Sunol Regional Park, Little Yosemite

Wednesday: (11/30) Lou made a Joe’s special scrambled eggs for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off to an appointment, I was off for my hike. It’s pretty far away at Sunol Regional Park. Neal led a loop hike around by what’s called Little Yosemite, about an 8-mile hike. It was overcast but the rain held off just until we were all in our cars heading home. Alameda Creek was flowing well through the valley. We stopped for lunch near the top at the trail camp at Hawks Nest and Eagles Aerie. Nice views and hike. I took the back roads home not getting onto the freeway. Highway 84 to Mission Boulevard down to Milpitas. I stopped at a Safeway market for a late lunch. Leftover enchiladas for dinner.

Black Friday and Beyond

Friday: (11/25) Lou and Dawn were gone most of the day shopping. I spent some time online shopping. Otherwise I tinkered on the computer. I worked on some new hike plans. Fried brown and serve rolls with peanut butter and jam. Grilled chicken and cheese sliders for lunch. Good food for dinner. Chips and dip and apple pie.

Saturday: (11/26) I Watched all the usual Saturday morning TV shows. In the afternoon I got busy cleaning out my room. I organized the cables around the new DSL modem removing a lot of unused cables that seemed to be breeding there. After that I continued cleaning and going through some of the boxes and tossing most of the contents. Lots more to do, but it’s a start. Deviled eggs and granola for breakfast. Leftover fried rice and steamed kale for lunch. Dinner at Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant.

Sunday: (11/27) Biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast. I spent the day going through the junk in my study. Lots of storage boxes stacked to the ceiling that contain little of value. I’ve filled the car with boxes of boxes to get rid  of at either the computer museum or the Friends Of The Library book sale. Also lots of files to thin. Lou and Dawn were off to San Jose’s Christmas In The Park and visiting some thrift stores all day. Leftover fried rice for lunch. Sausage and cheese English muffin Sandwich for dinner.

Monday: (11/28) I never got around to breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off early to an appointment. I tinkered on the computer all morning. Cottage cheese and fruit with a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Lou had an appointment in the evening. We both took off and shopped until her appointment. After the appointment we shared a breakfast for dinner at the Country Inn in Cupertino. Today we received our newly renewed passports in the mail. The photos look much better with the lines printed through them.

Tuesday: (11/29) Lou and Dawn were off to an appointment in the morning. They had grits for breakfast. I relaxed and tinkered at home. I also did some more cleanup in the study. about 1100 we were off to the Costco in Redwood City. On the way we stopped at Chavez Market and I got a nice breakfast burrito. i hadn’t eaten yet and it took care of lunch too. A stop at the thrift store on the way home. I made a trip to Goodwill, then Best Buy to get rid of used ink cartridges and finally visited the Friends of the library book sale to donate about four boxes of books.  That emptied my car for tomorrows hike. In the evening i made enchiladas for dinner.

Thanksgiving

Thursday: (11/24) Soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Lou was busy baking pies this morning. Contributors to today’s feast wer Ernie, Meili, Courtney, Cecelia, Dawn and Lou. I contribute only my appetite and doing the dishes. We kept it pretty small. Chicken, stuffing, carrots, sweet potatoes, cold pea salad, steamed kale, fried rice, mashed spuds, brown and serve rolls, deviled eggs, and assorted olives. For dessert apple, mince and pumpkin pies.

After dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood. Nice sunset displayed over Ventura School. Then dessert to finish the day.

SF Auto Show

 
Tuesday: (11/22) Lou dropped Ernie and I off at the train depot. We caught the 0837 train to San Francisco. In San Francisco we got breakfast at Subway then headed to the auto show at Moscone Center. Much of the show was underneath the above plaza.

 
We looked at a bunch of cars there both new and vintage. Most of the cars look the same and probably are 99% the same. They had a row of old Packard like above.

 
Above left is a car like James Bond used to drive. Above right is a nice Lamborghini SUV of old.

I liked the PGE hybrid service truck. No more need to leave the truck running when stopped.

I did find the Chevrolet Bolt to be interesting. It is reasonable priced and has a 238 mile range for an all electric. Nice. We had lunch at a nearby sandwich shop. We returned to the show but found that we had actually seen everything we wanted to so we headed back to the train. We were home about 1730. Tomales for dinner.

