Egi and the women's team starts the day along the cloudy, chilly, buy quite scenic Pacific Coast.
Harita with a flower escort.
Varunavi with a long straight road and wide shoulder, our favorite setting.
Two happy teammates as they enter the town of Guadalupe.
Our first destination was the City Hall of Guadalupe.
The women's team running in to be greeted by City Administrator, Todd Bodem.
Todd was very happy to receive the Peace Torch even on a Sunday morning when City Hall is usually closed.
A peace pole was installed many years ago which says: 'May Peace Prevail On Earth', in four languages.
Out team by the Peace Pole with Todd.
We offered Todd our Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the City of Guadalupe for his kind thoughtfulness to come out for us and even offer us a little history and guided tour.
Todd then jogged a few blocks with the Peace Torch as the women's team ran to their next destination.
Grover Beach was our next location where we were warmly greeted by Mayor Karen Bright.
City Hall was closed for the day and there was some construction around the area so she thoughtfully came to greet us at the City Transit Station.
After introducing ourselves to her she spent some time with us telling us about the history and development of Grover Beach.
I Love Grover Beach: We are so grateful to have been able to run through Grover Beach and to meet with Mayor Bright.
Roxana heading north to our next destination.
The next town we ran to was Pismo Beach.
We stopped at Monarch Butterfly Grove, where we were met by Mayor Ed Waage in a beautiful location at the entrance to the park.
The kind Mayor receives the Peace Torch and offers his kind wishes for peace.
Mayor Waage also offered us some history about the park which was a special destination for butterflies, primarily beautiful Monarchs, later in the year.
We enjoyed the fragrance of the Eucalyptus grove behind us during our inspiring meeting with Mayor Waage.
Offering the Mayor our Certificate of Appreciation for coming out to greet us today.
At the concession stand gift shop in the parking lot we met some very nice people who wished to share the torch with us and offer their own smiles and wishes for peace.
The coastal range of small mountains were still covered in a low fog as we made our way to our last destination of the day.
Along the way we met up with Elo, a young woman from San Diego who is currently attending the nearby California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), in San Luis Obispo. She is the daughter of some friends of Pransukh from San Diego, who is currently one of our main runners on our U.S.A. team.
Elo was so happy to meet up with us and run some miles with the women's team.
She was all smiles after her run and after receiving some gifts of appreciation from our team for her enthusiasm and efforts to run with the team and offer her own wishes and dreams for peace. She is preparing for her final exams as she ends her school year and then returns home for the summer. We hope to see her again in the near future to join us for a longer time.
Pujari takes the Peace Torch a bit further down the road towards our next destination with a scenic view of the ocean below.
Misty hills on one side and vast ocean on the other side.
Besides the misty hills we also briefly get some views once more of the mighty and scenic Pacific Ocean.
We finally enter into the tiny but quaint town of Harmony, population 18.
Anika and Nick, Town Managers of Harmony, welcome us to their family run town and offer us an historical tour of the their lovely galleries and shops.
Nick and Anika happily receive our small tokens of appreciation on behalf of the Manager of Harmony Valley Creamery and Kristina Vander Horst of Harmony, all of whom made this pleasant visit possible.
We walk through some of the beautiful gardens on the way to the shops.
Virangini throws the red Frisbee disc to this skilled cow on the way to the galleries.
One of the features is an historic restored Harmony Chapel, which now serves as a venue for weddings.
The pottery barn offers quite a wide variety of creative and colorful works of art from mugs, plates, bowls and various other amazing crafts hand produced right here.
The glass blowing workshop offers an incredible array of amazing works of 'mind-blowing' glass blown creations.
One of the artists busily at work.
The amazing hand-made glass creations come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors.
The final touch and very popular one was the old-fashioned ice cream truck. An old milk delivery truck from over a half-century ago was converted to an ice-cream dispensary near the entrance of Harmony, which has its own creamery as well.
Our server, whose name is also Harmony, gladly holds the Peace Torch and makes us all smile after offering us all complimentary, fresh and delicious ice creams.
A perfect way to end the long day.
The women's team are all smiles in this soon to be 'historic' portrait taken in this iconic and historic town of Harmony, California.
