Out of the smog; into the sun of Redondo Beach

Drew is my Calgon man. I said, "Calgon, take me away!", and Drew swept me away to Redondo Beach, California (Los Angeles area) on Sunday. He made a quick phone call to his Navy buddy, R.G., and wife Jackie. They said, "come on down, we have a guest room all made up for you." So we did. Landed at LAX at 9:10 a.m. on Sunday, borrowed their beach cruzier bikes and pedaled the 6 blocks to the beach. We were soaking up the sun and surf by lunch time! The weather was so amazingly nice - 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Quite a few people were lazing on the beach and some crazy kids and surfers in the 59 degree water. We just pedaled along "the strand" (boardwalk), people watched, and relaxed in the sand.

Drew couldn't help himself. When he sees a bike in need of adjustment, he tinkers until she's runnin' smoothly. We ate at a Cajun joint that night with R.G. and Jackie, who are great fun and entertainment. I had my first hushpuppie - yum city. We also fell off the wagon and drank beer. We made it a whole 17 days without alcohol.

The overnighter was just what I needed as an escape from the horid air quality we are having here. We returned to Salt Lake on Monday just in time to breath air with 99 micrograms per cubic meter of particulate matter. The US EPA standard for healthy air is 35 or less! I want to go back to LA to get out of the smog.



Here is an unrelated factoid I hope alarms you as much as it alarms me. Did you know that it takes nearly 1.3 gallons of water to produce each liter of bottled water? What a waste! We have better things to do with our ground water resources than making bottled water. And plus, what do you do with the plastic bottle? I have resolved to not drink any bottled water in 2009.