The other day, we went hiking in Pursima Park. It is in a red wood forest over by Half Moon Bay.

It was very nice. We could see the ocean high up in the hills. Plus, we were walking in the woods so it was cool.

We saw a lot of wild life and heard a lot the animal moving in the brush. And, we discover eucalyptus trees after wondering why the place smelled like cough drops.

One thing that was a bit disconcerting were the instructions on dealing with mountain lions. Apparently, if you encounter a mountain lion, you are to yell and wave your arms high in the air. Plus, you are supposed to be aggressive towards the lion.

I noticed a large hiking stick beside the sign. I picked it up. “Here kitty kitty.” When we returned, I put it back next to the sign.

The president of the San Francisco Hells Angels was gunned downed a few days ago. A rival biker gang is suspected. The shooting took place in the Mission district. There are rumors of retaliation. The mission district is near to where we walk.

I am concerned.

Last Friday night, we attended a wedding and the reception.  It was about 15 miles from our home.

As we were returning home, a car drifted over into our lane and then back.  This made me nervous and I was glad when the car passed.

When we got home, our daughter, who was also at the wedding, called and wondered if we got  home all right.  She said that the road we had taken was now closed due to a head on collision.

It seems that the car, that had swerved into to our lane, swerved in front of some one else and hit them head on.

That was too close for comfort.

Last night, we attended the wedding and reception for two of the neighbor kids that we have known since they were in grade school. They were good friends with our kids so we saw a lot of them when they were growing up.

We pretty much knew all of the members of the wedding party, but almost none of the guests. So, when it came time for the reception, we wandered around looking for space at one of the tables.

Finally, Kathy spotted a woman that she recognized. She was the aunt of the bride and lived several blocks away. (Our kids went over to her house on occasion to go swimming in the pool.) There were only two couples at the table and they invited us to join them.

After some introduction, we struck up conversation with them.  But, from time to time, the conversation took a strange turn.

For instance, Kathy commented to the woman that her new pool fence looked nice. She responded that it wasn’t her fence and then gestured towards the other couple at the table.

This response put both of us on tilt. I concluded that she must have sold the house to the other couple sitting with us at the table.

Thinking that this must have been a fairly recent transaction, I asked the other couple how long have they lived there. When he responded that he had lived there for 30 years, we were really confused.

Here was a woman that we knew had lived at that house when our kids were in school and yet, the other guy claims to have lived there for 30 years. Was he a relative of the aunt who shared the house with her?

Finally, the guy, sensing our confusion, explained that he and the aunt were in the process of getting a divorce.

Wow! The two couples seemed like old friends. I would never have guessed that they were a soon to be divorced couple with their prospective boy friend and girl friend.

Apparently, the divorce was agreeable with both parties.

We rented a car for the San Francisco trip. We were given a mini van. We wanted a full sized car but a mini van was the best that we could do.

Well, we went to one of the SF art museums. The biggest problem was parking at the museum. It seems that the museum has a fantastic view of the Golden Gate so everyone parks at the museum. They also park along the along the road at the museum.

Parking is fine and dandy but the peepers block the parking for the museum goers. Such was the case for us.

We couldn’t find a parking space so we parked along the side of the road along with about a hundred others. Unfortunately, the road does not have a nice curb and sidewalk. Instead, it has grass.

After doing the museum, we headed out. But we noticed that the right side of the van was scratched!

What the? We looked at the scratches on the van. Very strange. We had scuff marks on the passengers side door, hub cap and running board,

What happened? They were mowing grass that day. My guess is damage by a lawn mower.

I am glad that I took out that additional insurance.

While at Palo Alto, we notice a lot of different restaurants. One in particular had a sign that read “Fish Tacos”. Now, we didn’t investigate the place but it did cause us to wonder. Were they selling tacos made from fish or were they selling fish and tacos?

Maybe it is like the famous Diesel Fried Chicken sign that is out west.

We went to a wedding out in California recently. The ceremony took place up in the mountains. To get there, we had to drive up a switch back for several miles.

Going up was fairly easy as it was daylight and relatively quiet. The trick was driving back down.

Having driven up the switchback and experienced some of its 180 degree turns I was actually looking forward to driving back down it. And while the top speed for the road was 35 miles per hour, it was still an interesting challenge.

When my wife discovered that I was planning drive up to the wedding, she immediately banded her elderly parents from riding with me. They had to take the shuttle service instead. So, we took her sister-in-law and her sister- in-laws brother instead.

Well, the trip up was fine as we were fighting gravity. This meant that I had to accelerate out of the curves in order to get up the hill. But, going back down was different. I didn’t have to accelerate after the curves as gravity took care of that for us. All I had to do was brake before the curves.

Well, I thought that the drive back down was fine, even though were only hitting 35 mile per hour max. My wife was not impressed.

I think I have been banned from driving on switchbacks.