Revisiting Foothill Park after 4 years

The anniversary trip posts have to wait for this brief interruption

Given this is a long weekend, we decided to revisit foothill park in Palo Alto this afternoon. This park is just 25 minutes from our place. The first time we got to visit it was in 2021 sundar72.com/travelog/2021/1/4/a-lost-world-foothills-park-palo-alto.html?rq=foothillwhen covid was still in peak. We were wearing masks and walking.

We went in the afternoon because I had to do two back to back yoga classes this morning. Got an hour and a half post yoga class to get something to eat, drink lot of fluids and join the gang on a 9 mile hike this time.

Parking is available for 6$ right inside the park. We started hiking at 2PM and were out by 5:30. It was pleasant. There was a lot of water in the creek and falls and there was hardly anyone else in the park.

Our little one joined us for this hike as well and that was a bonus..

We caught some sunset colors right when we reached the top. So for a change, a front facing bench photo to start this post..

A gallery of portrait format pics..

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We were also treated today to some amazing Bajji after walking in the cold.. to go with Chai.. our hiking group leader made my day!

A video highlights reel of the hike..

Exhausted after all that exercise all day, but feeling good!

Will definitely recommend this place for an afternoon hike in cool weather!

Red Tail trail to Arastradero Lake

This weekend we hiked to a place that we have missed all these years. Right here in Palo Alto there is the Enid Pearson Arastradero Preserve with 10+ miles of trails and a cute and beautiful lake in the middle of it.

We also happened to pick a beautiful morning to hike here. The skies were just lit yesterday!! The sunbeams and purple clouds were a treat to the eyes!

There were lots of benches in the park..

that is probably our most beautiful “bench photo” to date ! The rest from this trail are here.. including a few cheesy ones of us making a heart. I was upset with San on the way to the park.. so our friends were giving me a hard time for being so finicky.. At times my OCD tendencies get the better of me. She is my world and I cannot stay mad at her for more than 3 minutes tops. At this point I am pretty much her pet dog or something like that.. <vent>still one needs to fold all other fingers in when making the heart and it has to be presented parallel to the plane of the camera.. </vent"> (that should be a legit html tag!)

Not possible to be angry with this one..

A few vertical shots of this lake..

A gallery of pictures of the beautiful skies and landscapes from the days hike.. We hiked only 6 miles as I had to do some unplanned last minute singing with the local Smule group! It was a packed day of activities for a regular saturday!

Surprisingly did not take any videoclips on this hike!

We will definitely revisit this place and cover the few trails that we missed within this park. The bay area is just amazing. There are still a lot of trails we haven’t hiked, given we hike new trails all the time.

Every year there is a well planned long grand hike. Last years highlight was the grand canyon! Hoping this years grand hike will be something to write about!

Mission on a foggy frosty morning

Last weekend there was a plan for a 10 mile hike which got pushed out to a later date. It was a long weekend and I had been a couch potato the entire time. Spent all my time and focus on adjusting the blogsite post moving to Squarespace 7.0 from Squarespace 5.0. It was scary for me to move platforms and there were glitches as things don’t always move smoothly. Was looking for html and css code help at one point and going nuts. A guy by the name of Freddie patiently helped over an almost two week period with his team to support the move. I have been their customer for 12 years, still they understood how this change for the look and feel of my site was important to me and the old folks in India who read it.

San decided to take the little one along to Mission peak for the first time. She had driven from SoCal pretty much non stop on Friday evening and had a day of rest. She was a trooper! So was I having been volunteered last minute the previous night.

We started at 7 and it was Frosty, Foggy and cold. For the most part as we went up it was just the three of us. The crowd started coming only when we were almost halfway down.

In spite of it being that cold, I was sweating profusely as we did good time. Hence the change of shirt after reaching the top!

The little one refused to take a few extra steps to get a better bench photo.. so we had to settle for this zoom in of my ever growing sun burnt bald spot ..

did stop for pictures as Mission hikes always show the same landscapes very differently throughout the year!

the grass was all covered in frost and we could see maybe 20 feet forward at the most.. we were holding hands and walking at one point hoping we don’t run into the notorious cows on this trail!

the highlight picture at the top and the Chaifie on the way down..

The rest in pictures..

A short video clip..

Effectively this was a great morning. Got me out of the funk of blog site updating. Ended up being a turning point for my mood after coming back down!

Here is to many more trips to Mission peak in 2025!