Winter Adventures

I of course use the term “winter” lightly 🙂

We’ve been on a few outings since November, including a 10-day trip back to Ottawa, where we got our fill of snow for another year.

First, here’s a shot from our friends’ home in Belmont. They live at the top of a hill and you can see all the way to San Francisco. They are surrounded by eucalyptus trees, which means the air smells amazing, and deer will often traipse through their back yard. 

Next, some shots from Christmas in the Park here in San Jose. Christmas in the Park is a little festival that the city of San Jose puts together every year. I’ve seen it before when I travelled to San Jose on business, but I’d never actually walked through it, and it’s very cute. There is a Christmas tree forest, with tons of Christmas trees decorated by local schools and businesses, and there are a number of “floats” (not sure what else to call them) – displays of Santa’s workshop etc. There are also snow-blowing machines attached to the lamp posts blowing fake snow over the attendees, a skating rink surrounded by palm trees, a ferris wheel and some other rides, and of course lots of food vendors and games to play.

We really like going to the bar in the Fairmont for a drink, and during December they had this AMAZING gingerbread village on display in the lobby. I wanted to take a bite but Nick said it was probably stale from sitting out for so long so I didn’t. 

We went to see the Nutcracker ballet on our last weekend in San Jose, and of course, also went for one last drive with the top down, and one last long walk, before heading back to Ottawa for the holidays!