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| View towards the Pacific from Russian Ridge |
Hi all,
This is the inaugural post for the new US Trails blog - welcome! With the new year upon us, we resolved to keep in better touch with our friends overseas, as well as here in America, so hopefully you'll find our sporadic updates interesting and/or entertaining! If you want to stop receiving updates, just email me at jltrail(at)yahoo(dot)com. Also, if I post a video, you'll probably have to log into the blog at http://ustrails.blogspot.com to view it, rather than using the link in the email. No videos this week, though...
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| Carson can't just take a normal picture, can he? |
Anyway, this weekend was a three-day weekend due to Martin Luther King's birthday, so we took advantage of the extra day to sleep in, take a hike and do some GeoCaching, and do some DIY home improvements! The morning was foggy, like pea-soupy, so after a latte we packed lunch and headed up to Skyline Drive 2000 feet above Mountain View for a short hike in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. Up there the sun was shining, the breeze warm, and the hawks and kestrels soaring.
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| The GPS says the GeoCache is thataway! |
We walked about 2 miles, stopping for a picnic among the oaks and redwoods. We noticed lots of what we think was coyote scat, complete with small rodent jaw bones, and deer tracks but no deer. After a lunch of turkey and avocado we followed the GPS pointer to the GeoCache called Quercus, which I failed to photograph but which was hidden about 20 feet off the path under a bush in a metal ammunition box. We signed in and inspected the contents, which included some small toys, a shoe lace, a pack of wet wipes, and various other small treasures. We weren't able to add anything but will next time. GeoCaching could be the Next Big Thing for us - actual motivation to get the kids out walking with us! A real treasure hunt!
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| View towards the Bay, above the fog |
Anyway, after completing the circuit we took some pictures at the view point, then drove back down windy Page Mill Road into the valley. The fog had burned off in Mountain View by the time we got home, so Carson and Annett rode their bikes down to the used book store in Mountain View to re-stock on Warriors books. I stayed home and replaced the horrific ceiling fan our previous tenants had installed without permission. I also managed to accidentally step through the drywall so put a nice crack in the ceiling as well! Super. Nothing a bit of joint compound can't fix!
Tomorrow it's back to school and work, and then in two weeks it's off to Disney World!
Hope all's well and let us know what's up!
