Lafayette Ridge Trail

 

 

 

I found a wonderful trail in Briones Park just north of Lafayette: the Lafayette Ridge Trail (accurately named since it affords the best views down through the Lafayette valleys). After a brief climb from the parking lot across from Acalanes High School, it passes the horse stalls and then does a gradual upward, rollercoaster ride to Russell Peak. Here's a screenshot of the Google Earth image with GPS overlay.

Back to school!

 

 

One enthusiastic first grader, and one proud kindergartener.

Last day of summer break

 

On Monday we celebrated the end of summer break with a bang. First the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park. Although it was as expensive and completely mobbed as we had heard, we enjoyed the rainforest "building within a building", 3D bug movie, aquarium, penguins and of course, the famed albino alligator. But that was just the beginning: when the crowds become unbearable, we did drinks/dessert at Beach Chalet with a view of the ocean, grabbed a coffee from the famed Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk in Hayes Valley, then finished the day with an outside dinner at Jupiter in Berkeley.

What do you do with new worms?

 

 

 

Go fishing, of course. These photos are from this morning at the Lafayette Reservoir. All in all, we caught five TINY bluegill.

Strangest FedEx shipment

 

I moved our wormbin in our backyard and baked the inhabitants, so as a result I had to order to European Nightcrawlers as replacements. Julie is shown here inspecting the recent FedEx delivery.

Sierra vacation summer 2009

Another vacation, another Picasa web album:

Arnold Summer 2009

GPS on bike

I created a connector for my GPS to store and display trip data. Here's the result of my first try: a breadcrumb recording of a bike ride yesterday (and it includes all subsequent rides I've taken).

View Lafayette Moraga Trail in a larger map
The ride was out to the Lafayette/Moraga trail, down at the end of one side of the trail past Moraga, to the hardware store, then to the other side of the trail towards Walnut Creek and back.

And in: Google Earth

Adult Praying Mantis

 

 

We keep finding the grown up, adult praying mantises between our pool and side garden. Sometimes they're green, sometimes brown. This one was one of the largest and tried to escape my hedging the ground covers.

Seattle Trip Pictures

Seattle Summer 2009