(Note: This will be my last monthly Sentence A Day post. After two and a half years of doing these Sentence A Day posts, I think I'm at a point where I'm good with the choices I've been making on how to live each day in as full of a manner as possible.)
May turned out to be very satisfying from the home improvement front. We updated our family room and kitchen via new paint and tile, and finished repainting the outside of the house. I also managed to get in over 100 miles of hiking in, plus one 30 mile long ride on my bicycle - rain put a damper on doing much more cycling this month! And there were lots of moments spent with family and friends, plus a considerable amount of vacation planning for some upcoming trips, always fun.May In A Sentence A Month
1. Morning hike in wildflower-crazy Casper Wilderness Park with the Sierra Club, lunch afterward at Bad To The Bone BBQ with fellow hikers John and Joyce, home to clean up and take a nap, then out again after dinner to a book club discussion on I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin, which was uber-interesting and stimulating thanks to one of the attendees having a PhD in social psychology.
The pier along the beach path in San Clemente is one of my favorite things to photograph!
4. Spent most of the day doing trip planning for our upcoming Canada cruise vacation, then enjoyed a spontaneous and very yummy dinner out with our older daughter, youngest niece, and both of their sweeties at the very fun, trendy and fast-casual The Crack Shack in Costa Mesa.
5. A gorgeous morning spent hiking along the Aliso Summit Trail, enjoying a sack lunch at the scenic halfway point just above Pacific Coast Highway, then home for clean up, naps, a little downtime, and dinner, then out again to attend our monthly couples discussion group.
6. Monday play day with hubby, wherein we walked to the beach, stopped for lunch at Pain du Monde, and visited the library, before returning home and settling into our living room for the next couple of days while painters redo the built in cabinetry in our family room.
7. Morning hike with my Tuesday group while the painters continued the takeover of our family room, plus worked on cruise planning for our 2020 S. America navigation cruise.
8. I left my keys and wallet in our SUV, which hubby accidentally drove off with for a guys bike ride, so I enjoyed my enforced 'down time' by cleaning up my email (so many emails!), doing more cruise port planning (12 port days to plan out for September, and 17 port days to plan out for next February!), and menu planning, then off to do grocery shopping once hubby finally returned.
Our Canada cruise itinerary . . .
and our South America cruise itinerary . . . so excited!
9. Settled things back into our pretty new family room cabinetry, worked an afternoon volunteer shift at the harbor, then home to collapse afterward . . . yeah for dinner leftovers!
10. Rain cancelled out my planned bike ride with my Friday group, so I instead spent the day slogging through paperwork in my office, but did have fun making a new-to-me recipe for Spinach and Feta Strudel for dinner that turned out delicious (drying off the spinach in my salad spinner was a brilliant tactic!)
11. Visited the weekly Dana Point Farmers Market, then off to enjoy a walk to Pacific City from my oldest daughter's place in Huntington Beach, where we enjoyed some terrific craft beer, plus yummy truffle garlic fries at The American Dream.
12. Happy Mother's Day!, wherein I started off the day watching my youngest granddaughter take her first steps via FaceTime, then enjoyed a lovely six mile coastline ridge hike with my older daughter, her sweetie, and their buddy Nick, followed by all of them cooking an amazing dinner for me back at the house that consisted of burgers on homemade brioche buns (!), sweet potato fries, a cumin dipping aioli, and a lemon and arugula salad . . . feeling very spoiled!
13. Super tired from our busy weekend, so we basically hibernated and worked in our respective offices all day . . . every so often we need a recovery day!
14. A lovely and fast paced six mile hike in Aliso Woods Regional Park with my Tuesday group, home for a quick clean up, then off to work a volunteer shift at Casa Romantica in San Clemente, making a fabulous lemon chicken dinner upon my return, from the wonderful Eat Delicious cookbook.
So pretty when I took this out of the oven, with it's crisped pancetta on top of the lemon and spice rubbed chicken thighs.
16. Rainy, windy morning, so I spent time getting this summer's many, many free concerts onto our calendar (tribute bands to Abba, Queen, Neil Diamond, Aerosmith, Foreigner, and so many more . . . it's going to be a fun summer!), attempted to minimize the damage to the protective paper our painter had carefully surrounded the house with yesterday (I think it's a lost cause!), read, drank wine while lamenting the temporary loss of our views (windows currently covered in plastic due to painting project), then had leftover apricot turkey meatloaf for dinner (so good!!!) while finishing up watching Vice.
