...And Hello To The New

    ...Continued from yesterday:

Ringing in the New Year in style!

   
    We woke up early on New Year's Day to start off the year with with a healthy hike through the Malibu hills.

  
Most of the the hiking paths were lined with fragrant wild rosemary:

   …and occasionally we  caught sight of a mansion nestled high up in the hills:

    We wondered if they the homes of movie stars.
   Supposedly Malibu is the turf of choice for the big Hollywood celebrities.  I wouldn’t want to live in Malibu, though.  To me Malibu is a long highway bordered on one side by high craggy hills and on the other by the backs of almost-touching beach-facing houses lined up like miles of fortification between the highway and the ocean.  I expect celebrities like living there for the privacy and isolation, though I think Manhattan Beach is a more beautiful setting,

       
    But then Manhattan Beach is open and accessible.   Supposedly Manhattan Beach is more the neighborhood of choice for rich athletes rather than movie stars.  However  I know that  Jordan  Belforte,  aka The Wolf Of Wall Street, lives in Manhattan Beach.
    But Malibu does have lovely hiking hills.
    We were surprised by all the folks besides ourselves who were up  and walking.  We decided to wish a “Happy New Year”  to everyone we passed, and we did and they wished us the same, and so it was a pleasant walk, giving and receiving all these good wishes for happiness in the year to come.  It reminded me of when Tom and I walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela through the Spanish Pyrenees (See my blog, “Tighten Your Boots) and exchanged wishes of “Buen Camino”  (“have a good walk”)  all day long with everyone we met along the way.  It was good for the sometimes flagging spirit.
     It turned out that there was a group of “Biggest Losers” also out doing a New Year’s morning hike.  We’d seen the “Biggest Loser” vans in the parking lot when we first arrived, so they’d apparently gotten an earlier start than us.  They whizzed past us at one point, though we had enough time to wish them all a quick “Happy New Year” and learn that they were hiking 12 miles.  Good for them, right?
    I expect that The Biggest Losers, along with many other of our fellow New Year’s Day hikers, were taking the higher, more scenic paths, the ones that offer beautiful vistas of the ocean below.  Since we had the little ones we needed to stay on a low path.

...and take a break or two along the way.

   But the girls did pretty well for being 3 years old and 18 months, in fact I was amazed at how far they were able to walk before they wanted too be carried.  We saw quite a few young children on the trail.  I think Californians start with the outdoor activities at a pretty young age.  I guess it's because they have the mountains and the beaches.
    Anyway, after our hike we stopped for lunch at a popular Malibu restaurant along the beach called Dukes after it’s original owner, a legendary California surfer.

 
    The interior was a Hawaiian surfer motif and from the windows there was a beautiful view of the blue, blue ocean:

      
    The food was wonderful.

I had a Greek salad,

Justin had a beautiful veggie wrap with tasty house-made chips,

...Maria had a burger done to medium-rare perfection, Tom had fish and fires, and the kids had, well, a healthy kiddie meal. Everyone pronounced their choice yummy.
               The restaurant was medium-crowded, and we wondered if there might be any celebrities among our fellow diners.  I even took a couple trips to the ladies’ room with the real agenda of cruising around the restaurant to see if I recognized anybody. 

    I didn’t,  though a number of people sort of looked like they might be somebody.

I guess we even sort of looked like we might be somebody.

    But, of course, we were only ourselves.  I guess everybody’s really only themselves.

    Happy New Year, everybody!

    To be continued...