Festive lights

This year thanks to our neighbor Rick, we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Vasona Lake County Park, Festival of Lights But not just in the normal way, for the first time, the public were allowed to walk through, instead of be bumper to bumper in a car parade.

It was awesome, a couple hundred acres of lights.

Maddy loved it. Lots of flashing lights and even some animation.

And then ? Some random things, I had a little laugh at the tag-along tooth and brush.

Lots of fun.

Roar ! Dinosaur ! On the 13th day of Christmas ;)

Back in pre-historic Christmas.

Western Snowman.

Happy Holidays Y'all !

The Girls go Horse Riding

On Saturday I took  Heidi, Gloria and Maddy to Mar Vista stables to go horse riding.

Maddy got her own ride on a Shetland pony. I'm sure she wanted to ride the trail after a few circles.

This is a beautiful spot just south of Fort Funston, I've flown over hundreds of times.

The trail works its way down through the lush vegetation - thanks fog :) - to the beach.

they rode cove to cove along the beach a short ways.

Maddy and I walked/climbed down to the beach close to the turn around spot as luck would have it.

Then the misty fog cleared and with the sun on their backs returned.

The trail is quite interesting as well as scenic.

Pretty day !

Skyline to the sea

Danny and Taryn recently married and visited as they passed through. We went off to one of my favorite bike/hikes.

Starting at Waddell Beach on bike, entering big basin, the trail passes through marsh, then creekside woodland, a small farm, and into the Redwoods. 

Berry Creek falls makes a good destination. Maddy has become a pretty good little hiker.

Lots of fun ways to cross the creek.

I was surprized by the fall colors on the trail, dispite having come here so many times I had not noticed the abundant Maple trees before. 

With the recent rain the banana slugs are coming out. 

Half Moon Bay Pumpkins

It is funny to me that I have been driving passed the Arata farm for the best part of 20 years, never once stopped there even though I was always curious. Maddy has developed an enthusiasm for Pumpkins, so this rainy day we went and checked out the farm. After all Half Moon bay is famous for its pumkin growing.

The giant Straw maze was what always caught my eye - you can see it from the Hiway 1. 

We spent a good 1/2 hour lost in there I think. Although time went non-linear as the rain came down in sheets. It was fun having it almost to ourselves though, I couldn't imagine what it would be like with a few hundred people in there. 

Being a touristy farm it has a petting zoo, always a curiosity for Maddy.

Yeah pumpkins ! Or Punkies as Maddy says. And now the weather report from Poplar beach in Half Moon Bay

Alviso - Day on the Bay.

Called "Day on the Bay" it's more like some time next to the Estuary but it was more fun than I expected. And certainly very well attended. I am glad we biked there.

I have been wanting to take Maddy Kayaking soon, so it's good for her to see them, but the primary draw was the pumpkin patch.

The line had been crazy long, but in some anomaly it cleared for a short while and we stepped up. She ran around looking at these crazy orange things, no presidential candidates here.

There was a main stage with some fun cultural events circulating around. The belly dancers were fun to watch. Maddy got to go round the inflatable pirate ship too. 

Fun ! and very lucky with the nice weather, usually Alvsio is a cooler windy spot, one of the reasons we moved nearby.

Around Twain-Harte

We spent Labor Day weekend up in Twain Harte. It was Maddy's nap time when we got there, so Rick and I went and visited the local fire lookout. It was really interesting seeing what the daily job is like. Of course 1 hour is considerably different than 25 years!

It's tricky getting good shots through a telescope. I've clearly got some practice to do. This is Three Chimneys from 27 + 3/4 Miles away

I wonder how much radiation is emitted absorbed there.

Sunday Rick and Rena took us over to Columbia State Park, I had no idea this place existed. It's a great place for kids to get a feel for some history.

There are lots of exposed granite rocks exposed to climb on. Maddy really enjoyed that. The rocks are exposed from the Hydraulic gold mining back in the day.

The whole town is preserved as a living museum. Surprisingly it is free. I hope it stays open and maintained.  

Maddy eventually conceded to some role play.

Down the road at Ironstone winery, there are some neat relics from the gold mining era. Some pretty serious gold was found by this rock muncher.

This forty-four pound specimen "Gold pocket" Ironstone's Crown Jewel was held onto despite an offer of $20 million.