We've settled in to our house in Newbury Park, and the landscaping isn't quite so raw looking as it once was. The hillside behind the pool is covered with California native drought-tolerant wildflowers, and the front gardens are full of sages, monkeyflower, and other aromatic plants, obtained as seed from the Theodore Payne Foundation or Matilija Gardens. We've found that daylillies will also grow here, so we've been able to keep a memento of our life in Kalamazoo with us.
We've been exploring the Los Angeles area quite a bit in the last three years. Los Angeles is not the complete mystery it once was, we know our way to the Chinese grocery stores and Dim Sum restaurants in distant Monterey Park, and we've traversed virtually every freeway in the area on our trips around. In addition, we've made our way to San Francisco, Monterey and Carmel, and extensively through the Central Valley and Eastern Sierra, and east to San Bernardino and Palm Springs.
We're surrounded by desert, and have learned to really love the exotic beauty we find there, in all its forms.
I recently accompanied Carol to a San Diego cat show, and while she was meowfully occupied, travelled eastward and southward towards the Mexican border. Border radio is alive and well - megawatt FM stations perched just across the border fill the dial with melodious and rythmic sounds.
Later in the spring, Carol and I went to San Bernardino for another cat show, except this time after dropping her off I continued eastward to Joshua Tree National Park - spectacular! It was pouring as I drove through the little towns on the northern border of the park, with water seething down the poorly drained streets. After entering the park, I could see where the ideas for the Galaxy Quest rock monster came from; the landscape is covered with huge boulder piles that look like they'll dust themselves off and spring to life. The cholla, joshua tree, and other wildflowers were breathtaking. While I drove through the park, the skies cleared, and as I drove down the escarpment into the valley at the park's southern border, the setting sun illuminated square miles of wildflowers.
The nearby Santa Monica National Recreation Area continue to be a wonderful resource for our weekly outings. Carol typically birdwatches, Greg and Marianna head out (sometimes with me), and I do a lengthy walk around the trail systems. Soon after we moved here, the kids and I walked about 4 miles (I'm guessing), walking from the area of the Satwiwa Cultural Center parking lot, down the Sycamore Canyon trail to the Sycamore Creek crossing, back up the Sycamore Creek trail to the falls, up and out of the canyon, across the meadow and back to the parking lot. Some time later, Carol and I did the 8 mile walk from the parking lot (elevation ~900 feet) to the Pacific Ocean (by definition elevation 0). The elevation drops 300 feet in the first mile, another 300 feet in the next 2 miles, and the last 300 feet in the last 5 miles. While we walked leisurely downhill, we encountered numerous people biking, walking or running uphill. 
At the beginning of the trail, this sign warns people to keep their children close. This is still definitely a wild area; bears have been captured in the immediate vicinity of Amgen, having wandered out of the national park and into town. Maybe they heard Amgen was hiring?
One afternoon I was waiting for Greg to pick me up at Amgen, and was sitting on a low stone wall near the entrance. I felt the wall jiggle, thought to myself "That's an earthquake," and a few days later, saw that it had been a 3.5 or so, centered about 10 miles north. You can see the most recent seismic activity we're experiencing here.
Last Updated Monday, May 16, 2005