For years we've talked about going up to see the Lick Observatory, which sits on top of Mt. Hamilton at the southeastern edge of Silicon Valley, and on New Year's Day we finally motivated ourselves to make the drive. Evan got a little bit queasy on the way up (there are well over 300 turns in the road as you climb up the mountain!), and he was the least motivated of us to begin with, so he didn't make it into any of the pictures, but Alex thought it was pretty cool:
Steph has been getting some big deliveries of industrial felt at her studio as part of her InTouch project (which starts installing TODAY after over 2 years of work!). The show at the de Saisset Museum on the campus of Santa Clara University opens January 9th and runs through June (it'll be up for 6 months!), so if you're local in the Bay Area (or you want to come and visit) you should be sure to check it out.
At the end of January Steph and I spent a night in San Francisco while seeing a concert (Guster, one of our favorite bands) and rented bikes the following morning to see some parts of the City from a different perspective. Here we are at the bottom of Lombard St. (we didn't bother going to the top... it's already enough pedaling to get to the bottom coming from the Marina):
I don't remember what the occasion was, but we got ice cream one evening while walking around downtown and we bothered to take a picture of that:
In March we went to see Cirque du Soleil when one of their traveling shows (Volta) came to San Jose:
For spring break we drove down to Newport Beach to see Steph's sister and stopped at Hearst Castle along the way:
We also took a day-trip down to Carlsbad to go to LEGOLAND again (probably the last time we'll make that trip until we have grandkids someday). Here are the boys dwarfing one of the displays in Miniland:
We went through Malibu on the drive home, just because:
Alex played violin at school this year, which meant he had to get dressed up at least once:
We went frisbee golfing at the new (to us) course at Kelley Park a couple of times:
Memorial Day weekend we did some hiking and geocaching (including creating our first cache!) in Santa Teresa County Park:
In June we ran the Terrain Race as a family at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Note that, despite the fact that this 5k advertises itself as an obstacle course in the mud, Evan wore a white shirt and managed to largely keep it clean by being very selective about which obstacles he would conquer:
Later that month we made our annual trip to the Alameda County Fair:
For the 4th of July we visited Steph's parents at their new home in Prescott Valley, Arizona (which, thanks to its elevation, is only "really hot" in the summer, not "measurable risk of spontaneous combustion during daylight hours hot" like much of Arizona):
Later in July we went up to Napa for a weekend with Hayden's sister and her boyfriend to see a concert (Guster again, twice in one year!):
And we finished off the month by camping with some family friends in South Lake Tahoe at Camp Richardson:
It was time to get back to school in August, Evan starting 7th grade and Alex 4th:
Steph and her sisters spent labor day at a dude ranch (Coffee Creek Ranch) in northern California celebrating one of their 40th birthdays:
We got a trailer hitch installed on Steph's Subaru this year so we could take our bikes with us all around the South Bay, although when we ride to Alum Rock Park we don't need it since it's only a few miles from our house:
We learned about Viva Calle, a program run by the city of San Jose where they shut down several miles of major streets downtown to car traffic so people can bike, skateboard, walk, and generally play around in parts of the city they wouldn't normally get to see that way:
We did some mountain biking in Calero County Park in October (well, Steph, Alex and I did... Evan lodged a formal protest against mountain biking since it involves work):
Steph had an artist friend in Oakland (Splady Art Studios) fabricate an apparatus to suspend the Hanging Pod pieces from as part of InTouch, and in November we all went to his studio to get a crash course in how to assemble them. While we were there we all (including the boys) got to try several types of metalworking, like using a plasma cutter and metal bender, and see some demonstrations of welding, forging steel, and melting 2-inch steel plate with some insane focused-heat-generating thingy-dingy (I didn't get the official name). The boys also got to hold the largest mallet they're ever likely to find (Alex is over 4'8" now, and Evan 5'0" -- it's a really big mallet!):
When I compiled these pictures I didn't have any yet for December, but maybe I'll add a few in the coming days. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the one we used for our Christmas card:
We hope your 2019 was filled with happiness and joy, and 2020 brings you more of the same. Happy Holidays!