17. Morning beach walk, errands, handyman here to finish up our new kitchen accent tile work, then dinner on my own 'cause hubby away for weekend, followed by chick flick The Jane Austin Book Club via Netflix . . . it was good enough to keep me awake until the end!
At move in . . .
The short term fix - a plastic panel taped into place.
The final fix - matching travertine tile with brushed chrome insets.
18. Fabulous hike along the ridgelines of Newport Beach, art shopping on the way home (determined to purchase one of Steve Adam's amazing coastal modern abstracts!), greeted my gal pal Barri, settled her into our guest bedroom and then headed out to walk the bluff tops of Dana Point, enjoy Opium Hour at Starfish Laguna, and attend a crazy fun Full Moon Drum Ceremony at Aliso Creek Beach (so much fun as it turned out, that we can't wait to return when our granddaughter is here visiting this summer!)
It was gorgeous at the beach post-rainstorm!
20. Monday play day with hubby, so we walked five miles along the San Clemente Beach Trail, returning through downtown San Clemente where we stopped for a shared burrito at Sancho's Tacos, then browsed out way back to our car via the many cute little shops along El Camino, all under sunny skies which we much enjoyed after all the rain showers May has been gifting us with!
We never do this route without detouring slightly to walk along pier . . . it feels like we're surrounded by ocean once we reach the end.
21. Woke up at 2:00 AM, returning to bed at 6:00 AM, so I missed my Tuesday morning hike, but did wake up in time to work my afternoon volunteer shift at the Casa, discovering this little gem of a cookbook while there, which I've already cooked from twice! (Garlic shrimp and chocolate cheesecake bites for inquiring minds :-)
22. Morning hike in Caspers Wilderness Park with Sierra Club, plus an additional three miles along the Dana Point Headlands Trail with hiking friends John and Joyce followed by lunch and lots of laughing at The Coffee Importers, home for showers and a little down time, then off to Casa Romantica for sunset viewing and a Healthy Mexican Cooking Class by T-Spoons of San Juan Capistrano . . . holy guacamole was it good!
Absolutely gorgeous skies during our morning hike.
Enjoying long-missed blue skies and some wine at the Casa.
Hubby getting started on Mexican street corn, which turned out so, so, good!
23. Met my girlfriend Cherri for a four mile walk up and around the bluffs of San Clemente, a shift at the cultural center I volunteer for, then home to enjoy dinner with hubby.
24. Attended a documentary showing of the fascinating Three Identical Strangers at our Lifelong Learning group, which included a rousing post-film discussion, then over to Waterman's Harbor for Happy Hour, an almost-every-Friday tradition since moving.
25. A wonderful first time seven mile hike along Irvine's gorgeous and hilly Turtle Ridge with a group of fellow hikers,
home to clean up afterward, a little bit of gardening under newly-sunny afternoon skies, then made dinner together, which we enjoyed eating while streaming the 2019 Oscar-nominated, and more timely than ever, documentary RBG.
26. A long drive to Ventura County in order to attend the memorial of our best friend's mother, which turned out to be a loving celebration of a life well-lived, then home to greet our friend Skip, that was spending the night with us for the first time, but hopefully not the last.
27. A wonderful Memorial Day spent kayaking five miles around Newport Harbor with hubby, older daughter and her sweetie while our house guest Skip went on a long bike ride, then home with everyone in tow to enjoy a rowdy game of ladder ball, lots of great pre-dinner appetizers and craft beer, before sitting down to a great holiday dinner of BBQ chicken, Mexican street corn, shaved Brussels sprout salad, corn bread with honey butter, and, yum, fresh strawberries over ice cream with a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar.
My oldest daughter and her sweetie leading the way.
There were all types of watercraft out enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!
28. Household chores, a volunteer shift at a cultural center, then home to enjoy wine on our back patio under beautiful spring skies before heading into dinner.
29. A five mile beach walk, lots of grocery shopping, a stop into our local hardware store, then home to gaze in delight at our almost-completed once-blue-but-now-gray house.
30. Hair appointments back in our old town, a three mile walk around our hilly neighborhood when we returned, then home to celebrate the painters finishing up the last few jobs on our beautiful new gray and white home!
31. Five mile walk-run along the beach, testing my leg to see what's what, home to again ooh and aah over our freshly finished home, time out back moving the patio furniture and other items back into place, then off to a fun date night with hubby enjoying wine, food truck cuisine, and live music at Frisby Cellars monthly celebration.
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Next up: Seasonal Bucket Lists!
