Lic Observatory

Madalynns' first big adventure, up top of Mt Hamilton.

She expressed a desire to learn more about where she came from, so I figured I'd start from the very begining.

The road up there is pretty twisty and windy. She fared better than any of us. Although there was some possible evidence of being scared ?

The landscape up top is neat, almost European feel with the history and old community houses up there, to bad the community left.

The views from up top can be spectacular. It was a little hazy this day but better than average.

I stuck the iphone up next to the telescope and snapped a couple of pictures. The hill in the foreground is Quimby infront of downtown San Jose.

It was a nice day to sit around and take in the views. Lic Observatory offers tours, of a couple of the scopes.

On the way back we stopped for dinner at  the mt Hamilton Grandview restaurant . It's been on the to do list for a while. Sponsered by my Mum - Thanks Mum ! You'll have to try this place yourselves when you visit. Great food.

Maddy behaved herself the whole time! We questioned our choice on the way in, but it worked out great.

It's a great place to see the sunset from too.

Flying with Goldens

I had a nice flight Sunday 9 Mar, and got some nice pictures, so figured I'd share some. The local site - Ed Levin, is usually only good before a front passes, which was the situation on this day. It was unusually warm for a good day in March so my expectations were pretty low.

 I think in the picture above you can see a slanted haze layer, I think this shows where a convergence was located. Cooler moist air to the north, balmy air going up over it from the south. Likely the seabreeze effect coupled into the situation, it was a pretty weak day. We got pretty high for such weak conditions. I saw 6800'msl for a short while, but bailed out of the lift since I was getting very close to the SFO airspace.

 A few of us flew to Mission and back, Ryan on his single surface! Well it is a Freedom ;)

 On the way back I ws lucky enough to thermal back up with a whole family of golden eagles. Looked like Grandpa, Mamma, Pap and a couple fledglings, six or seven in totally all lazily circling up.

All to soon the covergence fell apart or moved, after contemplating landing on top for half an hour, I landed easily and drove down. Icing on the cake! Pretty nice day :)

Madalynn

It has been a busy month! We moved, I started a new job and Madalynn arrived a little early. Finally we have internet. Living without it is like living without electricity these days. So finally here are some pictures of beautiful young Madalynn.

It is amazing how much she has changed since these pictures already. They grow up fast !