I start my day during the week fairly early compared to many. While I am retired, and can choose my own time schedule, my friends Shari and Mary also get up at what we affectionately call “the butt crack” of dawn.

It’s been twenty five years of this 6:00 am call to action. We joke about just how much more weight we’d be lugging around if we didn’t take this walk each day. It’s our maintenance drug that requires no refills, no doctor visits and no insurance forms!! It’s FREE!!

Our friends who live on the east coast think we are wimpy when we pull up our hoods in the winter and put on our gloves. We don’t care…no snow boots for us!!

Our walk each day consists of touring the campus at Loyola Marymount University, right in our own backyard. This beautiful institution over 100 years old, was recently voted as the 7th most beautiful campus in the United States. We happen to know why; because our walk includes the company of the landscapers who busy themselves with mowing the lawns, blowing the leaves, pruning the trees and shrubs and picking up the trash.

The campus is situated within our Westchester community, a small community in comparison to the city of Los Angeles, where we live. You can stand on the bluffs and see the ocean and the Hollywood sign all at the same time.

And you can see the brilliant buildings that stand tall and proud in their glistening gold reflection as the sun comes up in the East.

We started as a rather large group over 25 years ago, dwindled down to 4 until Lee flew the coop and moved to Las Vegas…now it’s just the three of us. We have managed to be TV reviewers, restaurant critics, book club members, and travel partners. Didn’t mean to skip shopping partners!

I will be posting pictures of our walks and I hope you enjoy seeing what we find beautiful in the quiet time of the morning. That requires some clarification…we are certainly not quiet…in fact at times we have had the students shout out their dorm rooms to pipe down…we just love that…something about retribution that strikes our fancy!!!

I can’t seem to help myself when it comes to the “wild life” on campus…

Stay tuned for the morning antics brought to you by three “old” friends!!