December 21, 2014
Got up this morning at 6:30 and went out just in time to catch this sunrise:
![](http://api.ning.com:80/files/Iiq-5qTP3-mU6C8oFbQ5gcXGLJEDUAM9hGMImCqPdhCE9L81bw1PFCXz0CeGvauK71dv2DNHYhnlkihfo4covswrHx*XwSgI/racliffridge_12.21.14.jpg)
Ratcliff Ridge Sunrise
Turned around and caught this a few moments later:
![](http://api.ning.com:80/files/Iiq-5qTP3-k4wyrBXwFBBqnslUa4s3alLRhR38ZmoyNwWrT3P9A-JsgGwhYA9pfr7ZZS5JEBeBpDbupnxTbfsSXQfX2gs-8l/firstlightonelephantbutte.jpg)
First Light On Elephant Butte, 12•21•14
Took an Uber cab to Sky Harbor and took off for LA, landed in Burbank and met this little guy:
![](http://api.ning.com:80/files/Iiq-5qTP3-m0KaRcjU2P4Cq4WmmuhmNA7CnKeVPtE0rW1E8qO7T1i34gNoF7Z8VY7e4*PPP8NqE-DlkDFdhTmT*RkUbdfsI6/itshahamommie.jpg)
Look Mommy, It's Grandpa Ha Ha
I asked Deena if we could try a little diner I saw a couple summers ago and so we ent there for lunch:
![](http://api.ning.com:80/files/Iiq-5qTP3-nYrQc6FGejvyDndk3n*vazWyzcvnTWaG*xRyWCADEqK*9CGsrGgAHpjdCIrYyvutmpRGBpshJNInPKn6g2MvOr/pieanburger.jpg)
An Old Fashioned Local Burger an Pie diner on Colorado in Pasadena.
Great lunch. I recommend the chicken burger and the butterscotch meringue pie. We head out tomorrow morning for Thailand. A 24-hour-flight.
"There on the western horizon, under a hot, clear sky, sixty miles away, crowned with snow (in July), was a magical vision, a legend come true: the front range of the Rocky Mountains. An impossible beauty, like a boy's first sight of an undressed girl, the image of those mountains struck a fundamental chord in my imagination that has sounded ever since."
—Ed Abbey, 18