Hiking Adventure Plan

from website: http://www.oocities.org/rhorii/OutdoorPhotoGallery.html

One of the most amazing things about the Bay Area is how close we are to a variety of beautiful parks that offer trails that lead to amazing vistas.  One of these parks is the Santa Teresa County Park.  I've recently hiked to Coyote Peak via the Coyote Peak Trail (see fancy pic above) while visiting Santa Teresa County Park.  Although I've been to Coyote Peak once before, I was amazed by the view and fell in love with this park all over again.  Also, this second time around, I was impressed by how (kind of) easy the trail was and by how many different activities this park offers (trail biking and picnicking).  This got me thinking:  a)  I have a craving to throw a BBQ and b)  I've got to bring more people to this awesome location!

Point Reyes Backpacking Day 2 & 3

Source:  Point Reyes South District Trail Map

The Route for Day 2(see the green trail)
Wildcat Camp>Ocean Lake Loop>Coast Trail>Alamere Falls Trail>Alamere Falls>Alamere Falls Trail>Coast Trail>Old Out Road Trail>Glen Trail>Glen Camp Loop>Glen Camp

The Route for Day 3 (see the red trail)
Glen Camp>Glen Camp Loop>Glen Trail>Bear Valley Trail>Car

The aftermath of our breakfast

Well, the second day of our epic journey through Point Reyes National Seashore started out painful.  We woke up and became screamingly aware of the abuse we put our bodies through getting to our campsite, not to out anyone's sissy status, of course.  After our really filling and motivating breakfast of Spam and egg fried rice, we headed out on the Coast Trail towards Alamere Falls by 11 am.

Clockwise from top left:  View on Ocean Lake Loop, Wildcat Lake up close, View of Wildcat Lake (puddle looking thing on left towards bottom) from the Ocean Lake Loop, and last but not least, the crew making sure we're taking the right trail so that we don't end up hiking the wrong way for miles.  =P

Encouraged by the sign, we continued onto Alamere Falls Trail.

The sights at Alamere Falls

It turned out that there was an extra 0.7 miles each way (0.4 miles on the dagerous conditioned Alamere Falls Trail) to get to Alamere Falls, but it was totally worth it.  Everyone had a fantastic time relaxing and enjoying the sights.  We also had our spicy tuna sandwiches on scrunched (not a new fad in bread style, but actually scrunched) wheat bread.  All in all, it was a great diversion from our mutual pain.  The fun can't last forever, though, so after an hour of frolicking, we continued on our long trek to our next camp.

Vine-y flower wall along the Coast Trail

Counterclockwise from top left:  The junction between the Coast Trail and Old Out Road Trail (despite the trail promising to be a pitch black tree tunnel, we bit the bullet), the Old Out Road Trail (which lightened up quite a bit to something very lush, thank goodness), more on the Old Out Road Trail

A perfect example of how lush the Point Reyes National Seashore is, on the Glen Trail

Glen Camp

Boy, were we glad to see our campsite!  As you can see from the previous pictures, the fog was yet again rolling in, and the day seemed to be getting dark sooner than we would like.  It was around 6:30 to 7 pm when we reached camp.  We immediately set up camp and boiled some water for our (thankfully) simple dinners of dehydrated, pre-packed foods.  Then, we played Bananagrams before going to sleep.  Our only complaint with Glen Camp were the mosquitos.  We were just a tad nervous as we hung out in the open air.  Luckily, no one got severely bit.

Bananagrams on a table with slits is pretty tricky

The next morning, in great spirits and loaded up on ibuprofen, we headed out on the Glen Camp Trail to hook up with the Bear Valley Trail to get to our car.

Even on the Glen Camp Loop, the scenery is really lush

Don't remember where this was, but it's still absolutely beautiful

I will end this post with pics of random critters and mushrooms on the way back to our car.

Banana Slug

Furry caterpillar on one of the boys' shoe

Oh look!  A furry spider.  Not scary at all.

Cool close up of a random mushroom.  No.  I don't know if it's edible.

Yay!  Back at the trailhead!

Red, White,...y Verde!!!

Well, dear readers, I am horribly backlogged, as you may suspect. Life comes at you quick! It looks like things may be picking up for a certain planning-minded miss. Some of them are my own doing, and some, completely, utterly, delightfully unexpected! I have given up on the post promised in the last one, because it has taken more time and research than expected. I might as well tell you now: the promised post was to be a road trip all along the entire length of the Mississippi River, named The Baker Man Trip!!! It will be posted TBA...

