Here’s a picture from Tom and Arlene’s 2008 Christmas Card. I just found and scanned it, so there’s a little crud on the photo. They tore down the original farm after finding out it wasn’t sound enough to renovate, and this is the final result. A little different than the original building, but close enough and it suits their modern needs.

Saturday Erin and I hiked up Mission Peak, something we’ve both wanted to do for a long time. It’s about 6 miles round trip on an out and back hike, with about 2000′ of elevation gain. The trail is mostly fire road, with a smaller path near the peak, and lots of people were out enjoying themselves. Along the way we say lots of ground squirrels?

There was a strong Bay breeze and it was uncomfortably cold at the top, so we ate our trail mix quickly and headed back down. This picture is a very cool orientation post that has 3/4″ pipes welded into it. Originally the pipes were numbered and there were plaques describing what was to be seen through each hole. Unfortunately vandals have removed almost all the numbers so you’ve got to guess. It’s a really cool idea for a summit attraction though.

Erin, Oscar, Anna and I went up to Bear Valley this weekend and stayed at Rafi’s cabin (Ani’s brother). We got to spend 3 relaxing nights away from computers, traffic, work…. Mostly we slept and did some hiking.

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Click the picture below for a slide show of my photos from the trip:

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom and Erin’s Mom and all other Mom’s out there. Erin and I took Judy to Country Gourmet this morning for breakfast, then spent the rest of the day helping her with the back yard landscaping. We hauled compost and bark from OSH, dug holes and transplanted stuff. It felt really nice to spend the day outside in the sun, sweaty and dirty.