Holy Smoke!

My cousin Mary goes to Pepperdine in Malibu and this is her picture. Much more dramatic than mine, luckily.

Saturday night the winds kicked up and we prepared ourselves for the 80mph gusts they said would be coming over the next few days. I fell asleep with the window open and woke up around 11pm and smelled smoke, turned on the news and saw a fire had started 50 miles north of us. When I tuned in Sunday morning to check on the fire I found that Malibu was on fire, and not just Malibu, but Malibu Canyon. We live on the North end of the canyon 8 miles away. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Santa Ana's were blowing so hard out to the ocean that we didn't even see too much of the smoke and it kept the fire on that side of the canyon. We will miss seeing the "castle house" and church as we drive down the canyon to the beach.

My parents are vacationing in Escondido this week with some friends. Well, they were in Escondido until their hotel was evacuated Tuesday morning. They weren't planning on coming this far North, but when you've got a free place to stay, away from the major fires, and you get to see your grandkids, no brainer. So we lucked out and get them for 2 nights possibly 3!!

Today the winds finally died down, but that actually makes for a lot more smoke in our area because it is settling instead of blowing away. No outside time at school and soccer practice canceled. Looks like the fires are done around us for now, but looking at all the news reports gets pretty depressing. More pictures of Gma and Gpa's unplanned visit coming soon!