And the winner is... (Plus our hike for the Relay)

 Thanks to everyone who donated to our team for the Relay for Life.  We raised over $500 for the American Cancer Society!

I just drew a name from the list of donors to win one of my necklaces (see the last post).  And the winner is...

...Patricia Place!!!

I'll be contacting her, getting her mailing address, and sending this off to her this week.

Thanks to everyone who donated, walked, or helped in some other way!!!

We couldn't make it back to Texas for the relay so the California portion of the team was allowed to walk here.  I first thought about walking a track like the rest of the team, then the park, then Lauren wanted to hike up Mt. Diablo.  

Last week Glenn watched an episode of "Best of the Bay" where they listed the best beaches in the Bay Area.  One of the beaches was a beach with a waterfall right onto the sand... Alamere Falls.  So we set off to find it.

The hike started out along the coast (see Jo in the first photo) and then moved inland under the redwoods.

That's where we met this little guy -- a banana slug.  These are popular at science camp.  The kids dare each other to lick them.  Not sure why... anyone know?

I almost stepped on this one but I didn't lick it.

 After a two-hour hike we made it to the cliff where the falls start.  We stopped for lunch then climbed down the first cliff.  It wasn't too bad.  Here you can see me & Glenn coming down.  

The view was worth the hike!  There were three falls at this level.  But then an even steeper cliff went down to the beach.  We started but Glenn & I decided that even though we probably could do it, we probably shouldn't do it.  :-)

So the girls went down without us & took a picture of us at the top of the falls. 

I think we're all a little sore today but it was a great hike and a fun day with family & even met a few people along the trail.

The Last Day of Spring Break

 ...and actually the only day of spring break for me!  :-)  I worked all week & then cleaned house yesterday before Glenn & Jordy got home.

So today we went over to the Marin headlands so Jordy could take some photos.  I took some but not nearly as many as she did.

BTW, I think my new iPhone takes better pictures than my 5+ year old camera!

 I took some pictures of Jordy taking pictures.

 We tried to hike out to the lighthouse at Bonita Point.  The trail was open but the lighthouse part was closed.  The wind was a little cool but other than that it was a beautiful day!

Grandpa... did you take Jordann here?  She can remember being here but neither of us could.

I think I hear snoring... either Glenn snuck upstairs and went to sleep or Maowie is snoring over on the couch. Either is a possibility.

 We drove down the point, hiked up over the bunkers, and took some photos back of the lighthouse.

On another note... isn't it amazing how fast news travels now that we have Facebook?

My Gym

 I don't have a gym membership.  I've been walking a 2.87 mile loop from my house.  (I used mapmyride.com to figure how far it is.)  When it's raining I walk up & down the stairs.  And we try to hike Mt. Diablo every now & then.

Now that the weather is getting nicer I decided to go to Newhall Park and walk on Tuesdays.  See the little patch of trees on top of the hill?  That's my goal.

 Here's my Stairmaster:

It's steeper than it looks in this picture!  (Or maybe I'm just that out of shape?)

 I made it to the top!

You can see my treadmill from here.

These were taken with my iPhone.  I didn't edit the color at all on these.  It was a gorgeous day!

This is looking back on the other side of the hill.   I thought the clouds looked very unique so I took a picture of them.  What's funny is that Jordy saw these clouds at school and took a picture that looks just like this one!

I can see my house from here!

First Garden Update of the Year

 I'm not sure who else in the family has planted their tomatoes.  I probably won't win the tomato contest this year... unless you count the SIZE of the tomato plants.  And unless my plants get as big as they did last year.  I didn't plant Early Girls.  I'm trying some new varieties.  An heirloom, called Mortgage Lifter (hoping that one works!) and a smaller one called San Francisco Fog .  It's been cool this week, they survived the freak rain/hail/sleet/snow storm we had but they don't look any bigger than when I planted them a few weeks ago.

 The sweet alyssum, on the other hand, is growing all over the place.  It's a weed in my garden & I end up pulling it out of the beds & pots.  But it is pretty.

 My jasmine is blooming & smells VERY sweet.

 I have several types of sedum/succulents... don't even know what they're all called.  The top right corner is one of my rosemary plants that I use all the time for cooking.  And you can even see a little of my chocolate mint coming back out.

 Here's the corner with the jasmine.

 And we moved the clematis out of the corner so we could put the larger grill there.  And there's the other upright rosemary plant so Glenn can grab some & throw on the grill whenever he cooks. 

Jordy & I went on a hike yesterday and took lots of photos.  I think she put hers on Facebook.  Below is one of my favorites from the ones I took. 

