and are contemplating never coming back

If you recall from my last Peak a Week writeup, I’m trying to hike at least one peak every week in 2010 to get exercise and explore the Bay Area. This week, Linus and I hiked Skyline Ridge Park. I had work meeting work down in Redwood City (going over our new county protocols), and afterward used the jaunt down the Peninsula as an excuse to explore some of the beautiful trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

There are so many hiking areas over in that area! Zooming around on Google Maps checking out where I would be for the meeting (I am still learning the Peninsula at this point), it seemed like there was park after park after open space preserve. I couldn’t narrow it down! I finally just picked one randomly. Skyline Ridge it was.

What a special hike. Linus and I did a 7 mile loop which goes by two pristine alpine ponds and hits a couple absolutely stunning views. It wasn’t too steep or too strenuous, but it was a great walk and you felt so isolated and alone in nature. This is a hike I’d absolutely love to bring Earl on sometime in the future.

Have I mentioned before that Earl sort of hates hiking? He considers it “just walking” and also “a waste of time.” That’s often the problem you run into when you date a mathematician- they tend to be so pragmatic! If I play my chips correctly I can luck out with getting Earl to agree to … oh… 1 or 2 hikes every six months. The rest of the time, I am happy to go with other friends (who actually ENJOY hiking) or don’t mind spending hours in the woods with my dog walking (or running) around solo. I just like getting out in the woods and getting exercise. To me, anything with such fresh air and such sweeping skyscapes could never be a waste of time! Conversely, reading an advanced algebra book for 4 hours straight could be a waste of time for me, so hey…

The drive up Route 35 (Skyline Boulevard) to get to this hike was an adventure itself. Such twisty, turny roads we have in California! They make the “twisty, turny” roads I grew up on in New England seem like drag strips. Sometimes we respond in the ambulance to calls up in these hills, although I have yet to go Code Three through a road like that. I think I would just put the lights and sirens on and still drive it safe and slow. You’d have to- the roads swerve and turn so much, you could never get any speed up!

Once we made it to the park, it was a very basic trailhead. My faithful buddy is ready to go.

We started with some subtle climbs through a lot of grasslands and Christmas tree “escapees” from a nearby Christmas tree farm.

Looking back you could see the parking lot where we started. It was a beautiful, clear afternoon.

Even in the “dead” of winter, the sides of the trail were peppered with wildflowers. I believe these are thistles?

This tree was even producing some fruit. I think it’s pears.

Yikes! Watch out, Linus!

A Christmas tree farm escapee.

After about two miles, we reached the first pond of the hike. This is Alpine Pond. Boy, was it silent and pristine. No wind, no street noise or other humans around. The only thing I saw moving were a couple ducks.

There was a visitor Educational Wilderness Center on the perimeter of the pond. They had some binocular stands set up so you could zoom in and look at wildlife on the pond, and also a bunch of displays talking about the area. I found out the area used to be filled with hog farming.

The setup of the pond was entirely handicap-accessible. If you are looking for somewhere to take disabled loved ones who want to enjoy the outdoors and wildness, this spot is highly recommended. You can drive to the visitor center at Alpine Pond on a dirt fireroads and the pond has several wheelchair access ramps, viewing spots and trails.

Can you tell the reflection vs. the actual?

We found some (rasp? olallie?)berries nearby. Was tempted, but figured it would be safer not to sample.

Upon leaving the visitor center, the trail climbed a but more and opened up, offering these gorgeous skyscapes of the Santa Cruz Mountains:

Linus was more interested in what was climbing around on the rocks than appreciating the view.

These poofy (germinating? Geeze I need to study up on some botany, it would really help me appreciate things on these hikes a whole lot more!) plants were blowing the puffy white material all over the trail. You could even see them floating through the air over the valley.

I also spotted two hawks circling over the valley, although they were too high and my camera not high quality enough to capture them correctly. Watching their swooping dives as they hunted was mesmerizing; Linus and I stood there for a long while just appreciating the poetic beauty of their elegant flight (flight of DEATH for some mouse… lol).

A few more miles, and we descended down to pond #2, this one called Horseshoe Lake. It was a little less picturesque than alpine pond, and felt somewhat less isolated (perhaps because it was nearer to the trailhead and also at a lower elevation? Not sure), however was still nice. I saw some fish jumping and ducks swimming.

At this point in the hike we were almost done (under a mile to go) so Linus and I attempted a self portrait. Linus was not really cooperating.




I give up!

