Grandparents in the Fog

Last weekend, while Bill and Faith were here, we planned a hike up to the top of Black Mountain.  Since the normal trails were on the long-ish side, I cleverly planned ahead and got a permit to park at the top of Montebello Road, making it an easy climb of 500 ft over two miles on a dirt road that is in good enough shape that I sometimes ride my road bike on it.

I couldn't, however, cleverly plan the weather.  It was gorgeous the week previous, and it's back to 70F and sunny this week, but we got fog over the weekend, making it hard to see the normal views of the Bay in one direction and the ocean in the other.

Can you tell Faith is near the summit?

It was interesting photogenic fog that changed every couple of minutes, at least.

Despite being a bit tired, Nim was still cute

and goofy! I declined to piggyback her all the way down (95lb is TOO MUCH for that)

One hopes that grandparents had a good time.  It looks like they did.

Happy New Year

To celebrate New Years' Day, we headed out on a family bike ride on the levees in the edge of the bay near Alviso.

Nimue is now big enough to have stolen/inherited my mountain bike.  I think that means I get a new one at some point.  As it is, I can ride my commute bike on much of the terrain I would mountain bike on locally.

Nim actually smiled while riding with Chad.  That is, before she got tired...

We also inadvertently investigated Drawbridge, the Bay Area's only ghost town.  A few buildings on stilts can still be seen in the marsh near where Coyote Creek enters the bay --  all that is left of a collection of 90 buildings that comprised a thriving railroad town back in the day.

(I've seen this before, but there was a new interpretive plaque, so now we know why there are weird old buildings out in the mud.)

A good start to the New Year.