Musical Cars

Today I played musical cars. I'm leaving for Reno tomorrow morning. It is expected to rain and God only knows what it will do in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Donner Pass.

I will miss this Saturday's Team in Training hike at Saratoga Gap. I've been planning to go to EmComm West, a gathering of amateur radio operators who are involved in emergency communications, for over a year now and had this weekend reserved long before I ever signed up for Team in Training. This year, EmComm West will be joined with Pacificon, the convention of the American Radio Relay League's Pacific Division, which includes us.


But before I can even think about driving my car to Reno, possibly in snow, I needed to make sure that it's safe to drive. I dropped off my Subaru Outback wagon at the dealership first thing this morning. Then I drove our son to school and then my husband to the Google bus in his car. Then back home where I did some housework while waiting for the dealership to call and tell me that my car was ready.


They did call at about noon, but they informed me that they wanted to flush the power steering fluid and that I needed new tires. They were getting bald. Hmmm... When would the car be ready? I was informed that it would be less than an hour. So I called Wheel Works to ask them a) did they have the same kind of tires we used last time in stock and b) if I brought the car in an hour from now, would they be able to change the tires today. It was yes on both counts. Awesome!


The problem, however, was how to get both cars to Wheel Works from the dealership? I can only drive one car at a time and Duane was at work. I drove Duane's car to the dealership, picked up my car and drove it to Wheel Works. Unfortunately, I didn't have a ride back to the dealership, so I wound up sitting in their waiting room for almost two hours with nothing to read. Ugh! I suppose I could have gone window shopping, but that's not really my thing.


While at Wheel Works, the mechanic tried to tell me that there was a problem and that I needed a new axle. A NEW AXLE?! I asked incredulously. I just came from the dealer and having the car serviced and they never said a word! I declined to replace the axle and, after the new tires were installed, I drove my car back to the dealership so their mechanics - whom I trust - could look at the car and confirm if there was really a problem. The bottom line was that the Wheel Works guy really needed to stick to tires - everything was fine. There was a minor repair item that needed to be done at the next service, but nothing that couldn't wait. My Subaru was fine to drive to Reno!


After dropping off my Subaru at the dealer a second time and switching back to Duane's car, it was time to pick up our son from school, so off I went again. And then to pick up Duane from the Google bus, after which I was finally able to hand over his car and collect mine once again.


The evening was spent doing the rest of the laundry, packing for the weekend trip, and making sure that Duane had all of the information he needed to be in the places that he needed to be on time.

Coaching T-Ball

I didn't have time to get much conditioning in today, although I did spend time with our son helping coach his T-Ball team.

Better something, than nothing!

Rick Deutsch: Mr. Half Dome

Tonight instead of our usual Tuesday evening workout at Foothill College, we met at Trailsloggers in Campbell for a talk by "Mr. Half Dome" otherwise known as Rick Deutsch.

Rick has climbed Half Dome 23 times and is planning to do it again this summer - 3 more times. He is probably the world's expert on hiking Half Dome and has written THE definitive guide to the hike: One Best Hike: Yosemite’s Half Dome, published by Wilderness Press and available from Amazon.com.

Of course, we were really interested in hearing about the various parts of the trail, as well as his tips and hints about hiking Half Dome, so we were all ears! Rick talked about the different parts of the trail, including where to find water. While it is possible to carry all of the water you will need, it's too heavy. Rick is definitely a minimalist. He prefers to carry only a fanny pack with two one-liter bottles of water and a filter pump, so that he can get the rest of his water along the way. For food, he carries about 8 energy bars. I can definitely see the advantage of only having a fanny pack. It forces you to pare down to the bare essentials and carry less weight. He doesn't bother with a jacket, since you'll only need it in the morning and will only have to carry it the rest of the way. I had already figured that I was going to ditch my jacket. I'll be cold for the first 15 minutes, but I'll heat up once I get moving. When I get to the wet spots on the Mist Trail, I'll have my rain poncho. That should be good enough.

Most of us wanted to hear about the final, cable section of the hike and that was certainly interesting. More interesting, however, was learning about "subdome," the series of switchbacks comprised of granite steps, not unlike those earlier on the Mist trail up to Nevada Falls. Nearly everyone who has hiked Half Dome thinks subdome is the most difficult portion of the hike. The granite steps seem to go on forever and you are above the tree line which means that you are exposed to the heat of the sun. If you leave early in the morning and hike fast, you will get there around 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. If you don't follow this advice, you'll arrive during the heat of the day and you'll be wiped out by the time you get to the cables - and have to deal with a "caterpillar" line of people going up. Best to arrive early!

The presentation was great and packed with lots of interesting information and, of course, great photos of Half Dome. It was really great to meet Rick, who is so enthusiastic. I bought his book, which he autographed for us. We picked up a few more items while at Trailsloggers. I looked for a replacement hat, but didn't find one that was suitable.