Wednesday: (11/23) Lou’s birthday. We went to a late breakfast at Bills Cafe in Midtown. Much of the rest of the day was out grocery shopping. Dinner was a tamale.

BART Hike Stern Grove To GG Bridge

Monday: (11/21) I made a sausage, cheese, and egg sandwich for breakfast. I carpooled up to San Francisco to Stern Grove . We met our flow hikers there. 9 of us hiked the Bay Area Ridge Trail (BART) from Stern Grove To the Arguello Gate of the Presidio. Along the way we took side trips to the top of Mt Davidson, Twin Peaks and Mt Olympus. The on through the Golden Gate Park Panhandle to the Presidio. My fellow hikers made their way back to the cars by Uber lift. I continued on through the Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge. I then caught a bus to North Beach and had dinner at Golden Boy Pizza. Then another bus to catch Caltrain home. Nice hike.

BART Stern Grove To Presidio Arguello Gate. 8.2 miles in 4 hours 15 minutes. 720 feet elevation gain. 1782 feet overall climb.

BART Presidio Arguello Gate to Golden Gate Bridge. 2.3 miles in 1 hour. 151 feet elevation gain. 480 feet overall climb.

 
Mt Davidson Cross. View from Mt Davidson.

 
More views from Mt Davidson.

 
Trails coming down Mt Davidson.

 
Views from Mt Davidson.

 
Sutro Tower. View of the city.

 
An interesting window in one of the houses we passed. Mt Olympus monument.

 
Trail through the Presidio. An interesting wavy green hill.

 
Views from Pacific Lookout.

 
The hawks above were captured by a fellow hiker, Anda.

Story Time

Saturday: (11/19) A rainy day. Lou made sausage eggs and home fried potatoes for breakfast. Tomales for lunch and dinner. We made a run to Menlo Park to look at a hot tub that was being given away. We decided due to age and that we don’t really want the bother to let it go. Of course a couple of thrift stores were inspected on the way home. In the evening we went to a Tellebration (storytelling event). Always fun. I spent some time updating a couple of our computers.

Sunday: (11/20) Cereal for breakfast. Another rainy day. We enjoyed inside activities all day. Chips and guacamole for lunch. Tomales for dinner. Lou and Dawn were of to a meeting in the evening.

Sunol Regional Park, McGuire Peaks Hike

Friday: (11/18) I made a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich for breakfast. My carpool passenger was running late and decided to go on her own. I headed off to a hike at Sunol Regional Park. Neal was leading the hike up to McGuire Peaks, This was a nice 11.4 mile hike. Nice weather, nice cows, nice fellow hikers.

Most of the trails are old farm roads but there are a few real trails.

Quite green. On the right are the last of the hikers arriving on top of one of the McGuire peaks.

Lunch on top of the world.

The Cupboard Was Bare

Thursday: (11/17) Dawn had an early dentist appointment so we delayed breakfast. We headed down to Gilroy with the intent of having breakfast at the Longhouse Restaurant. it was closed with a sign saying it was being remodeled. Hope it’s OK. We had to go to the Black Bear restaurant instead. After that we went over to look at the Sunstar 29VE motorhome that SeeGrins website said they had two of. They didn’t have any. So we looked around at other similar models, and some park model trailers and some of the Roadtrek motorhomes. Nothing too interesting. Then it was off to downtown Gilroy where Dawn sold some books to the Know Knew Books store. While Dawn was busy, Lou and I took a walk around town. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant there. A little other shopping and we returned home. No rain. Nice day.

Wunderlich Park to Alice’s Restaurant

Wednesday: (11/16) I fixed sausage egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. i was off early for a hike at Wunderlich Park in Woodside. My carpool companion became sick so i was off by myself. This is a nice hike up through mixed forest to the top of the mountain with a stop at the top at Alice’s Restaurant for lunch. We take up the whole patio with our 22 hikers. I enjoyed a nice BBQ beef brisket sandwich. We then hiked back finishing about 1400. A nice shower at home and I was good to relax. On the drive today the new rear view camera had a dimmer slightly out of focus view especially compared to the excellent quality of the forward facing camera. When I got home I removed the protective plastic film that was still on it. Lou and Dawn made a soup/stew for dinner.

 
Another nice mushroom above left. On the right the group waits at the meadow.

   
Another mushroom. The clan at the redwood  tree circle. First time hikers have to have their photo taken at the tree on the right two photos.