Land of densely-branched, spiny trees

This is the Palos Verdes peninsula, where I was Friday, the most gorgeous day of the week. You can see the characteristic California smog/haze/marine layer in the background, but you wouldn't have minded it one bit if you had felt the soft ocean breezes and the warm sun. My nose and forehead absorbed perhaps a bit too much of that sun, but I don't mind because now at least it's obvious I spent my spring break somewhere warm.

That morning, my mom rented us a pair of bikes on which to ride up and down the South Bay Bike Path. We made it from Hermosa Beach to Palos Verdes and back. After a short wait, we nabbed a table outside next to the Strand at Good Stuff, a quintessential California restaurant where the rice is brown and the condiments are low-fat, but the avocado is always ripe and plentiful.

And now here we are in the final few days of March and temperatures are still in the 30's back here in Chicago. The days are noticeably longer, though, and the green shoots are multiplying rapidly so I think spring is truly on its way. Warm days aren't quite a dime dozen here like they are in southern California, but they'll arrive soon enough. Just before the crushing humidity sets in.

p.s. A "palo verde," literally translated, is a "green pole." Therefore, Palos Verdes does not mean "green hills," as I was led to believe. The name of the town comes from a type of plant that grows there, the aforementioned "densely-branched, spiny tree" that often sports "showy yellow flowers and blue-green bark" according to TheFreeDictionary.com.