Beautiful morning on Mt. Tam. Did a long run up and around. Received some morning greetings from a jack rabbit and one enormous coyote.
Tam Love
Christmas Tree Hunt
We have a favorite Christmas tree farm down on the peninsula (but Sunset article has now made it too crowded). So for the second year in a row, we headed to Grandma Buddy’s in Sebastopol. Pretty good tree. Pretty great experience.
It was nice to have Ford helping cut down the tree(s) this year.
Hawk Above Fog
Hawk Hill is an easy hill climb ride when I feel like I just don’t have the legs for Tam. There are usually two added benefits. First, if foggy, you get to ride above the fog and then drop down to the coast. Second, it means a quick surf check to see if it is worth coming back to get wet. Today, I got both.
Adventure Morning — Rainy Background
We are blessed that we live right on a redwood grove. With another glorious day of rain, we had the entire place to ourselves to play.
Streams were rushing.
Kids started playing pine cone baseball
And the kids were pumped about 3 hours of morning play in a light, warm, fall rain.
Grateful
The rains have driven out the smoke and brought in fresh air. Taking full advantage, I went for a run in the headlands. Map in pack but never opened. I just went on feel. Amazing run — western bluebirds, bobcat, salamanders, a hawk that kept me company (~15 feet overhead) for an entire ridge section, rain, sun, fog, blue sky, ocean, bay, cityscape, and GGB views. 9 miles and 1800 feet climbed, I could not feel more grateful for all the nature around me.
Campfire Effect on SF
Ughh. On my ride into work this morning, the sun looked like one of the Star Wars sun on Tatooine. It is nasty. So I drove up Hawk Hill to take a photo of the GGB and the resulting smog. Gross.
Top Gun
After the Blue Angels Fleet Week experience, Ford received a flight jacket from his Grandpa Bear (a former Top Gun pilot). Ford has been rocking it around town. He especially likes to wear it cruising around town in Boba.
Rocketman
Working at a company that builds stuff (robots, automation, hardware and software solutions), we have lots of builders at the company. A buddy from work is building a multiple stage rocket. Ford wanted in on the action so we started to build our own. A great starter rocket — Big Bertha. Like Legos, Ford is doing all the work (other than cutting). First skill he picked up was the various way sanding can result in different types of edges for wood.
Tri Results Celebration
Closed out the triathlon season with some pretty good results in my past two races so they kids picked up a delicious chocolate ice cream cake to celebrate. Elle was more excited about the cake then my results. Obviously.
Pumpkin Carving
We got a late start on it, but we carved tonight nonetheless. Ford also tried on his costume. Velociraptor, given his recent focus on dinosaurs.