When we got home I gave Linus a bath and thorough combing checking for ticks. I feel very adamantly that dogs should be allowed to run off leash in the woods (as long as pets are allowed off leash and also they remain under voice control), because that’s such a big part of their doggy nature, however I worry about ticks. Plus, if I ever bring Linus home with ticks on him, I get read a big riot act by Earl who despises them and thinks they’re very gross. So Woofer gets a very thorough checking in his scruff and ears, plus an all over combing and often a bath after every time I take him out in the woods. Despite his tick collar that I put on him for hikes (and also tick powder), I generally find about two buggers on him which promptly get flicked off if we’re still outside or flushed if not. Ticks are so awful. Do they have any net benefits to the eco system? Can we just exterminate them all with no negative results? I know one dog (and one boyfriend) who would be a lot happier did they not exist.

Regardless, this was a great hike and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re on the Peninsula and want gorgeous views, not *too challenging* and also seek the peaceful feeling of being alone in the wilderness.

Our gander down the California seacoast over New Years was so special and so dear to my heart that I almost feel it would be crass to share too much. Sometimes with blogging I have to remind myself to keep certain things earmarked as just for me- instead of braying them all over the internet. On that note, I am simply going to post up a few photos from our adventure and leave it at that. Earl, Linus and I had an amazing time exploring the shoreline and rang in 2010 in an unforgettable manner.

I hope you all had a stupendous New Years.

One of the many beaches where we stuck our toes in the sand on a foggy grey morning.
The way the waves were crashing into these rocks and sending ocean spray flying- not only was the air perfumed with salty goodness, but the visuals were absolutely stunning.

We sat for a while watching the tide flow in and out from in between this rock gully.

Interesting looking erosion on this seaside rock. Apparently it has an interesting smell, as well!

5’ in front of the picnic bench where we sat sipping our coffee, this was going on:

Oh, joyful way to wake up on a lazy morning!

One of the state parks we visited had this placard about how it used to be a butter and cheese mecca. Sounds like my kinda family empire

We took a tour to see Elephant Seals!

An Alpha asserts his dominance.

They looked like big sea slugs just lying around! We were about 25ft from them at all times. Moving around at a surprisingly fast clip, we saw them undulating like big eels.

Slapping sand over themselves to stay warm and ward off bugs

A little further away, we saw a mother seal give birth, and a swarm of gulls descended to eat the placenta. There was also a very brave coyote skirting around hoping to get some placenta and dead seal pups.

Nerd vs Elephant Seal

This is Ano Nuevo Island. It used to be a Peninsula, but has since eroded into an island. Also, this house was built in the 1920s from redwood planks. It has been abandoned since 1950, but still stands true despite being zero maintenance and constant beatings from ocean waves and winds. A testament to the strong redwood boards and old-style craftsmanship. It is also entirely inhabited by seals, sea lions and gulls! Humans do not set foot on the island.

An Alpha and his “harem.” Bow chica wow wow….


This guy found a spot all to himself! Must be an exiled beta.

We whiled away an afternoon noshing cheeses (and cheeses, and cheeses) at a goat farm

Hadley Farms hosts ornate gourmet, locally grown dinners in the goat farm in this charming old barn. We’d love to come back for one, although at $150 per ticket (for a 5-hour “experience”) they are a tad beyond our current budget.

Hullo, ladies

Hadley Goat Farm

Our stowaway! We did not drink champagne on the balcony at midnight (we were erm… in bed!) nor did we utilize the outdoor hottub, but E and I have avowed to return and take full advantage soon.

We cozied up with a bottle of this

Oh hey! You’re eating brie on a rosemary olive oil rustic loaf? I’d like some if you’re feeling kind.

CJ + couch + corg

Oh, hello there! Our co-habitant, Ivy in all her glory.

Canine and swine bond over their love of carrots! Linus was *very* scared of Ivy. He was curious, and went up to smell her, but then was skittish and backed away whenever she would stick her nose through the fence. Ivy was SUPER friendly- very personable!! She was such a sweet girl and completely charmed us for the days we stayed with her. The pig makes a hard case against eating bacon.

Sniff, sniff. You guys got anymore carrots out there?

We happened upon this pumpkin field of sheep. I wish I had a polarizer, because this photo does not do the colors we saw justice! Think very bright greens with striking oranges.

Wouldn’t be a complete trip without a burger and a beer!

Earl has been instructed not to read this (seeing as he’s the administrator of this site, it’s impossible to keep secrets from him if I want to write about them here).

But, I will let you all in on a surprise, as he’s promised not to read.

Guess what? Over New Years, I am taking my beloved away on a romantic trip! Our first real vacation in over a year and a half!!! This is very exciting because it punctuates the end of my period of “unemployment” and “career change” and “being broke” and all the sad, empty wallet and second guessing/soul searching side effects that come with that decision.

