Bernhards Random Ramblings BACKUP

Photo Credit: Tatjana Tatjana and Jasmine joined me for a morning hike along Rocky Ridge trail today. A bit cool and partially foggy, but it warmed up as we hiked up to Coyote Peak. Contrary to  last time , there were cows out on pasture. I'm not super-comfortable when passing cows on trails, but they are more interested in chow than getting annoyed over some random hikers. We almost caught up to the fog on the upper part of the trail. 

I took today off from work. It's going to be hot, so the regular group met early for a short hike at Santa Teresa County Park. We decided to take Fortini Trail down to Almaden Valley and Stile Ranch Trail back to the parking lot. Tatjana is home for a couple days and joined us. Stile Ranch Trail has steep switch backs that take us over two ridges.  By 10:00 it was very warm already and the day only got hotter. Nevertheless, this was a great start into the weekend.

The end of the university school year is approaching fast, so Tatjana and I drove over the hill to drop her off for the last 10 days of school and to start moving back a portion of her things.

For a couple years now, I'm a member with the European Train Enthusiasts (ETE) . A friend brought an ETE flyer to today's ops session at Silicon Valley Lines. It's nicely done, looks good, and comes with some neat photos. Huh! ... Wait a second. The friend points to the photo at the bottom. Unbelievable! That's me. With Tatjana apparently, so that must have been at a Eurowest Show in about 2004.

Together for the first time.

The aircraft for AF83 arrived late from Paris. We took off with a delay of about an hour. Gloomy  weather hung over San Francisco, but I like how this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge came out (photo credit: Tatjana) The flight itself was eventless. A few bumps here and there, 3 movies,  some work on the laptop, dinner and breakfast and we touched down in Paris. When we left the plane we had 45 minutes to make our connection to Stuttgart. Amazingly enough, there were no lines anywhere, so we where at gate G22 in less than half an hour. Even our luggage made it. Arrival in Stuttgart. On to fighting with jet lag ...

Joining the family for Christmas.

Tatjana and I went into the hills in Santa Teresa County Park to try and shoot some lightning. Possibly successfully. "ARRRRRGH, that flash is bright!" Update: We got up there relatively late, so we caught the storm only from behind and didn't catch a lot of nice photos. This is one of the nice ones. (Photo credit: Tatjana)

After loading up the car this morning we drove over to Santa Cruz, enjoyed the fog, and had delicious baked goods and coffee at Emily's Bakery for breakfast. An hour later we were busy unloading the car at UC Santa Cruz Rachel Carson College (formerly known as College Eight). UCSC has a beautiful campus. It's hard to beat this setting nestled on a hill close to the ocean and the forest. The new banana slug. Good luck and welcome to the ride, Tatjana!