McClellan Ranch Field Trip

After this weekend's hiking activities, I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get in an easy walk. Our son had a field trip to McClellan Ranch, a nature preserve, to go bird watching.

Now, I'm not sure why anyone thought eighteen kindergarten boys were going to be quiet so they could watch birds, but okay... The first time a boy saw a bird and shouted "Look! Look!" the bird was gone and no one else had a chance to see it!

As it happened, the boys were far more interested in what was crawling on the ground and we did see several large black beetles, as well a tic that I brushed off of one little girls leg. When the other girl said "Look at the tiny spider!" my ears perked up. Sure enough....

We walked all over the grounds of the ranch and we did see several different types of birds, including hummingbirds, orioles, robins, crows, finches and woodpeckers (shown below).

A good time was had by all, although the weather turned very cold. It must have been 50 degrees! Since I was wearing clothing for last week's weather, I froze! Brrr!

For Half Dome Aspirers...

Last night, after returning from Big Basin, we had to decide if we were going to do today's Sunday hike at Wunderlich Park. We had been told that we should do this, if we were Half Dome aspirers and we are. We needed to arrange child care and, having managed that, we got our packs ready.

Wunderlich park is located at the base of the Santa Cruz mountains where Highway 84 begins to wind its way up the hill. We arrived at the parking lot at our usual time of 7:45 am, and started off on the Alambique trail until we reached the junction of the Skyline trail. This trail winds its way upwards, at times with switchbacks, to Skyline Boulevard and we made it all the way to the top. At the top we rejoined the Alambique trail and started back down via a series of switchbacks until we reached the Meadows, a beautiful grassy clearing, currently full of wildflowers.


From there we walked down the Bear Gulch trail until we reached the parking lot once again. All told, this was a four hour hike. The only minor difficulty I had was needed to retie my boots properly on the downhill to prevent my toes from jamming into the front of my boots.

Your On Your Own...

Since we missed last week's hike in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we decided to do that hike for today's Your On Your Own hike. Because last night was the gala, we started about an hour later than usual. Our child care was also at the gala...

We arrived at the trailhead parking lot at about 8:45 am, and by the time we used the restroom and got on the trail it was 9:15 am. Since our time was limited by our child care and our son's afternoon T-Ball game, we chose to take the Skyline to the Sea trail (instead of the trail highlighted in purple at left). We were hoping to make it to Berry Creek Falls. As it happened, shortly after we left the trailhead, we came upon a sign indicating that the trail was closed due to a fallen massive redwood tree. It was hard to imagine something so big we couldn't climb over, but later meetings with hikers who had tried to do just that confirmed that it was really difficult.

We diverted to the Sunset trail, hoping to make Silver Falls instead. That was a longer hike and neither of us were sure we could make it in the time allotted, so we decided to put a time limit on it and go as far as we could.

The trails here are utterly beautiful and thickly carpeted with redwood debris. Occasionally we would come across fallen redwood trees, some of which snapped at the base resulting in strange and beautiful twistings. We saw a few banana slugs and lots of ferns.

I was regretting last night's marble dance floor. Although I had a wonderful time, I really felt it in my right Achilles tendon - which hasn't been bothering me at all since I learned how to stretch properly. I probably should have taken an Alleve this morning, but I didn't think about it in my rush to get out the door. Nevertheless, the pain wasn't bad enough that I needed to quit. Another problem was that I had a minor hangover from last night's festivities. However, I discovered about an hour into the hike that hiking - physical activity - solved that problem too!

Unfortunately, we didn't quite make Silver Falls before our turnback time, but we did get close - well past the junction of the Sunset Trail with the Timms Creek Trail. Given that the second half of the hike would be uphill, we opted to turn around before the Falls. We arrived back at the trailhead parking lot about 12:15 pm, just in time to pick up our son for his early afternoon T-ball game.

Dancing the Calories Away

This evening we went to the annual gala auction and dinner dance for my son's school. We had a marvelous time visiting with our friends, bidding on silent auction items (we were mostly outbid) and the dinner was quite good.

This year, we were located at the Silver Creek Country Club, which had beautiful vistas of the valley and a large enough room to accomodate all of our tables and ... a marble dancing floor.

Which, of course, was the best part (although I would have wished for wood instead of marble)! Duane and I danced for hours, working off all the calories we ate and then some. My now much trimmer figure sported a dress that I hadn't worn in more than three years. Most of all we had a great time!

Communications Hill Stairs

This evening, it was back to Communications Hill. We've decided that we need to do more stairs to get in better shape for Half Dome. Tonight we went up and down those stairs four times. That's 892 steps up and 892 steps down - some of them taken sideways.

