Of Birthdays, Peaks and Long Coastal Drives

Two birthdays in two days = lots of cake + 1 yummy treat! We had fun celebrating Ashish's and Renuka's birthday on Friday and Saturday respectively, hope they did too! Here's to a great year ahead for both of you...

Saturday morning, I was up at 6AM and by 7:15AM was at the staging area at the foot of Mission Peak. It is supposedly the highest peak in the Bay Area. Since I was doing it alone, I had precautiously taken lots of water and a few cereal bars. Result: heavy backpack. No, it actually wasn't too bad. But I noticed that most people heading up did not even carry water or food, at the most just one bottle of water in hand. It is a nice climb, an obviously heavily frequented trail winding up to the peak. Thankfully, the sun didn't make an appearance until I was about two-thirds up the 2.8 mile climb. The last half mile or so is a little rocky. I made it to the top at around 8:45AM. Being a cloudy day, I didn't get great views, but I get to see a fair bit of bay area civilization to the south. And I could make out Mt. Hamilton above the clouds. Nice. Climb down was of course a lot faster, made it by 10AM, not too bad considering I had spent about half an hour at the peak. Mission Mission Peak accomplished.

Sunday I drove the 17-mile drive with my undergrad friend Mythili and her friend. It is more than an hour's drive out to the 17-mile drive entrance. $8.25 entrance fee and you are off on the winding road along the Pacific coast. To cut a long story short, what struck me most on the drive was The Lone Cypress. Maybe because I had heard so much about it. Or maybe because I had enough coast in the New England trip that I was not too awed by the ocean. But anyway, the Cypress is a very artistically structured tree....somehow it is a very serene feeling...to stand and stare at the tree and hear the waves crashing nearby. Got some nice pictures in their cam. Overall, the drive is well worth it; the water, the birds, the mansions and The Lone Cypress - a scenic drive indeed!