Every morning Shara, Amy and I go on a walk. The walk started out to be 30 min, but is now

1 1/2 hours. I get up at 5-5:30 so I have time for a cup of coffee (or two) before we leave my parents house at 6:30. It is dark when we start out and we watch the day dawning. It is a very peaceful time of day. We meet many of the same people and dogs along our walk and some days we see no one at all. The majority of our route consists of "off street" walking. The area where my parents live was once all fruit and nut orchards (my parents have lived in their house about 45 years) so there are irrigation canals all over. These canals have become part of the regional park system and now are throughways linking bicyclers, horseback riders, and walkers to different urban areas and towns. We walk about 3 blocks to get to one these canals, through a park, through some open space (fields and foothills) to another canal, down a bike path, through another park and then down a couple of streets before we get back to my parents house. The dogs love it and look forward to it. We see some wildlife, mostly birds. There are wild turkeys, geese, ducks and all kinds of little birds. About the only other wildlife we see is squirrels. I feel very privilaged to be able to do this daily. Everyday there is something different to observe, the weather is always changing. Many mornings it is foggy, which make it all rather mysterious and magical, sometimes the sky is vibrant reds and purples at dawn, sometimes it is misting or raining and once it was even snowing; all of the hills were covered in snow! This is a wonderful way to start the day.