Crocket Hills Hike

Arnold Rim Trail

El Nino? What El Nino? President's Day weekend was less than ideal for skiing (we assume), but perfect for playing tennis and hiking part of the Arnold Rim Trail. We wanted to take Nate and Julie to the top of Cougar Rock, a semi-steep 3 hour jaunt with great views, one very wide river to cross, and ladybugs galore on the trail back. In fact, we've never seen so many ladybugs, all clustered along the bushes for several hundred of feet. Apparently there's a limit to how many ladybugs should be crawling on you at one time.

Birthday Hike

Gina asked what I wanted to do for my birthday, and with 70 degree weather -- and kids in school -- it was an easy choice. We were doing a Mt. Tam hike that was written up here. Half the hike was along the hills overlooking Stinson Beach (including a very old, very damaged car wreck), and the other half followed along the river above Cataract Falls (no newts, sadly). Towards the end, we had a picnic overlooking both the bay and the ocean, and before we knew it, the outing was over. We arrived home around the same time as the kids, we broke into Gina's famous lemon cake, then later they made pizza as we watched Spectre, which is about as horrible of a birthday movie as you can get, but it was still a great day.