Day Trip

On Saturday I met up with my good friend, Jacquie in Riverside. Jacquie lives in La Quinta, so we figured that a good half-way meeting point between there and Los Angeles would be The Mission Inn in Riverside. The Inn is gorgeous....very historic and lovingly restored. We had a lovely lunch, strolled thru the hotel and museum and checked out a few shops on the downtown promenade.
We parted ways at about 2-ish. I checked out a yarn store I'd heard about, a few miles away, Close-Knit. Nice shop, but nothing there in the way of yarn that I haven't seen in Los Angeles. I did pick up size 11 Addi-Turbo lace needles! I didn't realize they came is such a large size! Score.
I got on the 60 Fwy at about 3pm. It had only taken me an hour to get to Riverside in the morning. Little did I know that the Orange Country fires had started while we were having lunch.

The 60 was moving at a snail's pace. After listening to the radio for awhile and seeing the smoke in the sky, I figured out what had happened. Oy! I was running out of gas. I got off the 60 just past the 57 Fwy. Eventually, I went the other way on the 60, picked up the 57 North, before it too closed and hooked up with the 10 Fwy west toward L.A. Naturally, the 10 was a parking lot. I spent 3 hours in my little car, breathing smoke, listening to the radio and snapping shots of billowing smoke in the hills. My heart goes out to everyone who lost or experienced damage to their homes and property.