We notice that we are less winded then we have been. We must be building both endurance and muscle. When we started this project in February, none of this is easy and we were hurting quite a bit the next day. Now we are less winded, more able to climb the stairs and we are hurting a lot less.

This is all good!

Neighborhood Walk

This morning, after taking our son to school, my neighbor and I went for one of our walks around the neighborhood. Watching all the homes being remodeled is fascinating. People do some very beautiful - and very strange - things with their homes.

As it happens, we are no longer the newest "kids" on the block. New neighbors are doing some remodeling on the house that they bought last November and will at last be moving in next month. Since they were outside working on their home, we stopped by to say hello and meet them. We received a tour of their home and this one is really nice. Gave me some ideas for my own home too!

Rest

I think I'm just worn out. I was still recovering from a bad cold before I left on Easter vacation and I sniffled throughout the entire vacation. Yesterday I was in the thick of things again. This morning I had another meeting, although this time more pleasant.

I napped most of the afternoon. By the time 4:00 pm rolled around I was almost feeling back to normal again.

I woke up just in the knick of time to grab my gear, pick up our son from his taekwondo lesson, and get to Lexington Reservoir for an evening hike up Seminary Hill. We began the hike, but shortly into it, began to be attacked by mosquitos. This was not cool. I lathered on some insect repellent quickly (thanks to Mentor Deb) but it was no use. They kept biting me anyway and, for some odd reason, all in the same place on my left arm. This was no fun at all, so we called it quits and hiked back down the hill. Even so, I had about 15 mosquito bites on my arm. Yuck!

Back to Reality

This morning it was back to reality. Taking our son to school, unpacking, doing some laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning up the house. Duane and I had an unpleasant meeting that took up most of the afternoon. I didn't really have any time to rest and I didn't get any walking in today, but given all the walking I've done the previous week, I'm not worried about it. Tomorrow is another day.

Vernal Falls and Beyond...

After a quick breakfast, we departed for Yosemite National Park. We parked at Curry Village and took the shuttle over to the Happy Isles trailhead.


I was carrying two bottles of G2, two water bottles, two granola bars, trail mix, and sports beans. Duane carried his knapsack with more of the same and our son carried his hydration fanny pack. Unfortunately the belt wouldn't cinch small enough for his waist, but I managed to tie the straps together and make it just right. For some reason, there was no clip attached to the hose, so I had to snake it up through the belt for easy access.

We started off at about 10:30 am, several hours later than we are planning to begin this hike on June 20th. The John Muir Trail follows the Merced River which, at this time of year, runs strong and swiftly from all of the snow melt. We could see Illilouette Falls running in a distant side of the canyon. In fact, after hiking probably only a quarter of a mile, we had fantastic views of Illilouette Fall to the side of us, Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall ahead of us and Yosemite Falls behind us. The trail wound gradually up to a footbridge.

Here at the footbridge is the last flush toilet and water fountain. We took advantage of the opportunity! We crossed the river where the trail meanders through the woods for a bit. After that, the Mist Trail splits off from the John Muir Trail and we began our ascent up the approximately 800 granite steps, which would take us up to Vernal Falls, 1.5 miles farther and 1000 feet higher than where we began.

I won't say the steps were easy, but I will say that I expected something more difficult. The stairs themselves are rough hewn out of Yosemite granite, and most of the steps are higher than normal. I was particularly grateful that we had been walking up and down Communications Hill multiple times. As we got closer to Vernal Falls, we were treated to a beautiful rainbow off the mist, which also got us plenty wet as we went up the stairs. We had to put on our jackets for a time and even so, we got pretty wet, but it wasn't far from the top and the water felt good after our climb.

We rested and refueled at Vernal Falls, enjoying the beautiful view of the powerful water rushing over the slick granite. After our rest, we hiked up the Merced River about another 100 feet, before taking the connecting trail up to Clark's Point where we joined up with the John Muir Trail once again. We chose this route because we wanted to save our knees the pounding that would surely ensue going down all of those wet granite steps. The switchbacks, which still had snow, on the John Muir Trail was twice as long, but we didn't have rubber knees at the bottom.

We reached Happy Isles again at 2:00 pm, and quickly caught the shuttle back to the car at Curry Village. We had just enough time to make it to the Awahnee Hotel for Sunday brunch! This is one of my favorite things to do in Yosemite, not only because they have a killer buffet, but because the dining room is so beautiful.

In we walked, hot and sweaty and in our hiking clothes and they seated us anyway! (They do have a dress code for dinner.) Our son had fun picking out his favorite yummy lunch and I had some really great sushi and other treats.

At about 3:30 pm, we began the long drive back home. Duane took the first shift. Our son and I slept in the car all the way to Mariposa where we switched drivers and Duane got to take his nap.

