Mt. Diablo

We went to a play this week at the Broadway West Theater Company called "You Can't Take It With You." It's a Pulitzer Prize winning play from the 1930's about an eccentric family in the post-depression years. Despite the theater having the name Broadway in it, it was actually pretty small with only 60-70 seats. Before the play, we went out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Megan calls it her "Tucanos Grill" since it's an all-you-can-eat salad, bread, soup, and healthy-dessert restaurant. It was actually really good food and we both love a soup they had there called Island Coconut Lime Chicken. It had quite a kick from the ginger, but you have to try it sometime!

For Family Home Evening, we went to Barnes & Noble and just sat there and read a bunch of books together, including "This is Why You're Fat" - a book showing all the worst foods from around the nation. A favorite of mine was a stuffed taco you wrapped in refried beans, a pita, cheese, pizza crust, butter, blueberry pancakes and then deep-fat-fried the whole thing! There was also the Big Boy Sandwich, topping the charts at 29,650 calories!

Yesterday we went for a hike around Mt. Diablo. It's only an hour away from us and is the tallest mountain around here. With a summit at about 3,800 feet, it is definitely quite taller than anything else in this sea-level area! While hiking around, we came across some interesting trees that seemed to be peeling from a California sunburn. There were also some "wind caves" carved into large boulders from an acid-water solution that formed millions of years ago.



Most of the sandstone boulders there have been smoothed from thousands of hikers climbing all around them. We didn't climb all the way to the summit of the mountain (you can drive there), but you can see that it is much higher than anything else from the hills in the background. There is a lighthouse/museum on the top of the mountain. Apparently fossils from many different eras have been found in the sandstone of the mountain, including a 4-tusked elephant.



It was a beautiful hike and a wonderful view from the top - highly recommended if you're ever in the area! It does take a while to drive to the top though. I have never driven on such a curved road. We were in our little red car and many of the curves could only be taken at 15 MPH or less!

We're still enjoying our time out here in California, but the summer is drawing to a close. We'll be moving to Seattle in about a month and a half. With any luck, we may end up here once again, though!