The Great Outdoors

Thursday morning I dusted off my picnic basket, made a quick salad, got the goat cheese out of the fridge, grabbed a bottle of wine and headed for my friend's apartment. There, we packed more goodies in the basket--gourmet cheese, salami, olives, figs, dates candies, fruit, chocolate, sardines, spiced nuts--put the basket and blanket into the back of my car and headed to LA.

We ended up at the Old LA Zoo which my friend knew about and which we wanted to explore. We hiked a tiny bit of the area and looked through some of the old animal cages. Pretty neat and I guess something not many people know about.

What's great about the Old LA Zoo is that it has a picnic area. This is where we set up our lunch.

All organized.

Great selection of goodies

The food...oh the food was lovely. I think this is how all picnics should be like from here on out. We sat on the grass for hours while the shade from the trees came and went. We chatted, we ate, we sipped, we laughed. These kinds of moments make me thankful for good friends and the kind of friendships that help us grow.

After lots of eating, there was a moment where we laid back down on the grass and blasted some Taylor Swift music. There was dancing, singing, and lots of fun-having.

Looking up

Things are looking up. Sometimes I need to remember to lay down for a little bit and be content. There are so many beautiful things to explore and find outside. As I'm writing this on my apartment patio, the tiny birds in the trees are chirping. Lewis is sleeping in the sunshine. And I'm...writing. All is well.