Our goal was to get to Mt. Hamilton and do that iconic selfie in the fish eye mirror with the observatory in the background. We'd had a good breakfast of crepes with leftover fillings and coffee. Had peanut butter sandwiches for the way up and plenty of water in our luggage.

  

While we were on light rail I figured out how to put her visibility vest on her camelback. Did that because it wasn't big enough to go over both it and her. Much more visible on it. Not only that, but it wouldn't be another dressing hassle every time she took her backpack off. My one size fits all OSH safety vest didn't have that problem.

We also realized that her phone had the only camera with us. Thank you Virginia for taking every picture on this page. Great birthday present.

The journey was 24 miles of uphill through very dry scenic wildlands. The road was two lanes, most of which had a double yellow line down the middle. It was wide enough and empty enough that we felt safe enough. Every now and then another car or motorcycle would pass us, but usually they gave us a wide margin.

     

It felt like a victory when the observatory finally came into view.

     

Looking at the observatory in this picture, it doesn't look as close as it felt at the time. I think that's because putting people in the foreground instead of miles of ignored valley made it smaller.

     

Every pedal stroke felt like progress.

     

Steadily we got views that were more and more high level.

     

The bad news was that we didn't get near the top until after they had closed the parking lot gate. We weren't getting to the fish eye. The last hundred yards or so of the trip were blocked of by that metal gate. I was thinking of going through the thing somehow, but Virginia didn't want to violate the law. The "Violators will be prosecuted" stopped her.

  

Came down with the light fading slowly away. It was very dark when we came out of the very fabulous restaurant where we had supper.