We had a great time this week! We walked all over the place, we hiked in the mountains and we managed to come home with mostly clean clothes! Tomorrow it's back to reality...

Driving for Hiking

We woke up late, catching up on some much needed sleep. But what to do today? We had a third day on our Disneyland tickets - or we could skip it and do something else. By now, Duane and I were "done" with theme parks and we elected to do something quieter and more low key. But what?

Duane wound up suggesting that we go drive up to Yosemite and hike the first part of the Half Dome trail tomorrow morning. I thought that was a great idea, but we didn't have any of our gear. All we had were tennis shoes and regular socks. Duane had a knapsack and I had a fanny pack - no hydration packs. And then there was our son, who would have to come with us if we did this.

Not to be daunted by these challenges, we decided to stay in Oakhurst overnight, and drive into Yosemite Valley the next morning. We would look on the National Park Service website at the hotel and determine whether this was feasible with the gear that we had. If not, we'd just take another beautiful walk around the valley floor, ooing and ahing at all of the plentiful and lovely springtime waterfalls.

We checked out of our motel and off we went, back up I-5, but this time veering onto Highway 99 North after the Grapevine. Since we were getting low on clean clothes, we decided to stop in Visalia and find a wash 'n' fold where our laundry could be done while we went shopping to pick up a few items that we might use on tomorrow's hike. We needed electrolyte, granola bars, trail mix and bottled water.

Roger, our GPS, to the rescue! I hit the menu for "Points of Interest" got a list of laundry services and called the number listed to find out if they had wash and fold service. It took us two tries! And after we located it, Roger took us to its front door. Way to go! Roger is awesome!

While our laundry was being done, we went shopping at Target, picking up granola bars, G2, and water. As it turned out, there was a Sport Chalet store in the same mall, so we picked up some sports beans and found a one liter hydration fanny pack for our son. Perfect! And even if we didn't go on this hike, Duane or I might use it for other shorter hikes. Duane also found a nice hiking hat to cover his neck and ears and help prevent sunburn.

While there, I also looked for headlamps. When we start the Half Dome hike, we'll be going up the Mist trail in the dark around 4:00 am. I've been looking for headlamps at REI, but they are all big and clunky if they have lots of LEDs/lumens, and none of them attach other than by an elastic strap. Having tried this before over a hard hat for my volunteering activities with the American Red Cross, I was dubious that this was a good solution. I really don't want the headlamp to keep slipping off while I'm hiking. Ugh. And the less weight I carry in my pack, the better off I'm going to be. Unfortunately, Sport Chalet had a very similar selection of headlamps, so I had no success this afternoon.

We still had some time to kill before our laundry was done, so we bought tickets to see Monsters vs. Aliens, which our son enjoyed very much. (I'm afraid I can't say the same. The plot was thin, the writing was mediocre, and the movie contained far too much feminist garbage about how men are jerks and women can be "super heroes" without them. The writers should meet my husband Duane!)

Afterwards, we collected our laundry and got back on the road to Oakhurst once again. We arrived at our hotel, the Best Western, around 9:00 pm and checked in. We had a very quick dinner at Round Table, and then headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. We looked at the NPS website for Yosemite, specifically the first part of the Half Dome trail, and determined that we could probably do at least the first part up to Vernal Falls and back, about 3 miles round trip and 1000 feet elevation change - depending of course on how our son managed. We would have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

California Screamin': The Adventure Continues

After yesterday's long adventure at Disneyland, we slept in and we needed it! All of this park hopping has got us pretty tired and worn out. After getting dressed and having a quick breakfast, we headed out of the motel, arriving at California Adventure by about 10:00 am.


We took it fairly easy, though our first task was to get a Fast Pass for California Screamin' the park's enormous roller coaster. We walked around Hollywood area, visiting the Monsters, Inc. and some of the other rides.

The lagoon was all torn up for construction of a new exhibit, so there was no water in it. Some of the major rides, such as the ferris wheel, were also being updated and were thus unavailable. At last it was time to go on our roller coaster ride and California Screamin' did not disappoint. It was totally awesome! I went on it three times, one of them sitting next to a Roman Catholic priest! Be not afraid!

Our son's favorite ride in this park, however, was the Toy Story shooting gallery - target practice with a laser gun while moving on a ride. I have to say that for all of the rides of this kind that we have been on at Legoland and Disneyland, this was the best of the bunch. We also visited the Bug's Life area, where we saw a 4-D movie, complete with water spray, stinkbug stink and "bugs" crawling under our seats! Yuck! Cute, but a little bit scary for the little guy.

