A warm fall day brought Mike and I to the Santa Monica mountains of California - to Paramount Ranch - for a get-together with the members of the DQ Times Staff. Mike and I arrived at the "Ranch" after the long drive up from San Diego and walked into town to see if the others had arrived yet ... As we stood there, looking at this dilapidated and rundown town the sense of isolation was very strong. Could this desolate place really have been the warm, often times loving, often times turbulent town of Dr. Mike's Colorado Springs?

The flies buzzed about our heads and the dry brush rustled as we walked past and whispered of things gone by and memories long remembered and shared by so many people.

Soon Pam, Carolyn, Paul, Penny, Mary Ann and Debbie arrived and after a quick greeting and a couple of pictures for old times sake, we headed out for cheerier ground ...

With Venice Beach and lunch as our target we loaded into the vehicles, made a quick stop at the good ole GoodNite Inn ... and then headed back down the freeway to Venice Blvd. As the group had not been to the Pacific Resident Theatre but had heard lots about it, we made a "quick" stop to show them around ... Turns out the crew was inside working on the sets for their next production - Lady Chatterley's Lover.. And who turned out to be in the crew ... but Frank and Orson! As they worked away with a little help from Mike we had a chance to chat with them for a bit before heading to Orson's recommended restaurant for Lunch - Angels just down the street.

After a great but late lunch, we wandered along the Venice Beach area up through Santa Monica and Malibu hoping out of the car occasionally so people could take pictures. We arrived back at the "Inn" and caught up while waiting for Colleen Kehl and Pat Blair to arrive. From there we headed to the Hamburger Heaven for supper ... well sort of supper ... after all most of us had just eaten lunch. Penny and Paul headed off on their own to celebrate their anniversary.

We headed back to the Inn after dinner, chatted for a bit and then Mike and I boarded our trusty steed (my Maxima) and headed back to San Diego. It was a long but uneventful drive (fortunately) and we arrived home quickly with only a gas stop and a stop to drop the role of film in the night deposit. We have to have our priorities straight here .... Need to be able to pick the film up first thing the next morning.

So click here for a look at a few of the pictures I took during the course of the day galavanting about in the Santa Monica Mountains .....