Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a good holiday! This may be the first Easter that we haven't been near family, and, consequently, we spent our day in hotels and on the road. We did, however, listen to Don Francisco's "He's Alive" on our iPod in honor of the holiday, which is one of the best Easter songs EVER. (Mom, remember the Ted Cornell Chorale version of that song? I think that's my favorite arrangement -- unfortunately, we don't have it on the iPod. :)) Of course, my absolute favorite Easter song has to be the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah... but for some reason, it seems to be reserved for Christmas performances. I don't know why that is. I mean, not that I'm complaining about people performing it at Christmas... but Handel DID include it in the "Easter" portion of the Messiah. The fact that it seems to be all but ignored this time of year is a bit strange... I would petition for more Easter performances of the Hallelujah Chorus...

Anyway, our driving on this Easter Sunday has brought us to San Diego -- the final city on our journey. (Cue sad face here... :( Okay, YOU guys probably aren't sad, but I am... :)) On the one hand, I wish my vacation wasn't winding to a close... but on the other, I'm looking forward to getting back home and making sure Eric didn't free our cats out into the wild... (Just kidding -- I'm sure Riff and Piva have been extremely grateful to have company now and then this past week. :))

Yesterday's drive took us south into Santa Monica, and the farther we drove, the more we were reminded of Hawaii -- sandy beaches, palm trees, sunny skies, rolling green hills. (In fact, Rick and I both decided that this trip has made us miss Hawaii, and perhaps we need to find a way to get back to Maui soon...)

Those houses on the beach are owned by some very lucky, and, presumably, very rich people...

Our hotel in Santa Monica overlooked this area. Right behind those palm trees in the middle, you can see the original Muscle Beach (there's another one located in Venice Beach now, but the one in Santa Monica is the original). It's been there since the 1930s, when men did manly things like climb on top of each other to create testosterone-fueled man towers:

We didn't see any of this kind of thing going on... but we did see a bunch of guys swinging from metal rings like monkeys... honestly, it sort of looked like fun...

Oh, and I have to post this picture for mom and Aunt Carol -- we saw this street on our drive today:

We have no plans for tomorrow except to visit a place down the street called "Chocolat" (hey, the reviews online said they have great espresso... that's the only reason I want to check it out... why else would I want to go???) And then it'll be back to reality... but hopefully reality will include some chocolate... :)