Christmas

The holidays wouldn't be complete without celebrating the four seasons of Laguna. I love riding through Pine Valley. They decorate the streets for the season. The 4th of July decorations are the best. Instead of using the main road up the mountain, Sunrise Highway. We headed a bit further east to Kitchen Creek, Rd. Don't be fooled by the sign that states pavement ends. It doesn't. Sorry though, you'll have to leave your car behind as the road is closed to motorized vehicles. Climbing Kitchen Creek is like a little slice of heaven. (Well it's a slice of heaven if you have enough gears.)

It was warm climbing up the mountain. I was glad though to have my warm fuzzy jacket, knee warmers, full finger gloves and hat for the rest of the ride. I'll never get bored riding around Laguna and the Cuyamaca's. Riding around the loop is like turning the pages in an Ansel Adams book. I would post more pictures but it's so hard to do it justice. There was some snow left in the ditches from the last big storm and a snow covered mountain in the distance. We guessed it was Palomar. Although I'm not sure. It seemed like we could see forever, so maybe it was someplace even further away. Tim will likely be working on Christmas, while riding the song "So this is is Christmas" came to mind. If a ride around Laguna is Christmas, I wouldn't have it any other way.

In case we needed a little help celebrating Christmas, our friend Matt shared with us a nativity set acquired while working as a medical missionary in Niger. There's just something about looking at a nativity set from Niger that really makes you think richness comes from a place in the heart.