Stile Ranch Trail and GO SHARKS!!!!

Last weekend was another beautiful one with sunny days and highs around 23C/74F. I wonder if we’ll ever get used to it. I know everyone in Ottawa is laughing at me right now, but I do find that I miss the change in season from winter to spring. I love those first few days of spring, with temperatures warm enough to open windows (anything above 10C/50F counts as “warm” after a winter of -20C) and go outside with only a light sweater or jacket. I also miss the smell of spring – of the snow melting and new things growing. Still, I suppose the tradeoff is that one never has to experience the -20C in the first place, here…

We met a friend for a pho lunch on Saturday (verdict: decent, but not Ottawa pho) and a couple of beers. Did you know Vietnamese restaurants here serve their beer with a glass full of ice? Apparently it is common to drink beer on ice in Vietnam. Who knew!

Saturday afternoon was pretty relaxed – we are currently watching The Wire, so we just went and played catch in the park for about an hour to soak up some sun, then headed home for dinner. Oh, and of course we caught the hockey game (and a couple of cheap beers) at our local pub – go Sharks!!

Sunday we met another friend and her extremely well-behaved kids for a delicious brunch. Nick and I both fueled up for that weekend’s hike on a trail called Stile Ranch. It’s part of a large network of trails south of San Jose, near Almaden. We walked about 4 miles, which is the small part of the network circled here.

It took us about two hours. There was quite a lot of uphill! If we did this trail in the summer we’d definitely have to wear sunscreen, as there was virtually no tree cover. It was a very different hike from Castle Rock trail, which was mostly in a forested area. Both trails had beautiful views though:

Here’s how warm it was…I love that this is in the middle of January…

When we got home, we opened up the doors in the dining room to let the sun flood in. This is one of my favourite things about our house! Can’t wait for these warm days to be a regular thing again (it’s “cold” again this weekend – cloudy and highs in the range of 14C/56F).

I woke up with a cold today, so this should be a pretty quiet weekend. Not sure if we will make it out for a hike or not, so far our only plans are to tidy the house and meet some friends for dinner tonight.

We are planning a day trip to Portland in February, so if anyone has any recommendations, let us know! 🙂