November 22

We're active travelers, so it was inevitable that we'd take some sort of hike this weekend, and today was the day. Adam found us a moderate trail in Arnold and we set out mid-morning to check out the Sunset Loop and Cougar Rock.

It was a mostly peaceful trek that featured a roughly 1,000-foot elevation change, mostly at the journey's inception. (Fortunately, since my achy knees wouldn't have cared much for aggressive late-game rise and fall.) We even crossed paths with some fellow Pleasantonians who were out enjoying the nature and blue skies. (Hello, Julie and Tony!)

The view of the valley from Cougar Rock was lovely (Adam's jokes aside) and aside from a tumble by Iron Man Isaac that resulted in a pretty good scratch on his arm, we emerged unscathed and primed for the rest of the day, which included Giant Burgers and milkshakes, downtime, and a game of Scrabble. 

We took a number of pics where we were trailing it up, of course, and some are in Christmas card photo contention, so I'm using one that's not in the mix. I wish I had a grand revelation to share, but I don't. I'm just thankful for what is and what was and what will be. And I think that's probably good enough.