The other ride that we really like in this park is California Soarin'. This is a simulated plane flight over various areas in California. We got Fast Passes for 7:45 pm, then we headed out of the park for an early dinner and a rest at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney, walking all the way. After a good meal (at least this one was on my diet!), we hopped on the monorail which took us into Disneyland's Tomorrowland. We still had a couple of hours to kill, so we grabbed a ride on the submarines before taking the train to the Disneyland entrance and walking back across the mall to California Adventure. Our little one loved California Soarin' and, although he had some trepidation (is this a roller coaster???!!!??? No!), afterwards he decided that this was easy, just like riding an airplane and he could do it again.

Being pretty pooped out, we headed out of the park after California Soarin', deciding to get an ice cream cone at Downtown Disney and catch the tram back to the parking lot. We did a little minor window shopping, got the cones and listened to world class violinist Drew Tretick playing there. Wow!

Back to the motel and it didn't take long for us to be sound asleep! Lots of walking today, even if not up hills.

First Day at Disneyland

Today was our son's first visit to Disneyland, so we made the most of it. Our 3-day tickets allowed us one early entry day, so this was our day! After a quick night's sleep, we left the hotel at 7:15 am so that we could enter Disneyland by 8:00 am. Only two areas of the park were officially open, Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. We were bummed out about that since it meant we had to wait until 9:00 am to enter Adventureland for the Indiana Jones adventure. So we stopped at Main Street to get our son's first visit badge. He wouldn't wear it, so I ended up wearing it all day. Hmfph! We also had breakfast in Tomorrowland and did some of the rides, including It's a Small World.


Immediately it was 9:00 am and we headed back for Adventureland and were among the first in line for the Indiana Jones ride. We've been singing the song for weeks and our son was very excited though the ride was a bit faster and scarier than he liked. He still says its his favority ride though, so it couldn't have been all bad.


Immediately after that we ran to the Tiki Room, one of our favorites. Our son was fascinated by the music, the singing birds and flowers, and the tikis in the pre-show outside. And afterwards we added the Tiki Room song to our repertoire.


We went on a variety of rides, including the Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. We also went on the newly refurbished sailing ship Columbia, a full scale replica of the first American tall ship to sailed around the world. Autopia was also a lot of fun, though by that time the line was quite long.


A nice feature that Disneyland has added to make the park more family friendly is that families with small children only have to wait in line once for roller coaster and other more adult rides. When the entire family gets to the front of the line, one parent goes on the ride and the other one stays with the children. Then the parents switch off without having to wait in line again. This was a life saver and really added to our enjoyment of the park since it meant that Duane and I got to go on some roller coasters too. Space Mountain is still a blast and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is also fun. Neither of us really wanted to wait the three hours to go on the Matterhorn, however, since there is no Fast Pass for that ride.

Toon Town has been added outside the original bounds of the park and is new since our last visit. This is a great area for toddlers and smaller children where they can get a taste of a roller coaster without actually being scared out of their minds.


One thing that I had not done at Disneyland was to eat at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. So this time, I made reservations for dinner for the three of us ahead of time. Yippee! We arrived at 7:45 pm for a dinner as good as you might find in any decent restaurant. The jamabalaya and gumbo were excellent!

After dinner, we had time for one more ride before seeing the fireworks show just before park closing. We gave our son the option of any ride in the park and he chose It's a Small World. So we headed back to Fantasyland for our final ride. Always a fun ride, I found it interesting that our son picked the same "favorite" ride that my mother loves!

We then headed over to Adventureland, closer to the park exit, to watch the final fireworks show. I was glad to be further away from the concussions than I was last night. Our son still doesn't like fireworks - they're too loud for him - but he managed. He fell asleep in our arms on the way out of the park and didn't wake up until the next morning. We took turns carrying him from the park to the tram and back to the motel. He had a big 14 hour day for his first day at Disneyland!

Best of all, we got lots of walking in during the day in preparation for our Half Dome hike!

Walking With the Animals

We spent today at the San Diego Zoo. Since yesterday was a very full day at SeaWorld, we took it relatively easy. As it happened, we bumped into our son's classmates again (we had spent Monday with them at Legoland). We first took the bus tour around the zoo, and then walked around seeing the bears, reptiles, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans, lizards, various birds, and other animals. We wandered through the koala bear exhibit and waited in line to visit the mating pair of panda bears on loan from China. Several hours of walking today, but we called it a day at about 4:00 pm and headed back to Oceanside.

Since we were planning to spend the following two days at Disneyland, we discussed whether it would be more advantageous to find a hotel closer to Disneyland. After weighing the pros and cons, and making sure we could get an inexpensive motel, we packed our bags. By 8:30 pm, we were checked out of our timeshare and on our way to Anaheim.

We arrived in Anaheim just as the fireworks went off. As it turned out, the fireworks were being launched just across the street from our hotel. The concussions were so strong that they rattled the windows on my car and in the hotel. Quite an exciting arrival!

