Adventures in California (Part 1 of many...)

As promised last week, here's the post for this week and last weekend.

As I believe I mentioned previously, the weather here is amazing.  Like imagine a day that is the quintessential spring/summer day and it's like that here.  Every day.  It gets into the 50s at night and into the low 80s during the day.  A slight wisp of clouds/fog helps the transition from a refreshing morning into a beautiful afternoon.  When we first arrived, we thought we just had arrived on a great day.  Then the weather was the same the next day.  And the next and the next. :)

Anyway, this weather lends itself perfectly to planning outdoor activities.  So, Bridget and I took full advantage of it last weekend.  We went on a nice hike on the foothills that separate Palo Alto from the Pacific Ocean.  Now, quick geography refresher.  Click on the image to make it bigger to read the text labels. :)

Map of the Area

San Francisco sits at the very tip of a peninsula that lies between the Pacific Ocean (on the West) and the San Francisco Bay (on the Easy).  It doesn't really loo like a peninsula because it doesn't stick out into the Ocean, it just kind of follows the coast. Anyway, if you follow the southern coast of the San Francisco Bay, you will pass right by Palo Alto as you head to San Jose, which is at the end of the bay.  As the bay sweeps southeast, the peninsula widens until it merges with the rest of the land and you can't tell a difference.  As the peninsula begins widening just south of San Francisco, foothills begin to rise from the flat countryside.  By the time they get to the Palo Alto area, they are quite a formidable height, although many a biker enjoys the challenge of biking up (and the flying back down) the hills.

Anyway, to end the digression, Bridget and I went hiking in the hills just outside of Palo Alto.  We drove up about as high as we could go and then hiked around for a bit.  But on the way up, we passed at least 200 bikers.  It was insane!  Just like most of them!  And some of them had gaudy bike jerseys, like these...

Really?  Yes, people do wear stuff like this...

Now, I have worn my fair share of athletic attire that some would refer to as, ... well, let's just say they wouldn't wear it on their body.  So, I am most likely the pot calling the kettle black, but I have often wondered what possesses them to wear that stuff.

Anyway, we passed about 200 less-than-fashion-conscious bikers on our way up.  The road was really steep and windy; very reminiscent of the roller-coaster taxi rides in Thailand.  Glad it was a short ride.  Once we got up to the top, it was a bit cloudy.  Which actually ended up being really cool.  So, without claiming to be a meteorologist, here's the scoop on the cloudiness around here.  Moist air from the ocean cools and heads inland, buffeted by the natural breeze.  This air becomes cloudy as the moisture makes fog and clouds.  And the breeze/wind pushes it up the foothills on the western side and the clouds race up and then spill over and down the eastern side toward Palo Alto.  However, the air on the eastern side is warmer, so the clouds only last until the sun and warm air "burns it off".  So, in the morning when the air hasn't warmed up yet, we often have light cloud cover.  By mid-morning, however, it's normally gone.

So, rewinding to our hike last weekend, we made it to the top of the foothills when it was still cloudy up there.  We hiked out about 1.5 miles in the clouds, but could feel the strong breeze pushing the clouds up the hills.  On our way back, we hiked around the western edge of the ridge and could actually see the clouds rushing up and over the ridge.  It was so cool!  By the time we got back to the car, the clouds had burnt off and we got some nice views of the bay.  It was such a blast!  Here are a few of our favorite pictures. :)

Panorama of the Bay

The clouds rushing over the road on our way up

Notice who has both bags... :)

Bridget's magical tree picture!

Little flowers

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed over to one of the other fellows' house for lunch and tennis with her and her husband.  We brought some salad and they made some chicken on the grill.  It was really good.  And tennis was alot of fun.  Tennis is pretty much a year-round sport here, much unlike the Midwest.  So, Bridget and I got some rackets at a garage sale two weeks ago and have been practicing every now and then.  Unfortunately, the practice really didn't do too much and we got slaughtered, but it was still a lot of fun. :)

The rest of Sunday was pretty chill.  We relaxed a bit and then braced ourselves for the oncoming week!  Bridget had her first week of nannying on her own.  It went really well.  She's having a blast so far!  My week was pretty busy, as is to be expected by now. :)  But, that's about all I've got for now.  I'll need to go back and add some details from a few weeks ago, but it'll have to wait...

Until then,
~ Jeremy