Happy Early Earth Day

The Only Way to Travel:

Kiersta Crawling Through the Garden Tunnel

Each year the moms' group I belong to, Las Madres, gathers for an Earth Day hike. Normally we head over to Rancho San Antonio but the parking there on a weekend morning is nothing if not horrendous. It seems that more time is spent cruising the parking lots searching for an elusive space than is spent out on the trails. As a result, we decided to switch things up this year and go to Hidden Villa (www.HiddenVilla.org) in Los Altos instead. Hidden Villa is a magical place and well worth checking out. While there is a $5.00 parking fee, it was so much better to spend a little money to have a spot, and support a worthy cause, than it was to spend $5.00 in gas searching for a parking space.

Three families gathered this year, with a fourth one missing us by minutes, for our hike. After we finally set out, we passed through the various animal areas, including the cow with a calf...so cute! We also went into the hen house where there were at least 100 chicks under the heat lamps...more cuteness!

Mama with her Baby

We finally made it past all of the distractions and hit the trails. Hmmm....which way to go? We decided on the The Bunny Loop Trail, cute name and the kids hoped we would find some rabbits along the way; we didn't but we did find quite a few banana slugs. 1.75 miles and 400 feet of elevation gain later we found our way back to the farm. The kids did a great job (we had 4 year olds hiking with us)! After our hike we crossed the creek and had a nice picnic lunch in a field under a shady oak where the kids decided to climb up the hill and run down, only to find themselves surrounded by pricker plants.

The Las Madres Earth Day Hikers (Minus Me)

After lunch the other two families took off but we stayed around for a bit to let Kiersta play in the creek. Kyle had fun sporting my hat and eating leaves when I wasn't looking.

Kyle with my Hat

Kiersta on the Bridge after Playing in the Creek

Once we finally left, we headed over to a nearby cemetery to visit Brian's grandparents. It would have been Grandma Annette's 101st birthday. We sang happy birthday to her and introduced her to Kyle. Finding the letterbox in the cemetery was an added bonus.

This was a fantastic day with beautiful weather, unlike today where it is pouring and in the '50's! I'm thinking that Rancho San Antonio will not be seeing us for another Earth Day hike, this was just so much nicer.