Dining with Shamu

I have been looking forward to today, the day we spent at Seaworld, for a long time. Sea World is one of my favorite theme parks to visit in Southern California. Not only is the park well laid out and easy to navigate, the shows are entertaining for both young and old alike. There is something magical and mysterious in the interaction between man and these large sea mammals.

We started with Shamu Believe, which was a wonderful show. We sat in the soak zone, which was fun, but I had long forgotten (if I ever sat there before) just how wet you get in the soak zone. Duane bought a plastic poncho, which served him very well. I had a parka on over my shirt, which at least kept it fairly dry. But my pants were uncovered and our son didn't have any rain gear on at all. We were both soaked! Fortunately, we had packed a spare change of clothes for him, but I was simply out of luck. I made a quick right hand turn into the Shamu store and bought myself a pair of khaki shorts. At least I was mostly dry.

During the day we walked through the various aquariums and visited the pet show (performed by trained rescue animals), the dolphin show, the 4D Muppet movie (the fourth dimension being touch...) and the seal/otter show. We also visited the Arctic area and saw polar bears, beluga whales, Commerson's dolphins (a miniature orca). The last time we visited there was even a narwhal in this area, although I didn't see one this time.

We skipped the water roller coaster - it was too foggy and cold to want to do that ride and we were already too wet from Shamu! Maybe next time...

Our son found the play structure and spent a good 45 minutes playing there. Duane and I went off our diets and split a caramel apple funnel cake. Yum!

By far, the highlight of the evening was Dining with Shamu. We had made reservations prior to coming to the park for a 6:00 pm seating. The food was quite good and Corky (our "Shamu" for the evening) performed some behaviors while we watched and dined.

Lots of walking again today, by the end of which we were all very tired, but very happy.

Walking in Legoland

Today we had an adventure in Legoland. We met up with some of our son's schoolmates who also happened to be in the area, and spent some time walking around the park with them. Possibly their favorite ride were the motor cars.


We had visited Legoland two years before and, this time, we were prepared with a full change of clothes for our son. Legoland has an enormous play structure/water play area called Pirate Shores. The children love to play on it, but they come out soaking wet.

After a full change of clothes, we moved on and found yet another play structure, this one without water. Lots of fun for children and parents also had "fun" trying to catch up with their little ones trying to figure out which turn they took. After the play structure we went on a target shooting ride, which was at least marginally interesting for us parents.

Lots of walking today. Not sure how many calories I burned, but probably a fair amount.

Snacking in the Car

Happy Easter! He is risen!

What is it about driving trips that makes me want to eat junk food? Or even just eat more? Perhaps it's the celebratory aspect of being on vacation and going somewhere different. Perhaps its the fact that you can't do much else while in the car. (I forgot the car bingo and audio book this time...). I savored a chocolate bar for the first time in several months. And a couple of chocolate covered Easter bunny cookies.

Guilt!

We drove from Kettleman City this morning, reaching Tejon Ranch just north of the Grapevine on I-5 by noon. To add insult to injury I had a Del Taco burrito for lunch. (I don't even want to know how many calories that contained but I'm sure it was enough for an entire day.) We would have gone to In-N-Out, but they are closed for Christmas and Easter. (Good for them!)

We continued on our journey through the Grapevine and decided to stop at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. Just a few miles off of I-5, we were here at the perfect time of year as you could see miles of green hillsides covered with bright orange swaths of poppies, with a few purple wildflower patches. We stopped at the visitor center and discovered that the poppies were late because of snowfall a week earlier. Perhaps we would see more poppies on the way back from our vacation? Even if the poppies were late bloomers, some kind of allergen was in the air because from the minute I got out of the car, I couldn't stop sneezing and coughing. Despite this, we all enjoyed God's beautiful show of wildflowers.

After half an hour of walking amidst the flowers, we continued on our way down I-5 to Oceanside. We hit the Los Angeles freeway traffic, which moved better than expected except in a few spots. At last we reached Oceanside, and we took our son to the beach before having dinner at Joe's Crab Shack - which was just about right since our son managed to get his shorts very wet!

The Adventure Begins... After the Hike

This morning we awoke at our usual early Saturday morning hour for a six hour hike in Sanborn Park. We had been to this park before, but because we attended the pole clinic, we didn't get much hiking done.

Today was, however, a different story. We met on Skyline Road near the entrance to Castle Rock State Park and walked across the street to the trailhead. We hiked down Skyline trail to where it joined Sanborn trail and then to the main picnic grounds and YSI building of the park. That took about a third of the time alotted for our hike.

The uphill climb back to the parking lot took most of the remainder of our time. We took a different trail back, the Peterson trail is apparently a fire road, which proved to be much steeper and more direct than the path we had taken down the mountain. This was the most difficult part of the hike to date.

