We’ve been looking forward to getting together with my Aunt Marti and my cousins Dan (F/K/A Danny) and Cindy. When I was growing up in El Segundo, Uncle Bob was stationed for six years at Edwards Air Force Base about 80 miles away, and we visited a lot back and forth. Then later, after he retired from the Air Force, they lived even closer, in Studio City. We always had fun with our cousins because we’re close in age, Dan a year younger than I and Cindy a year younger than Peps.

Aunt Marti invited us, and Peps who is currently living in nearby Leucadia, for dinner Tuesday night at her home in San Marcos. A devoted Air Force wife, she’s always been the consummate hostess (she hosted my bridal shower back in 1970) and sets a lovely table.

We talked and laughed and caught up with one another for several hours, and enjoyed a wonderful stroganoff dinner.

So how are we doing with our bicycling? It’s been really, really hot here, unusually so, and even more abnormally it’s been humid due to several successive hurricanes out in the Pacific. As a result we’ve had some gorgeous sunsets, coinciding with a “supermoon.”

I HATE being hot. Nevertheless, we’ve been riding our bikes every day, usually in the evening, either down the Strand toward Imperial Beach or north to Coronado. It’s so fun!

Almost every day we’ve been back to the bike shop, where we’ve spent enough money to become good buddies with an excellent young salesman named Jacob. Today Patrick got a much more comfortable ride with a bigger, springier seat, taller handlebar post, and bigger foot pedals for his size 15 feet.

On our way up to Coronado, we ride past the Navy Amphibious Base, where the Seals train, and often we see the amphibious teams hard at their training. Today we saw some over on the ocean side carrying their boats, apparently after an amphibious landing in the surf,

and another group setting out with M-16 rifles and heavy packs in this horrible heat. Bless them!