The First Day of Summer (the season)

The first day of summer was certainly noticible today! Temperature in Pacific Grove got up to 81º in the afternoon, which seemed really hot. Until later on...

I went over to Michael's at 10:00 for the last time for the next couple of weeks. Walking down, it was already about 75º and getting hotter. For the morning, we played the usual games, added "grass" to the Warhammer models, and had pizza for lunch.



After eating lunch, I found out that we had to go to Carmel Valley to pick Katie up from her horse camp and watch her Horse Show.

Around 1:00, we left for the Valley, which we expected to be hotter than P.G., to see the Horse Show. As we drove up listening to Rush music in the air-conditioned car, we watched the outside temperature raise from 80º, to 90º, to 100º. We passed by the mid-valley shopping center where the big display board confirmed at 104º, and by the time we got out to the Hoffman Ranch where the show was, it had raised to an unbearable 108º.

We watched Katie ride around the horse (whose name happens to be Kate) and perform simple tricks. At the end, they awarded the prizes, a tie between all participants for 1^st place. We figured they found it was cheaper to buy a bunch of 1^st place trophies in bulk than get different ranks. After the show, we got cold lemonade and warm, mealy watermelon. Mmm...



On the way back into town, we spotted a huge plume of smoke in the sky, and I stopped to take a picture at the coast guard pier. It turned out to be a brush and vegetation fire in the Santa Cruz area.