On Saturday morning I walk to the grocery store around the corner of the hostel. I don’t know if it’s because of inflation or that it’s a local supermarket, but I notice that prices seem a lot higher than last year. I’m glad that the dollar is so low compared to the euro at the moment, that compensates it again.
I get the usual things for breakfast and walk back to the hostel. After breakfast I look up where some good coffee places are nearby and I find Bird Rock Coffee and Moniker nearby. Bird Rock doesn’t have much place to sit, so I walk further to Moniker. It’s a nice hip coffee place and I decide to sit down for a while. While enjoying a cappuccino I do some reading and working on a website. Around 10am I text Brittany and walk to their house. She has planned to go on a hike in the hills in the south, close to Mexico. Her daughter Addie is also joining us and it’s a fun drive going down there. I haven’t been in this area before and there are more hills and mountains in the distance. Apparently there were wide fields of yellow mustard flowers on these hills not long ago, the reason we went here, but they just recently harvested them. It’s still a nice walk though. The weather is great, about 21°C / 69,8°F, and very sunny. I’m glad I brought sun screen with me.
When we’re back at the car Brittany comes up with the great idea to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I don’t think I’ve been there before, I mainly know it from one of my favorite tv-shows, The Big Bang Theory. The food choices are really wide, from Spaghetti to Burgers to Mexican food. I choose a classic combo: cheeseburger with fries and a milkshake. After the hike the food tastes great and even though I’m quite full I decide to also get dessert. You can’t go to the Cheesecake Factory without having cheesecake right? I get the ultimate red velvet one and it’s super delicious. Sitting in the restaurant enjoying all the food, I think to myself that life is pretty good.
We drive back to Brittany and Addie’s house where we go our own ways again. Brittany takes a nap and Addie has plans with friends, but we plan to meet again in the evening. In the afternoon I do some walking around in the neighborhood, do a bit of shopping and before I know it, it’s time to meet again. Brittany picks me up at the shopping mall and we drive to the neighborhood of Bankers Hill. There is a nice hike in a canyon there that I discovered years ago. They haven’t been there yet, so I’m glad to show some locals their own city. At the start of the trail we meet with another friend of them, Tailor, and she’s a lot of fun. She’s cracking a lot of jokes during our hike and we’re laughing a lot. We walk all the way to Hillcrest, a neighborhood where I stayed a few years ago, and find a great Mexican restaurant. I’m still quite full from the extensive lunch, but can enjoy the excellent food here again as well. At some point the owner of the place walks to our table. A super friendly woman who tells us that she has had this restaurant for more than 20 years. I can see why. It as a great Mexican vibe and the food is terrific. The evening flies by and when we walk back, it’s already dark outside. We decide to hike back through the canyon in the dark and that turns out to be fun as well. In the beginning we still need to use our phones to hike down into the canyon, but once there we turn them off and walk in the dark. There are a few stars to see in the sky and the lights of the city around us. Sooner than I like it we’re back at the cars and say goodby. Brittany and Addie drop me off at the hostel where I go straight to bed. It was another long and fun day. I walked more than 28000 steps today.