We’re heading down the coast to a bed and breakfast Pescadero and Ano Nuevo State Park to see elephant seal mating season. Star watching, oceanside picnics, mountaintop hikes, bottles of champagne, wine tasting and potbellied pigs are all on the agenda. You heard right. The bed and breakfast we’re staying at has a pet pot bellied pig! So cute, right? We’re even bringing Linus, so I wonder how he will react when meeting the pig, who is apparently housebroken and lives in the main house, using his own piggy-sized doggie door to come and go at his leisure.

Here is the “room” (it’s a 2-story tower! we get the whole thing) where we will be staying:

We shall be sitting on that balcony at midnight on New Years Eve, looking out over the ocean, sharing a snog and toasting to the new decade!

and here es le oinker:

I am so, SO excited for this trip and all that it represents. It fills me with joy to be able to pay for us to do something like this myself, FINALLY. Even though this trip is just a small weekend, it makes me very happy to do something special for Earl after all of the love and support he has given me over the past year and a half.

Here is to a marvelous start to 2010!

Today is my day off, and Linus and I are heading out to suburbia to play a little social call on my Aunt Mimi and Uncle Terry. I’m excited because it has been far too long since I’ve seen them, and Linus is excited because they have a penchant for giving him all kinds of snacks, particularly his beloved CHEESE (ohboyohboyohboy).

One of my favorite recent memories of my aunt is her munching on some cheez-its as Linus sat afoot. She asked me, “can I give him a chip?” “Sure,” I told her. She tossed Linus a chip and as he inhaled it, she was delighted. “Oh boy, look! He liked it!” ….. as if there was ever any doubt??! Lady, ye know not my dog. To this day, she always gets a thrill when she’s eating something, gives some to Linus, and he “likes it.”

ha ha. You could give Linus a rock, and if you pretended it was edible, and he would eat it.

Another funny thing Linus does at their house (now that we are wise to this, we don’t let him do it anymore) is wait until we are all distracted, then wander into her flower garden outside near the driveway AND EAT HER STRAWBERRIES OFF THE VINE. I find this hilarious. I’ve never seen a dog eat strawberries directly off a plant before. Guess he learned how to forage well during his time in the wild!

Additionally, while out in Pleasanton I have to run the thrilling errand of arguing at the Verizon store to get a new phone for free because the one I have now is a total dud which has been shutting off randomly and giving me a very static-y connection.

Finally, I’m hoping to sneak in a little hike/run up Pleasanton Ridge, time permitting.

Friday night I did something exciting. I was about three hours into a six-hour stretch of studying when, taking break to peruse the internet, I stumbled across this post. Inspiration hit- I had to make that bread! Dubbing it a “welcome home from work” present to Earl, I figured it would be nice to have fresh-baked bread smelling up the house when he walked in. Deep down, however, I was guilty of really making the bread for myself; *I* wanted the honeyspice bread, Earl be damned. Funny, the silly reasons you use to justify that which you desire.

I say “exciting” because I’ve never attempted to bake bread from scratch. It was a fun project which weaved nicely into my studying- make dough, let it rise for a couple hours while read another chapter, take a break to punch down and knead dough, do another chapter while letting it rise again. Then bake for an hour while finishing the reading. It was a wonderful incentive for me to power through the (tedious!) studying.

Kneading bread is harder than you’d think! The recipe I used calls for you to knead in increments of 5 and 10 minutes. Phew. I was tired after about 2 minutes! But, the results were stupendous- the bread was SOOO good. We had it with butter, more of it with cheese, I brought a bunch in to class on Saturday to share, and then this morning E and I killed off the last bit as toast with jam and butter for breakfast.

Waiting for the yeast to activate

the name of the bread is “honeyspice” … it has a lot of spices- cloves, coriander, ginger and cinnamon. I’ve never really cooked with coriander before, but man it smelled GOOD.

adding spices to the bread base

the dough:

knead, knead, knead

cover and let rise one hour (lol- just noticed my naked lady napkin here…haha… it’s from the Strip House in NYC… ah, days as a banker when I used to eat there all the time. heh. life is so different now!)

the chef is NOT above sampling the dough!

or, for that matter, licking the spoon (the chef is, apparently, above cleaning the mirrors)

after rising for 1 hour, you “punch” it down once. I don’t really get the point of this. Why do you need to punch it if you’re going to knead it again for another 5 minutes? :shrug: After delivering punch and more kneading, you let it rise again. I had the dough rising in the (turned off) oven because it was the warmest, un-breeziest place I could think of in the apartment

ta da! thar she is! while this was baking, the apartment smelled incredibly delicious. i don’t have a round baking pan, but this casserole dish did an adequate job. Bread came out a little funky shaped, but still edible.

