Ed Levin Country Park

Tristyn and I got up early today. May 28th 2016, and made the long trek down 101, across Silicon Valley on the 237 and up into the hills to Ed Levin County park.  You can see the hills in the distance as you travel 237.

This is one of my favorite places - I used to go here a lot by myself. Its the "Back Door" to Mission Peak - much less crowded and quiet. It was Tristyns first time here!

We started at the Tularctos Trailhead. 

Its getting later in the Spring, but some wild flowers were still out

Tristyn started off on his own, walking with me and throwing rocks.

The path is fairly steep to begin with. You can see how it "Rolls". It didn't take long before he got into the backpack.

The path cuts through grazing fields for cattle. Tristyn loves the "Moo Cows". He points at cow dung and yells "Horsies" or "Cows". 

Even the wildflowers have a shitty life. Or, there is beauty everywhere :)

We stopped after a couple miles for a drink. I had a half frozen coconut juice. Nothing better in the hot sun (it was in the 80's).

We took a couple pictures overlooking the Bay.

Tristyn slipped just as we took this picture

We continued on our way over the dry, cracked, ground. This was supposed to be an "El Nino" year, but its still pretty dry

We stopped after 3 miles in an oak grove (there isn't much shade on this path). It was still about 3 miles to Mission Peak. I wanted to go, but it was too hot for Tristyn.

Tristyn got out and walked with me for awhile.

There is a hang glider launch site near the trail. Tristyn was blown away by them flowing through the air. He talked about "Hang glider" for days.

We got back to the trailhead and stopped at the playground. The static electricty on the slide made for some interesting hair!

And we made one final stop at 7/11 for our usual post hike re-hydration (Tristyn got the chocolate milk)

Our final stats:

5 1/2 miles over 2.5 hours with 1000 feet of elevation gain/loss

Sharks Ice and San Jose Barracuda Game

I went to the Oilers-Sharks game on Thursday, and during the intermission they announced that the next 40 girls aged 5-9 could register for a free training session at the sharks practice facility on Saturday. I signed Allison up for the 3:45-4:45 time slot.

We barely made it there on time, since we went to the beach and played with some of our friends. 

 The session took place at the Sharks Ice facility in downtown San Jose. It was run by the Jr Sharks Girls team(s).

 

They supplied all equipment - I got Allison dressed quickly

Tristyn was quite impressed with Allison and the equipment

The session was full, with 40 kids and all skill levels. They supplied buckets for those that couldn't skate yet. Allison gladly took them

There were both coaches, and older girls who played for the Junior Sharks helping to teach

Tristyn had a great time watching from the stands

Allison spent a decent amount of time on the ice.

But she did make some friends

We had a good time too, since they had Tim Horton's coffee

Tristyn played some hockey in the hallway while waiting

The session lasted 1 hour, and all the kids cheered at the end

Allison did great - by the end of the session she was moving around and skating without any help (apart from her bucket friends)

We managed to get some family pictures too

We got her undressed, and she took her hockey bag back to the equipment room!

Thy also gave everyone who attended free tickets to the San Jose Barracuda AHL game! They were playing the San Diego Gulls, ironically - Tristyn's home town!

We got a big tub of popcorn - which the kids loved of course. It was free refills - which we refilled 3 times. 

Tristyn really got into the game

The Barracuda won 3-0, however we left after 2 periods - the long day and sugar was catching up with them :)

Ehe End!