Past the Yellow Brick Road, Down the Dipsea, and Swing into Mill Valley

When one has an idea to get to the top of a mountain before 1pm one must plan. And by "one", I mean me. I don't know what we were thinking but we didn't leave the house until 10am. About 15 minutes away I realized I didn't have the tickets. I was so focused on getting there I forgot what "there" was, a play in which we needed tickets for entry. We lose another 1/2 hour going home for the ticket. The play is attended by probably a couple thousand people so to make matters worse the area is crowded. Anyway, we didn't have time to hike up the mountain. So we arrived at the spot to catch the complimentary shuttle up the mountain and found a long line of people waiting. We learned there were bus issues and things were running slow. We waited about an hour. Boo! The bus ride up took about 40 minutes. So, in short, we made it up about 15 minutes before the play started.

It was a nice hot day and all the shady spots were taken. It wasn't too bad. The play was fun, I found myself singing along more often than is probably normal. I remember I had The Wizard of Oz record when I was a kid and I'd sit in my room and listen to it over and over on my little record player. "Ding-dong the witch is dead, witch-o-witch, the wicked witch....We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz....Somewherrrrrre, over the rainbow, blue birds fly".... See? It's just infectious. Miguel had a big smile on his face during some parts too and we just enjoyed the heck out of ourselves.

So we decided that since we couldn't hike up the mountain, we'd hike down. The hike down to Mill Valley is about 6 miles and winds around in such a way that you're not going downhill the entire time. Enough though that my toes got tired of hitting the front of my shoes. My leg muscles freak me out a little bit in this picture (if you click the image you can see a bigger version of it). They look huge! I'm scared to see what they'll look like when I lose more weight. Bulging muscle-legs is what I'll have. I hope I like that look. The walk was pleasant and fun and we made it in a little under 2 hours. It was a mixture of trails and paved roads. The last bit was walking down the Dipsea stairs, 671 steps altogether. Soon I want to walk up them. Maybe one year I'll enter the Dipsea Race, the oldest cross-country trail running event in the US. You climb the stairs very early on in the 7.1 mile race. Doesn't that sound like fun? I better tackle the stairs all by themselves first. Did I mention my calves are not happy with me this morning?

Lately, while out adventuring, I've been preoccupied with my shadow. Sing with me, "Me and my sha-a-a-dow". Ok, I'll stop. I get startled when I see it being so different than what I expect, so much smaller than I used to be and than I am in my mind's eye. Anyway, I had more opportunities to see it today and I tried to catch it on film.

When we got back to Mill Valley we walked through a park and there were swings and.... Add this to the list of things I wouldn't have done before losing weight. I had so much fun on that swing! When we got to the park my calves were tired and I was hot but that swing revitalized me! Wheeeeeee!!

There you have it. Our day on the mountain. I made sandwiches, packed healthy snacks ate pretty healthy stuff. Ahem, aside from the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Bar, Half Baked: Cookie Dough Ice Cream on a Brownie with a Thick Drizzle of Milk Chocolate Coating. Yum! But 8 Points. Yowza! I have 2 measly WPA points left for the week. I hope I can make it.

What am I doing today? Nada. I need to rest I think. I've been cleaning and stuff and now I have to get ready to go visit my mom. Of course, the clothes I want to wear are in the washing machine as we speak. Alright, on a happier note, one last picture.