On Saturday, we continued our quest to traverse the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Because it had been raining a lot we decided to do a paved part of the trail, this time down in San Jose along the Coyote Creek trail portion. We were only supposed to walk a little over 9 miles, but it ended up being closer to 11, because the creek overflowed the trail in a few places and we ended up having to either go on an alternate trail or walk in a neighborhood around the flooded section. There were a few times when we were able to walk through the water, it was cold! Javi came along and a always was a happy walking companion. We didn’t encounter any rain during our walk, though it was chilly and overcast to start with, but had warmed up a bit and the sun had come out by the end. We saw a feral cat colony and some noisy chickens and roosters. It was quite a study and contrasts in one part of the trail where there was a manicured golf course on one side and lots of tents and tarp shelters on the other. I can’t imagine how cold it must’ve been last week, we could see snow on the nearby mountains. I feel very lucky to have a safe, warm place to live.
I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day, so I got into bed early and didn’t even do my usual reading before bedtime. Luckily, I slept well and Sunday morning Javi and I got out for a nice long walk in the neighborhood before the rain sat in. Later, I went to see the movie Emily about the life of Emily Brontë at the Sequoia movie theater in downtown Mill Valley with my mom and a friend of hers. I didn’t know much about Emily Brontë besides her being the author of Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte. I learned more about her and her family, and was really amazed at how talented all of the siblings were, especially growing up in a pretty isolated area. The cinematography was beautiful, what a gorgeous place to grow up, though there was a lot of rain!
When mom and I got home, we lit a fire in the fireplace and listened to an audiobook that a friend loaned me, To Kill A Mockingbird. We spent a wonderful half an hour listening to Sissy Spacek read the first chapter of the book, and decided we will listen to a bit of it each night when we have our pre-dinner snacks and drinks. Sitting there listening without anything else to distract me I became absorbed in the book and felt like I was right there with Scout and Jem getting to know Dill and trying to find out about Boo Radley.
One response to “More Trail Adventures, And Fun With Mom”
I recently reread To Kill a Mockingbird. I first read it in highschool. I have been enjoying rereading some of the books I was “forced”to read in high school. I now have such a different view and perspective now that I am older and can bing some life expereince to those books.