Interesting to see exactly what a 3mile radius around our house versus Usman's house looks like. We are in the boondocks!

Halloween Bike Ride

New track name at EveryTrail
We had a nice bike ride with the dogs, Naya Cynthia and Ash all going along. We hitched up the chariot to Cynthia's Novara mountain bike and the dogs were tethered to either side of the chariot. Ash rode his Marin San Anselmo hybrid with a baby carrier carrying Naya. It was quite a sight. The caravan proceeded as depicted on the EveryTrail link and on Shawnee we saw some serious ghoulish work being carried out as the residents prepared for the annual Halloween shindig. (Should have taken some iPhone pictures on the way... next time) Naya fell asleep on the way home and her feet kept slipping and interfering with Ash trying to power up hills but we did ok. The dogs were great all things considered and stayed a comfortable distance next to the chariot, only upsetting the apple cart once or twice (just when everyone was stopped). We learned it's a viable option to tether them and ride with the entire crew. This keeps Cynthia much happier since the dogs always love to join us, whining continuously if we leave them behind.

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A Great Beginning

Today we started the day with our 1.8 mile loop as shown in this Google Earth snapshot. Cynthia and I took Naya and our two German Shepherds, Kala and Kayla. It was a bit crisp but Naya enjoyed looking around. The sheep and llama were out in the pasture as we went by the back of the Woodside Priory School soccer field. There are (at least) 3 new baby sheep (2 of them black) all of them cute. I always wonder if our shepherds feel a need to jump in there and round them up. They do seem to notice the animals in there but since they are at some distance they tend to not get to excited (as opposed to the reaction to jackrabbits on the Priory fields). Anyway we continued on our way around and at the top Doris (the white horse who lives next to the trail) was active and her owner was tending to her needs. We were disappointed to realize that the large field that abuts that property is now for sale! ($3.2 million for 5.8 acres of property) Hopefully, given the by-laws of Portola Valley there will be a preservation of the current trail that goes to the top of the hill (offering commanding views of the hills South and West of Portola Valley) despite it being private property. The horse trails are supposed to remain accessible even if on private property. We will see what happens.

After the walk, Cynthia's mom had made her wonderful German pancakes which Cynthia and I demolished (me with a bit of butter, syrup, lemon juice from our lemons, and sliced bananas... Yum!) Meanwhile we warmed Naya up (her hands tend to get a bit chilled) and June sent her off for her morning nap. Having eaten this the last thing I wanted to do was to go into lab but off I went, my usual 6 mile bike ride downhill to lab (a bit over 17 minutes today).
Cynthia was to stay at home today and study for boards. Naya had a nice trip to the library with June in the late morning after her nap.

My two favorite girls

These are my girls. Cynthia and Naya. We were hanging at the breakfast table a couple of months ago when I snapped this. Naya looks great in hats. It makes her cute round smooth face stand out even more. And those eyes...