A quick trip to "almost the beach"

MIL had a request to take her "somewhere" so she could see some nature. So the plan was to go to Santa Cruz to our favorite beach.

Once we got there, the unmasked crowd just freaked me out. So we just took pictures on top of the sandbar and drove back.. 

Some pictures..

we were the only ones on the end of the bar.. and we removed our mask just for the selfies. Most of the crowd was not wearing any mask. It was shocking to see.. when we went to the same place in December just to get some sea breeze almost everyone was masked. 

Things are changing, hope we dont get into another wave!

When I am old and gray.. a day not far away..

We went on the Wunderlich trail today in the Portola hills. This place is famous for the horse stable and it is a place where they teach horse riding. The trails behind the horse ranch are beautiful! We went maybe 1400+ feet on a 7 mile hike. 

Parking was not easy. We should have started earlier. The trail was also closed at one point to skyline ridge because of slush and fallen trees.. so we went as far as we were allowed to go and turned back. 

We got a lot of pictures of me and San.. when I came home and saw them, it made me smile. There was a time when being empty nesters seemed a far fetched prospect.. we are almost there! Glad that we can still do things together and smile and share laughs. Somewhere, sometime, must have done something good to deserve this!

It was nowhere as steep as the other recent hikes and we were ambling along at a steady pace. The sunbeams through the clouds made for some amazing views!

We got to see an algae filled pond up in the flats! The photo does not do justice to how serene this place was!

This trail was great. Gentle slopes, steady climb, people on horseback going past us, some challenges with slush everywhere and the canopy and sunbeams that are a photographers delight! 

Reasonably sure we will be revisiting this one and go all the way to Skyline and back in the near future! 

Happy Valentines day

Valentines day, celebrated with another hike. We have managed to do what I call the "grand slam" of Bay area hikes.. of the 4 tallest peaks (Umunhum, Hamilton, Tamalpais and Diablo). 

We started at the State Park entrance parking lot (don't forget to take 10$ cash for the parking!)  and hiked up 2500 feet, 8 miles round trip over 3.5 hours. There was plenty of photo stops and a good 15 minutes spent at the summit tower. We got beautiful views of the area. Given the hour drive each way, the entire day has gone for this hike. 

There was a quick packed lunch in picnic tables right at the parking lot before driving back. 

Those were the Valentines photos.. She got a good hike with her hubby in tow.. I got some amazing photos.. win win situation!

This is a 300 degree Pano shot from the center of the summit tower.. 

Got a few panorama shots today that were pleasing 

One of my favorite photos from the day

Today was perfect. It was cold but not very windy. The sun was behind clouds and we were walking in a mist for the most part. It was not a strenous hike given we took 4 or 5 breaks of 5 minutes each after every steep section to take pictures. 

The rest of the pictures are in this slide show..

Could not have asked for a better way to spend the day!

Once again, wishing everyone a happy Valentines day!