Huddart County Park, Woodside, March 27, 2010

I volunteered for the San Mateo County Parks Volunteer Horse Patrol. On Saturday, I did my ride-along with fearless patroller Kathy Woods. No perps, scoundrels, rule-breakers, or even down trees on this patrol, just beautiful redwoods:

Los Padres National Forest, March 12-14, 2010

We spent three beautiful sunny days camping with some friends from Indian Hills at Rancho Oso in the Los Padres National Forest, near Santa Barbara. Angela and I drove down early, while the rest followed after work. Thankfully the rainstorm that followed the late crew all the way from San Jose never materialized at Rancho Oso.


It is finally starting to feel like spring. We saw tons of wildflowers: owl clover, shooting stars, blue dicks, poppies, lupin, and various other unidentified blue guys, purple guys, and yellow guys.


There was a lot of water in the Santa Ynez river. Nature's all-terrain vehicle:

Sunset back at Indian Hills on Sunday:

Wisconsin, March 3-9, 2010

In summary: I ate my way through Wisconsin. It was rad.

I arrived Wednesday and had dinner with mom at Swig in Milwaukee's hip Third Ward neighborhood. Thursday dad picked me up and drove me to Madison, then Heather, Francesco and I had dinner at L'Etoile, a Madison institution (fancy artisanal Wisconsin cheese: check). The L'Etoile people were swooning over Francesco, it was like being with Bono at the World Economic Forum. Friday dad and I had lunch with my aunt Audrey (frozen custard: check), then dinner at Francesco's restaurant, Osteria Papavero, the best eats in Madison (Francesco's restaurant: check).

Saturday we headed back to Milwaukee, picked up Noam at the airport, then went to the Iron Horse for lunch (brat: check, Miller High Life: check). Monday mom and I went to Sheboygan to visit my cousin Jennifer and her family. We had lunch at the excellent Field to Fork, a localvore restaurant (deep fried cheese curds: check). (A localvore restaurant in Sheboygan! I know! Amazing, isn't it?)

These are the only pictures I managed to take on the trip: me admiring the cream city brick, a cream-colored brick made from clay found on the western side of Lake Michigan, in the Third Ward.

Noam after assembling mom's new TV:

Mammoth, February 25-28, 2010

The flight from San Jose to Mammoth on Horizon was amazing, 36 minutes over the Sierra on a perfectly clear sunny day, and free beer and wine! I think this is the Evolution Valley in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks:
Noam at Mammoth Yosemite Airport, look at those mountains:

Skiing on Friday with the Kendalls and the Glassbergs:

The weather coming in Friday afternoon:

It snowed 26 inches overnight Friday. I learned I am NOT a powder hound, on Saturday I skiied two runs, had a temper tantrum at how difficult it was, then took the shuttle back to the Glassbergs' condo and worked on a patent application instead. Time for better skis!