This was also the first day that we really had to pack a lunch as we were on the trail until 2:00 pm. Until today, we only packed snacks. One of my many errands yesterday was to stop at the grocery store and get a couple of deli sandwiches to throw in our backpacks. We stopped to eat our lunch at the junction of the Peterson trail with the Sanborn trail and we all had a much needed rest. That was good enough for me. I had my second wind after that and I was in the lead of our "Hot On Your Trail" group for most of the rest of the way.

When we reached the Skyline trail once again, we hiked in the opposite direction until the trail ended in a meadow with many beautiful wildflowers - and a conveniently located outhouse, of which some of us took advantage before hiking back to the parking lot. I was very pleased with my new orthotics. They held up very well and by the end of this six hour hike, my feet were still happy and in no pain whatsoever.

We rushed home after the hike, showered and napped, and then had dinner. I took our son to the Easter Vigil Mass - the most beautiful Mass of the year. After Mass, we rushed home, loaded the already packed suitcases into the car. Our southern California adventure begins! Since we planned to drive all the way to Oceanside, we decided to break up the drive over two days, and drove about three hours to Kettleman City where we spent the night.

Good Friday: Busy But Still Time for God

I had a ton of things that needed to get done today. Ginger, our golden retriever, got into the muddy garden yesterday and needed a bath, comb out and grooming desperately. I spent the first part of my morning looking for a Petco that had an opening in its grooming department. She also had to go to the kennel, in advance of our vacation. There will be no time to get her there tomorrow, since we will be hiking in Sanborn park during their Saturday business hours.


And speaking of grooming, our son was well past the time for a haircut. We handled that as well since there was no school today. There were other errands that needed attending to as well. There will be no time to do them tomorrow.

My amateur radio group meets for lunch on Fridays. It was a spartan lunch for me, since this was Good Friday. The Stations of the Cross and Good Friday service occurred immediately after lunch. Then it was back to running errands and trying to get some packing done for our vacation. I'm sure I burned quite a few calories today.

The good news is that I have been wearing my orthotics in increasing increments over the past week. They seem to be working well, and the pain that I get in the ball of my foot has pretty much disappeared.

Holy Thursday: Rained Out

Today is Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Easter Triduum - the most sacred celebrations of the liturgical year. It is also Passover. Both celebrations are about freedom, from slavery, sin and death. (Unfortunately, it is not about freedom from taxes, which we had to finish up this morning and get into the mail as we will be on vacation next week.)

Perhaps then, it was fitting that my son's game was rained out today. Perhaps this is God's way of saying that there are more important things than participating in sports or training for a hike - even if it is Half Dome and even if you are raising money for a good cause. But I did do some work in our garden: mixing new dirt in with chicken and steer manure by shovel. I'm sure that burned some calories today. I shoveled while monitoring my amateur radio for updates on today's fibercut. There was a possibility I would have to respond in support of the affected cities, but by the time I was available (i.e., had child care covered), support was no longer required.

I did watch The Passion of the Christ this evening. I try to watch it every year during Holy Week. More than any movie on the subject that I have ever seen, it makes the suffering and death of Jesus real. The crucifixion was not merely beautiful artwork.

I am usually struck by something when I watch this movie: this year I thought what an incredibly good job was done portraying the cruelty and depravity of the Roman Empire. It may be difficult for some to believe that Roman soldiers or any human being could have been so brutal, let alone enjoyed such brutality. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an excellent chronicle of the Roman empire's depravity (despite Gibbon's Enlightenment-era anti-Christian streak).

Walking Around the Neighborhood

Returned home in time this morning to catch my neighbor for our almost regularly scheduled Wednesday morning "constitutional". I'm still feeling yucky and very congested, but I went out for the walk anyway. I really enjoy walking around the neighborhood (at a pretty good clip too) and seeing different areas and what owners are doing to improve their homes - or not.

Learning to Walk... Again

I've been learning to walk in my new orthotics today. It's not totally comfortable as there's this bump under my major arch that isn't usually there, but on the other hand, it's not totally uncomfortable either. What's interesting is that I can feel one of the bones in my foot pushing up as I step down. What's more, there's no pain in the ball of my foot. That's amazing!

It rained much of today, right up to the time of our Tuesday night workout. Since I'm still coughing with lots of congestion, I opted not to go to the workout tonight. Duane went and, fortunately, it cleared up enough that it didn't rain on him. But other than having happy feet, I'm still not up to snuff.

Happy Feet After Vasona Park

I met an amateur radio friend at Vasona Park this morning at 10:00 am and we walked from the Park entrance along the Los Gatos Creek Trail to Lark Avenue and back. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with 80 degree temperatures later in the day. I still have my cold, but my energy level is much better today. Still not 100% though.

After the walk, I drove over to Campbell and went to the Good Feet store. Given that I suspect a metatarsal arch problem, I wanted to see if they carried any arch supports. They did, but not what I expected. They did not carry the little pads; rather, they carried several different kinds of full orthotics.

