She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes.....

The weather has been pretty hot this past week with temps around 100 most of the days. When it's this hot, we pretty much stay in the house all day. You go stir crazy after a while..... the boys try to kill each other a bazillion times an hour. I can't take them to the park, they would burn their appendages on the screaming hot playground equipment. It's probably like places where it rains all the time and you are stuck inside. Thursday, I thought I would take the boys on an adventure. Rose is in school full day now, so we have time to do things. It was a beautiful, clear day as we've been having Santa Ana winds. It's hot, dry and uncomfortable on these days, but it sure makes for BEAUTIFUL views. We got in the car and headed out for some fun. We drove and drove and ended up at Palomar Mountain, to the top where the observatory is. The observatory is probably best known for its 200 inch Hale Telescope. There are more telescopes there too, a total of 7, but the most impressive has to be the big one. I think you probably have to be a little older to appreciate what an interesting thing the huge telescope is. The boys did think the pictures of the stars in the museum were pretty cool. They humored me while tried to talk up how amazing seeing the telescope was....but I think the highlight for them was watching the movie Kung Fu Panda on the ride there with all its awesome kung fu fights. "I'm Kung Foo Panda! No, I'M Kung Foo Panda!...no, I'M Kung Fu Panda.... no, you are BOTH Kungo Fu Panda!" It's a beautiful drive as you head up the mountain.....but very twisty and turny towards the top. At one point I looked back at Joey when we were almost there. He looked back with a stupor sort of stare in a delightful shade of gray. I knew I was in trouble when I noticed even his little lips were gray. My kids have never been car sick, so I was pretty surprised he looked so bad. He held on for a few more minutes and we made it to the observatory. We got out of the car, it was a FABULOUS 81 degrees, and he was fine.

On the drive back down, we stopped at a cute little restaurant we passed on the way up for lunch. I was sure this would be a great meal.....little hole in the wall places always seem to have the best food. I forgot to bring glasses in with me, but I was able to make out a club sandwich on the menu. I was pretty sure they would have french fries.....a staple in every kid's diet. Turns out they didn't......so we had to make due with tortilla chips. We were the only ones in the place, which didn't really surprise me. There were barely any people at the observatory either. Nice and empty....just the way I like it. We headed out back to some tables in a nicely wooded area. It really is pretty up on the mountain. It always amazes me what a diverse area we live in.....mountains, desert, beach, all within less than an hour or 2 drive. Our lunch came and my sandwich looked amazing. When I ordered, the gal told me they were out of sprouts, and would shredded lettuce be alright? (Sure! I didn't even know it was supposed to have sprouts!) Wow, this looks good, avocado, tomato, artisan bread....how interesting.... this has some interesting looking red crumbly things on it. It KNOW this is going to be GREAT! I took a bite and realized my awesome sandwich wasn't the standard bacon, turkey club...... this was made with genuine, from a jar bacon-bits! I ate the whole thing, so obviously I am not such a food snob that I won't eat Bac-os, but I don't think this sandwich even had any turkey. Had I had glasses with me, I would have read the fine print on the menu to find out what it was supposed to have on it. Perhaps it was a veggie club sandwich? I don't know.... but I recommend you get something other than the club sandwich if and when you eat at Mother's Kitchen Restaurant. No offense Mother!

There are still a LOT of burned trees on the mountain from a few years back when wildfires tore through here. I don't know how a forest recovers from that sort if thing. I guess it will take MANY years before it's green and lush like it was. I saw a firetruck up at the observatory. They have them spread throughout the county right now as it's just the start of wildfire season here. I don't ever remember major fires around here when I was a kid like there have been as of the last 6 or 7 years. Maybe my parents just never told me about them? Or perhaps it's all this global warming? Let's get Al Gore on it...........