Tuesday, December 2

The Inland crew had two missions today.
1) to garden with the ladies of Flintridge Sacred Heart
2) to get to Huntington Beach (50 miles away) before (too) dark.

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy is a beautiful school, a former a hotel converted to an all girls Catholic high school. It’s located on the top of a hill in La Canada with an unmatched view of the LA basin. I still remember the first time I talked to the Youth Minister about visiting the school. “You should definitely come… we are on the top of a hill though.” “Oh we’ll have climbed Big Sur by then, we can do it” “Mmmm…. it’s quite a hill.” She wasn’t kidding the hill is a big deal, it’s even in the fight song. We were definitely taken by surprise three years ago when we first visited FSHA, and to add insult to injury we were coming from the vallly in Burbank. We were strategically placed in Altadena this year, and it cut out at least ¾ of the climb. There were still parts that had me convinced that I was going to fall out of my seat backwards. And the elements were still against us, as we were banked in by a heavy fog. Danny got a flat, and Julie lost a chain, but we didn’t lose anyone in those windy hills thanks to Alexis, an ’03 graduate of the academy.

The AP Environmental Science (APES) teacher met us with the sports medicine class bundled up in blankets. They showed us around the campus and lead us to the new garden & compost area. We’ve been hearing about this space for awhile and we finally got to dig into it. Two APES classes came down to the huge space to turn compost and help install a new bunny fence. We were so impressed last year when we saw the student run composting system in place. There is a small container for compost by the cafeteria area and biology room, then it’s transported to a composter nearby, and eventually brought down to the garden area. The APES class is responsible for emptying the containers, and service hours can be counted by working in the garden. These ladies are always a pleasure to catch up with, and we loved getting to spend time in their growing garden. We left hoping they’ll return to the garden often and leave their mark in the first steps of this garden. We were given a great lunch – compostable plates and spudwear forks and knives – and got to eat with anyone student or chaperone that wanted to catch up with us. We had a lot of Catalina chaperones stop by as well as some students (Block 7 Family, where were you??) and we traded stories about the last visit (and pictures of Jacob), but soon we had to get going.

The path along Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River was long. Don’t get me wrong, they are AMAZING bike paths. Amazing in that it makes it possible to go from north east LA to north Orange County with no car traffic to speak of. We rolled into Seal Beach by dusk and Huntington Beach awhile later. It was cold in Pasadena and didn’t let up for the rest of the day. Cold, tired, and exhausted we rallied together to get back on Pacific Coast Highway to get to Sean’s parents house. Throwing aside crew rivaries, the OC group and members of the coastal crew greeted us warmly as we came together to form Team Sean’s House. We snacked, we dined, we took a dip in the hot tub… what a delight. Many thanks to Scott and Sue for spoiling us with food, drink, and air mattresses; thanks for putting up all 11 of us.