I decided to see what that was all about and took a couple of foot tests. First they had me walk over a large paper and ink pad. As expected, there was a very large, deep dark spot where the metatarsal arch ought to be, particularly on my left foot. But my foot imprints also showed some weakening of the major arch, though not flat feet. The second test was a balance test. I stood straight up with my arms down and hands cupped in front of me. The salesman then pressed down in my cupped hands, and I rocked forward on to the balls of my feet. Then I repeated the same test, though with hands cupped behind my back. When he pressed down I rocked backwards on my heels. We then repeated the same test, though this time with me standing on a pair of orthotics. I didn't rock forward or backwards and I definitely seemed to have more stability on my feet.

Even more interesting, after walking around in them for a little bit, the slight pain in the ball of my right foot that was present after walking in Vasona Park disappeared.

Sold!

The best part about all of this is that our Flex plan covered the expense of the orthotics that I bought today. Woo hoo! Happy feet!

An Easy Walk in the Gardens

Duane and I are feeling much better today. The fever is totally gone and all that remains is this annoying congestion. Our energy level is almost back to normal.

So... we decided to take our son to Gilroy Gardens, where we spent a substantial amount of time getting lost in the rock maze (a portion of which is shown at the left).

Did a lot of walking around for about 3 hours. Nothing strenuous, but at least it makes up some for missing our hike yesterday.

Cancelled

I woke up coughing several times last night. Ugh. So when I did wake up at 7:30 am, it was apparent that today's hike was not going to happen. I still have a low grade fever and am congested, even though I can tell that the antibiotics are starting to work. I called my friends on my amateur radio and told them we weren't going to make it.

I'm really disappointed. I was really looking forward to this hike and, especially trying out my new boots on the trail.

Unfortunately, neither Duane nor I were able to rest in the afternoon. Our son's Taekwondo class had a charity "breakathon" to support school tuition for poor children in Mexico. (They break boards for pledges of so much money per board.) And then right after that, he had a TBall game. We went out to dinner and didn't get home until 7:30 pm. At least I didn't have to cook, but was really tired when I got home.

On a positive note, Duane has located a foot store! I will visit tomorrow.

Sick

I woke up this morning feeling yucky. I sent Duane to the doctor yesterday; today was my turn. I've felt like I've been getting a bug for the last couple of days and this morning it finally hit. I've probably got the same thing that Duane has had for the last two weeks: low grade fever, cough, congestion, mild sore throat. (At least my blood pressure was rock solid normal, probably as a result of the weight I have lost. Yeah!)

Ugh. At least it's a rest day. Duane and I have plans to go on a hike at Alum Rock Park with some amateur radio friends tomorrow for several hours, one of our "Your On Your Own" hikes. They hike Half Dome every year and they are also doing conditioning hikes. At this point I'm not sure I will make it.


We'll see how we feel tomorrow.

Drive By

Ran around like a crazy woman today. I'm sure I burned some calories just doing that.

After lunch, I also did a drive by to try to find the foot store that the chiropractor talked about when he visited our Tuesday night workout. It was supposed to be across the street from the Valley Fair shopping mall. I drove by three times and still didn't see anything that looked like a foot store. Where could it be?


The chiropractor tipped me off that the numbness and pain in the ball of my foot could be related to problems with the metatarsal arch. When that begins to fall, it can cause pain because the arch is no longer able to act like a shock absorber. This can apparently lead to bunions as well as hammer toe. Sometimes the pain is also caused by a lessening of the fat pad in the bottom of the foot as well.

Placing a small metatarsal arch support in the small of the metatarsal arch is supposed to correct this. It's certainly worth a try!

Now, if only I could find them. Walgreen's and Long's don't carry them. REI doesn't carry them. I need to find a foot store!

Surrender - I Give Up

I'm done. I surrender. I'm tired of waking up at 5:45 am, just to get to our hike and freeze in the fog. On a Saturday which is my only day of the week to sleep in. I'm tired of having to go behind a tree/bush. Who do I think I am? Nature Girl? I hate sweat.

Half Dome? Am I absolutely insane?

My boots STILL aren't right. I'm tired of doing all my errands and getting my workout in at the end of the day. I give up my Tuesday nights to . . . run up and down stadium bleachers? Run around a track in hiking boots?

Worse yet, we're only 50% of the way to our financial goal, in a down economy. I wonder how many more emails I have to send, how many more coupons I need to sell, how many more requests I have to make. Have I mentioned that I detest fundraising?

And then there's my teammates. Val Kilmer? Really, Reggie? Val Kilmer?!?!? It just makes me want to scream!

And if you believe any of this, I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge too. Real cheap. Didn't you know it's up for sale?