Apple Valley California

Yesterday was a LONG day. I was asked to go to an all day meeting in Apple Valley, which is about an hour and half from my hotel. And there were many warnings about the drive being terrible because of snow, so I wanted to hit the road by 6 am. That meant I needed to be up at 4:20 to hit the gym. Whenever I have to get up extra early for something, I'm paranoid that I'm not going to wake up so I don't sleep well. Yesterday I started waking up every 15 minutes starting at about 2 am. I finally gave in a got up at 4. I hit the hotel gym for a cardio session. 30 minutes on the elliptical which consisted of 3 sets of 5 minutes at a hard resistance and then 5 minutes of Tobata; followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill. 5 minute warm-up then 4 sets of 1 min at 6.5, 1 min at 7, 1 min at 8, 1 min at 7, and 1 min at 6 with a 5 min cool down at the end.

The drive was not bad at all. I should learn never to trust Californians when it comes to weather, they ALWAYS over react. It actually really pretty, up highway 15 through the Cajon pass. The variety of terrain in California always amazes me. We went from super flat sandy beaches to rugged mountains in less than an hour.

Apple Valley was a really interesting little town. It has remnants of a funky little frontier town (the original route 66 ran through town), but also has clearly been hit by very hard times as many of the buildings are vacant and crumbling. Yet there are also signs of new growth, like new housing developments. The people at the hospital were great- friendly, down to earth, and hard working. I always find that I like the people better in remote little towns.

We got to spend the morning out in the floors observing the life cycle of a physician order. I always love to get away the computer and out into the patient care environment. Then we look a break for lunch. They took us to a great Mexican place- Pedros. I was starving and wolfed down every bite of my grilled shrimp, beans, guacamole, and home made tortillas. Real Mexican food is just so good.

We spent the afternoon mapping out the processes we saw in the morning. I didn't get start heading back until 4:30, but luckily I was going against traffic. After the super early morning I was beat, but it is one of my coworkers last week on the project, so I felt obligated to go to dinner. We tried the Lazy Dog in Anaheim. It was just what I wanted, solid comfort food. We split sweet potato hash browns (holy yum) and salted season edamame for appetizers, and then I got a flat bread with shredded veggies and goat cheese. I was expecting  a pizza, but it was more like a salad on flat bread with globs of goat cheese. I polished off the whole thing, and then collapsed as soon as I got back to the hotel.