we noshed it straight out of the oven with some butter… absolutely scrumptious

Leftover bread made for some yummy toast Monday morning

Monday am breakfast

Saturday I had class all day, then met Earl at the gym for lifting, after which we headed to Dolores Park to watch The Dark Knight under the stars with some friends. Because we got there late and due to the MASSIVE CROWD, we couldn’t find our friends. We set up a picnic with Linus, and were caught unawares when the sprinklers turned on. Aye!! Sadly, I spilled about half of my beer jumping away. This was not as bad, however, as the homeless guy near us who knocked over his ENTIRE CART filled with empty bottles and cans. They all rolled down the hill, making an enormous racket. I was somewhat surprised to see 20 people sitting around watching the movie get up and helped the homeless guy collect all his cans that had rolled away. Faith in humanity restored? Very nice gesture.

After the movie we grabbed more beer and hung out at our friend Matt’s house off the park. My tolerance must be low because of my diet and exercise kick, because man, I became kind of bombed after only a couple beers! We ended up staying out shooting the breeze until 2:00am, which was… not the smartest move because we had to wake up at 8am to head to the beach the following morning. Oof.

The crowd at the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight in Dolores Park

our little picnic… pre-sprinkler soaking

Linus getting comfy at Matt’s. Matt’s place could stand a woman’s touch some … decor :p

Sunday we headed to Gray Whale Cove with a two car loads of friends. I recruited two of them to come running with me up a mountain by the beach. Our “run” turned into more of a “hike” as it was basically straight up the mountain! I’d say we ran about… eh…. 30% of the time. Two hour hike, great views. Hanging out on the beach after the run was SO NICE. Fortunately, I wasn’t that hungover but I was enormously tired. I powered through some of my flashcards for school (about three chapters worth) and then pulled my Chugach Powder Guides hat down over my eyes and eagerly dove into a delectable two hour nap.

Something about falling asleep on a beach: plant the tired old dogs in the sand, listen to the waves crash, feel the caress of ocean breezes… so relaxing and indulgent. Easily one of my all-time favorite things. My nap was sadly disrupted when Earl woke me up with a scolding for not putting sunscreen on the back of my legs. Whaaaaa…? Huh?? I sleepily waved off his chiding, flopped over, and resumed snoring away. That is… until he decided to teach me a lesson by STUFFING ICE FROM THE COOLER DOWN MY SPORTS BRA aggggGGGgggghhhh

Kathleen and Julie check out the view on our run

Looking over to Montara State Beach from the mountain

we headed up, up, up to North Peak

Julie, looking out over towards Pacifica. It was so clear, we could see Sutro Tower all the back in San Francisco.

the three of us at the summit- we are sweaty and gross, but psyched! it took us just over an hour and a half to get to the top, and only half an hour to get back down

heading back down- a nice view of the trail we came up

there were so many wildflowers along the trail. these ones were as tall as us!

I have no idea how she did it, but when we got back to the beach, Julie still had enough energy to play frisbee AND smashball… whereas I opted to impersonate a log.

Kathleen caught up on her magazines

Linus, who did NOT come on the run/hike (I wasn’t all that sure about him handling the mileage- he hasn’t been running with me all that much lately other than short neighborhood jogs) did get plenty of exercise running around on the beach

we buried him in the sand! it’s so funny how he loves this

sand dog gets buried

look at this grin. Julie snapped this great shot

corgi smile

gee, being the center of all this attention sure makes me thirsty!

we also kept giving him ice chips as a snack and to help him stay cool

Linus LOVES the beach. Isn’t this a happy looking dog?

hugs at the beach

he kept digging in the sand trying to get his ball. so cute

dog vs. ball

i attempted to get artsy and take a self portrait in Earl’s sunglasses

Back in the city on Sunday night, still very gross from running and the beach (by this point I reeked and my hair had morphed into one giant dreadlock), we noshed at Big Mouth Burger which was FANtastic. Best burger place we’ve found in San Francisco, and TOTALLY worth getting off my diet for!

Scrumptious burger put the button on a great day

Big Mouth bacon blue-cheeseburger

Today I had my volunteer interview with another ER in San Francisco (I love the “little ER that could” where I currently volunteer, however it’s a very low-level trauma center and we do not have ER Technicians. As I’m hoping to become an ER Technician within the next year or so, I think it’s a good idea to gain some experience where I can work alongside them… and perhaps start making some contacts at a place where I will potentially be applying for a job). I passed my interview, which is a relief because I’ve heard it’s very competitive to get in there… and they are having a massive influx of volunteers- probably the economy and also everyone switching career paths into healthcare. Once my background check and TB Test results (again! agh… they wouldn’t accept my March TB Test results as it has to be within three months… blegh) come in I’ll be set to start.