What I have in store for you my backlog includes a sake tasting party, my engagement party, and a Nostalgialicious themed combined bday party. BUT, I will start with my first commission: my company asked me to decorate for our Cinco de Mayo lunch. I decided that the cheapest and most effective to create a fiesta-like atmosphere was to make papel picado banners from company paper. All the white papel picados were recycled from already used printer paper. I had only one night to make them, and the room was HUGE, so to make banners that go from one corner of the room to the other and not lose too much sleep, I spaced them farther apart on a piece of yarn. Here are the results!

In retrospect, I should have taken a before pic, but I think it's kinda obvious...

I...er...used the cutouts to make little centerpieces...Save the trees! In case you'e wondering, it's a sombrero. I also made a bell design (the yellow thing on the table in the background) and that X looking design were 4 maracas.

And a different angle...
I also played salsa music to set the mood. The sweet deal was we got to make frozen margaritas! Everyone loved the banners and we all had a smashing time.

Papel Picado instructions: Papel picado is like making snowlakes, except you're working with square pieces of paper.

1) As my starting piece of paper is plain old printer paper, I folded one corner of the piece of paper to the other side of the paper, making sure that the edges are perfectly aligned. I then had a triangular flap and an edge that's extra. I cut out the extra edge so that I only had a triangle that's actually a square folded up. To save time, I then used that square as a template to cut the rest of the paper into squares.

2) I folded the square in half, then in quarters, then in half again diagonally.

3) I then went to town with a pair of scissors. Be careful not to take out too much of the folded edges as they are structural...

I realized that even with my honey's help and when we're doing random designs, to have the right amount of intricacy, it's taking forever. So, I made the executive decision to have all the white papers intricate and all the colored paper to have a simple bifold or quarter fold design template. That way, it would be plausible to cut several papel picados at once. I then tried my skill at drawing half a sombrero, bell, and maraca. I thought the results were cute, if not accurate.

It was towards midnight when I was struck with another idea! Why not use every scrap of paper and use the simple cutout pieces to make centerpieces? It was modeled after those decorations where it's flat until you open it up and attach the two opposite pieces of cardboard together, and it forms either a ball or a bell or some such. You know what I'm talking about right?

1) To do that, I started with a still folded cutout. I added a square of double stick tape on the bottom and top of the cutout, near the fold.

2) I then layered another still folded cutout on top of the

Pretend that in the last shape, there's two folded pieces on top of each other.

3) Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you've attached ~10 pieces together (it'll work really well if it's a denomination of the number of papel picados you've made of that shape).

4) Allow the folds to decompress, and attach the bottom side of the first piece to the top side of the last piece. Reinforce by taping the the outer edges where two pieces have been taped together. Product should look like the blue sombrero on the table in the second picture of this post (I hope).

Enjoy!

Yum Under the Sun

On Valentine's Day, my honey and I went to Half Moon Bay, CA for some fun under the sun. What we found instead was "yum" under the sun. The gastric highlight of our day was supposed to be our dinner at the Crab Landing, but instead, it was our simple lunch on the beach.

So that got me thinking...What was it about that meal that made it so good? And how will that help me in my event planning?

We stopped by a locally owned grocery store to gather materials for our picnic lunch on the beach. After perusing what the aisles had to offer, we decided on a simple fare of Columbus Peppered Dry Salame, fresh mozzerella, and braided sourdough bread fresh from the bakery next door. To wash it all down, we bought a bottle of 2008 Moselland Mosel Reisling Qualitatswein, which we chose solely for it's cat shaped bottle, and some styrofoam cups (fancy plastic stemware was not available). Et voila!

A feast for our bellies!

What makes this meal great was the quality and freshness of the cheese and the bread. Salami is great because it is salami. =P The wine was a happy surprise. It was light, fruity, and crisp. The only problem was that we didn't buy two bottles. But I digress. I think these simple mini sandwiches are great for any impromptu picnic or meals during roadtrips. If you happen to be on a roadtrip, pick up the ingredients at a locally owned grocery selling local goods to better experience the area you are travelling through. Just don't drink and drive.

PS-I kinda just gave you a teaser for my next post!