Workout Wednesday....

So I took my grandson to school and I'm left with A precious 2.5 hours by myself..

I decided to to hill walking this morning.

I went for 45 minutes...

isn't this street beautiful...

it even has squirrels running around....

Can you imagine having a tree like this in your front yard..

Beautiful..

So the reason I chose this area was all the hills, its quiet, and low traffic and because of this really big hill on one of the streets. The first time I walked up it I thought It was very difficult (it was),

but today it was not so bad..

Pictures of hills never do the hill justice..this is looking down..

The street turns at the top and you can't see it form the bottom so its a surprise if you have never walked up here.

Well anyways  I made it back down..

Walked by my favorite house..

The property is large so I could only get a partical view.. ( and I'm afraid to take pictures of houses, I think someone is going to come running after me and take my camera)..I took this picture and walked away real quick.

Had one last down and back up..

 

 

 Here I am, bed hair, and no makeup..

 

Thats It for today...

 

enjoy!!!

There are so many hometown gems to see.. I have decided to become a tourist in my own city and surrounding areas.

Today my granddaughter and I went to the Korean Friendship bell and had a small picnic on the steps leading up to the bell.

I found some information on the bell on the Internet, so enjoy the pictures and a little bit of history to go along with the pictures....

This massive and intricately-decorated bell and pavilion was donated in 1976 to the people of Los Angeles by the people of the Republic of Korea to celebrate the bicentennial of the U.S. independence, honor veterans of the Korean War, and to consolidate traditional friendship between the two countries. The bell is patterned after the Bronze Bell of King Songdok, which was cast in 771 A.D. and is still on view in South Korea today.

The bell was cast in Korea and shipped to the United States. Weighing 17 tons, with a height of twelve feet and a diameter of 7-1/2 feet, the bell is made of copper and tin, with gold, nickel, lead and phosphorous added for tone quality. When it was built, it cost the Korean people $500,000. Four pairs of figures, each pair consisting of the Goddess of Liberty holding a torch, and a Korean spirit , are engraved in relief on the body of the bell. Each of the Korean spirits holds up a different symbol: a symbolic design of the Korean flag; a branch of the rose of Sharon, Korea's national flower; a branch of laurel, symbol of victory; and a dove of peace. The bell has no clapper but is struck from the outside with a wooden log.

The bell is set in a pagoda-like stone structure which was constructed on the site by thirty craftsmen flown in from Korea. It took them ten months and costs $569,680. The pavilion is supported by twelve columns representing the twelve designs of the Oriental zodiac. Animals stand guard at the base of each column.

Resting peacefully on the knoll overlooking the sea gate from which U.S. troops sailed into the Pacific, the bell site affords an unsurpassed view of the Los Angeles harbor, the Catalina Channel and the sea terraces of San Pedro hill. The bell is rung only four times each year: the Fourth of July, August 15 (Korean Independence Day) and New Year's Eve, and every September to coincide with bell ringings around the country to celebrate Constitution week.

This is the wooden log that strikes the bell when it is time to ring.. It is chained down and cannot be moved by even the wind.

This is the ceiling...

There was so much detail in the painting of the structure that I could of taken pictures all afternoon.

We had fun today.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and hopefully you can check it out someday...

One more tidbit.. those of you looking to get married you can also get married here..

April Showers...

It started pouring rain at 7:29 am just as my grandson and I headed out ...him to school and me to sit in traffic on the freeway trying to get to work...

But around 4pm as the clouds were clearing and the wind was picking up I decided to go for a photo walk..(this type of day is my favorite)..



I love taking pictures of trees....

This house is always perfect... I have never seen it unkept... I love this olive tree and how the ivy has grown around the branches...

When my grandson was 4 (he is 12 now) we always went bike riding, him on the bike and me walking or running. When we would get to this stretch of sidewalk it was usually covered in leaves from the trees and there was also a big German Shepard on the other side of the fence, he would ride up and down this spot and crunch all the leaves and make the dog bark...(I Thought the dog would make it over the fence sometimes)...This is such a good memory for me, sometime he would go up and down 10 times and I would be saying to him come on let go.. I need to exercise....

Did I walk through or go around???

Almost stepped on this little guy.. right in the middle of the sidewalk..

Yup such a beautiful afternoon...

Workout Wednesday....

So since last Thursday I  have walked 8 miles total...

yup..

that's all....

that's included today's 3 miles..

I got up early and went to the local park.. and got it out of  the way...

The path goes all the way around.. just short of 1 mile per lap..

it has a big hill.. lots of ducks, a pond, 4 softball fields, a tree house and tons of other stuff..

I have been walking/running here since the early 90's..

I can even go alone later after dark and feel safe.

My best lap time was 9 minutes when I was still able to run.. (a long time ago)

Here is picture of the tree house that I found...

(I did not take this picture).

So that's what I did this morning...

 

 

Go cart racing...

Today I  took my grand kids go cart racing..

not just "lets hop on a cart"

 at the local mini golf place

but lets put on racing helmets and race on a indoor track going 40 mph..

Dang it now I have to mess up my already messy hair with this thing that I didn't know how to put on..

my grand daughter and I getting ready to race..

obviously I'm not going very fast yet...

Whooo now I'm moving...just barley made it in the picture...

Just when I started to go pretty fast and get used to how the cart drives and how fast I could take the turns, my 14 laps were over.

This was really fun... I was 8th place out of 12.. my best lap time was 33 seconds..

Good and fun 2 hours with the kids...