RING OF FIRE WEEKEND

It's weird when you are not working, the excitement about the weekend. Well it's kinda like all the other days now... but there are more people on the road, at the shops, and finding a carpark becomes excruciating. But there is a positive, I have Darren with me to share the experiences with. Darren loves nothing more than a crowd, a real highlight for him.

For Darren it was full steam ahead Saturday morning, to conquer "The Ring of Fire" (and no he didn't consume too much Indian food on Friday night). Darren has found himself an 'awesome' riding track up in the hills of Los Altos. So a hot and sweaty Daz was very excited on his return Saturday morning, after achieving his first goal... Hill # 1 (Stats: 14 miles, Steepness: 12.9%)

For cycling enthusiasts, the graph showing the Ring of Fire is linked below:
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/ringmap/ring_of_fire.html

Early afternoon we decided that a road trip (in the car) would be ideal to see what really lies ahead... for his future endeavours to conquer hill # 2,3,4,5. Darren had mentioned that the scenery was beautiful and the houses were magnificent. It's good to see that for a Computer Engineer he really does still have the ability to use the creative right side of his brain.... he was right (as always), it really was a beautiful trip through the hills. I guess one of the main differences for us was how lush and green the surroundings were...

We decided to stop the car and take a walk along a track to look at the view over the Bay Area. A quick skim read of the park guidelines and rules, cautions about rattle snakes etc etc, we were on our way. As our journey continued an interesting conversation stemmed from the sighting of some particularly peculiar furry feces. "Could this be the dung of the infamous Californian Mountain Lion?"... We headed back to our car and stopped to look at the entry sign once again, and there on a big white sign was the warning that Mountain Lions were present in our current surroundings, and a list of precautions for when one might encounter a Mountain Lion. We were a little perplexed to how we both missed this big sign the first time around....

*mental note to thoroughly read the entire entrance sign in future.

The weekend was pretty much occupied with car hunting... test driving an Audi A3, Ford Mustang, Golf GTi. I was quite taken back when I half jokingly suggested the cute little Turbo VW Beetle sitting in the dealership and Darren was seemingly interested. So off for a drive we went, somehow I don't think it will make the shortlist.

A weekend is not a weekend without a visit to a "Premium Outlet" Center. So with Darren still in need of a couple more shirts, a trip to Gilroy (pop.45,718) was in order.

Gilroy is the Garlic Capital of America (possibly the world), host to the Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. Lonely Planets overview of this exciting event held on the last full weekend in July... "It should be fun but it isn't: 125,000 people eating mostly mediocre chow in the blazing sun is not a pretty sight."
Our brochure stated.. Gilroy.. More than just Garlic. From our perspective it was all about Outlet Shops. Pretty much can assume that we won't be making the trip back in July.

The weekend finished with my desire to see a squirrel.... off to the local park we went. This time we remembered to read the entire entrance sign... and lucky we did. Who would have thought that such a cute furry tailed creature could be a vicious child attacker.

We googled squirrel attacks when we got back to the hotel... and there were numerous stories on squirrel attacks in the very same park. Just google "squirrel attacks in Mountain View" and see for yourself.

It's a scandal, they're calling for the squirrels to be removed or the park closed to humans. I think a curfew for the squirrels maybe in order.

I left happy after my first squirrel sighting. Darren left embarrassed by the antics of Sebastian, our fluffy toy dog.

Just read an exciting email from my dear friend Grier in Townsville. Congratulations to Grier, Garth and Zosha on the news that a new family member will be arriving in October.

XX
Mel