You would never guess from the beautiful, natural setting here that you were within a stone's throw of Magic Mountain.  We are at Valencia Travel Village in Castaic, CA which is north of Los Angeles.  We stayed here on our way to Florida last February and enjoyed it so much that we returned.

The top picture is of the huge BBQ pit and the next is a typical view of the surrounding mountains.  Guess who is hamming it up in the bottom picture.

The drive here was easy as long as we were on US 99 but became more difficult on I-5 in the Grapevine area.  The climb up is very steep and, if you lose momentum, you are stuck going slowly for the whole time.  Then, after the top of the climb you have to be careful of all the 18 wheelers that are going faster than they should on the descent.  Very nerve wracking.

Tomorrow we will meet family members who live in San Diego.  We are looking forward to dinner with nephew Steven, and niece Stacy and her family.