When all the stars were falling.....

That's kind of how it seemed this morning anyway for the Perseid meteor shower. It was a bit of an adventure getting to see it though!

Lucie and I stayed up late last night (won't humiliate myself by telling you what movie she talked me into watching!) and I passed out somewhere around 1 am--poor Lucie had insomnia last night and didn't fall asleep until 3. Brave little trooper she is though, she crawled out of bed when I woke her at 4 in the morning and we drove down Hobble Creek Canyon heading for the Boy Scout campgrounds about 20 miles away. On the way we passed a badger in the road, numerous deer and something white that zipped up the hillside beside us before either one of us could really see it--tho we know it was bigger than a breadbox!

Reached the turnoff, headed up the worlds most rocky road and bumped up that for a couple of miles (praying I wouldn't pop a tire!) only to be stopped by a miniature lake/oversize pond in the road! Backed down (still dark out kids!) and managed to turn around. We ended up parking at the end of someone's driveway (the house was out of sight up and around a hill) and settled in to watch the show. For being a bit cloudy out in the forty minutes we had before the horizon started lighting we counted 20 meteors between the two of us and watch Orion rise from behind the mountain in front of us. Some of the meteors were real dazzlers--I spotted a red streak and one that, in the growing dawn, glowed minty green.

The one bummer was that I borrowed Jase's digital camera and wasn't able to use it for the light show since I had no idea how to set it for a timed exposure, but I got several beautiful shots of the sunrise so it was worth it. We joked about being eaten by mountain lions as we traipsed across the road to a pasture where Lucie had spotted some horses, though she couldn't convince them to come closer and then headed back for the car. No sooner than we got into the car and started it then the property owner drove by, rolled down his window and asked if he could help us. I smiled, said how we'd just watched the meteor shower and were actually off for home but thanks just the same and he drove away.

Got home to a bowl of Life cereal and a shower while Lucie crawled sleepily back into bed, though she did stay awake long enough to watch me off to work at 7:30.

What a beautiful way to spend the morning! I can't wait until the next "light show" on my birthday!!!!!