What We Did On Our Day Off

Just wanted to show you where we went on our day off.  This was our first day off together this year!  So we dropped Jo off at school and headed for the beach.  Went to Stinson Beach, then to Point Reyes where we hiked along the top of the peninsula.  This was our view.  I didn't want to come home!  This photo was taken with my phone, btw.  Glenn's finger is getting better.  He played the piano Sunday with a splint on it.  Right now he's practicing/writing and playing without a splint.

Our Hike to the Snow!

It was a beautiful, sunny morning at our house but we could see snow on top of Mt. Diablo. So we decided to hike up to it. We drove up and parked just above the Junction. The first photo was what it looked like there. Still nice and sunny but much colder than at home.
Of course, had to take our self portrait! You can see the snow in the background. The snow started at about the 2800' level. We made it!!!
There was a lot of snow up there and I've never seen so many people on the mountain. The road was closed at Juniper campgrounds so the road from there to the summit was filled with people & dogs walking, throwing snowballs at each other, pushing strollers, and pulling sleds!
We hiked back down on the north side. Not as much snow here but MUCH colder. We saw rain in the distance so started walking faster. At one point I told Glenn one of the clouds looked like a wall cloud. We laughed. Then when we got home our neighbor told us we were in a tornado watch!

Spring!

Easter Hike on Lime Ridge

What a beautiful day!  Actually, a whole, beautiful weekend.  We started out with a Good Friday service.  We've never had one at our church before so didn't know how well attended it would be.  I was amazed how many people showed up.  It was a simple and very nice service.  No band, just Glenn at the piano.  Several of the elders & staff members read Scriptures.  Then we got up EARLY Saturday and saw Jo & 149 others from our church off to Tijuana.  There are supposed to be updates on the church website but I haven't seen any yet.  I'll post them here when we hear from them.  Meanwhile, no news is good news.  So this afternoon Glenn & I took a hike up on Lime Ridge.  We climbed up to the top on the Clayton side.  See our house?  :-)  Then we walked around the top to the Walnut Creek (West) side.  You can see Ygnacio Valley Road in the photo below.  That's the road I take to get to work every day.  One of the reasons the open spaces are here is to protect endangered species.  I'm just glad to see some land and cows on my way to work every morning.

But we did see an endangered species on our hike today.  I didn't even know that Horned Lizards   live in California!

Black Diamond Hike

Today's hike was at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch.  There were several small towns in the area at one time & they mined coal & sand, took them down to the port in Pittsburg, & transported them up the river to Sacramento & other places inland.  The website has a lot more info.
This kind of reminded me of some of the places Daddy used to take us on vacation!  There was a group about to go in but we didn't get there in time to buy tickets.  Anyway, we came to hike today!
Here's me & my hiking sticks.  Good for pulling me up the hill, stopping me when I'm sliding down, keeping my balance, & fighting off wild chipmunks.
Of course, we had to take a picture of ourselves.  
It kept getting colder & windier (supposed to start raining later today) & by the time we got up to the cemetery, it was REALLY cold!  I wonder why the cemetery was at the top of the hill?

Hey, SE, look what I found!  It's springtime!!!

Another Saturday Hike

This week we went up to Morgan Territory Reserve.  It's a long & windy road up the mountain!  Good thing Lauren wasn't in the car, although sometimes I am starting to feel a little carsick on some of these roads that Glenn takes me on.  The first trail we took from the staging area was called Coyote Trail.  It was a good name, look what we saw:
We stood there looking at each other for quite a while.  Later on Glenn made friends with a squirrel and shared some of his raisins.
We took this picture for Grandpa.  We left the wooded area and walked up to the grassland where the cattle are.  They've rigged up the gates to keep them closed.  Notice the baling wire at the right.

We took a snack break on a rock up at the top and saw Mt. Diablo from the opposite side that we usually see it.  There were quite a few hikers out today.  This is the first really cool, windy day we've had so Jo wants me to make minestrone tonight.  Yummmmmm......

A Glimpse of What Is To Come

Well, we're childless for the weekend.  Is this what it's going to be like when Jo goes off to college?  She told us we'll have her around for 6 more years 'cause she wants to go to DVC first, before Cal Poly.  :-)

Last night we went to Mudville Grill with Angie & Gary, who are also without kids for the weekend, then went to Awanas.  This morning we went hiking again.  We were looking for somewhere cooler so went to the Oakland hills.  Glenn was going to take me on a trail that he & his biking buddy have gone on but Skyline road was closed for construction.  So we went to Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve instead.  It was a nice hike.  We rated it about a 2 difficulty, much easier than our last hike! 

It was a slight up/down trail for most of the way, but on the side of a steep hill so straight up on one side & straight down on the other.

It followed Skyline along the top of the hill.  One side had a view of Mt. Diablo:

The other side had a view of the whole bay.  You can barely see the Golden Gate, fog was just hanging around the bridge.

We've got a long day tomorrow - choir in the morning & worship night, rehearsal starting at 4 - so I've got to go get some housework done now.