man.
After we had had our fill of Huntington, we biked it another 15 or so down to Laguna Beach. When we made it to Laguna, we located some food at a grocer and made our way towards the beach. We found this cool small street facing the ocean with little benches to sit at overlooking the ocean. There were tons of surfers that made for a nice sight to drink our chocolate milk and eat our food too.
We hung in Laguna for a while, until the smell of money that permeated the air became too much for us. We biked a bit more as the sun was setting stopping at a diner that was somewhat expensive. I opted for a remaining Clif bar while Paul ordered some food. We hung out there for a long time; fortunately, we had a really nice waitress.
Leaving the diner, we headed out in the darkness for a couple mile ride to the state beach where we intended on camping. We had a difficult time locating the hiker/biker sections at the park, which was a bit frustrating. The campground was packed with rowdy campers likely getting their last of the summer camping in. Nonetheless, once we had the tent setup, and I put on a movie on the laptop, Paul was out in roughly 12 seconds. I shut the computer and quickly followed suit.
We could feel the end approaching. We had pretty much all but decided for sure that we would be done biking in San Diego, which was about 60 miles away. We would be done the next day. A time of reflection was upon us, but not yet. Time for sleep, we were still enjoying every moment. Life was good.
Wow!! Almost caught up!! Still love reading the blog and finding out new things about the trip!