Spring is here!

I love sunny days. In November, I'm excited to see the first snow, but in April, I'm ready for the snow to go away. I can't wait to pack away my boots and break out my Chacos, which is exactly what I did this weekend. I spent Saturday at Discovery Park with Cowboy, where I enjoyed the sun, mountains and water while Cowboy was oblivious of everything but the grass he was trying to eat. That evening, I dragged Chris on a bike ride to map out my route to work so that I can start bicycle commuting. I think it will be relatively easy to get to work but very painful to get home. Why do we live so far uphill?

My friend Joel was in town from Colorado, so we met him for brunch at Cafe Flora on Sunday morning. It was great to catch up and find out what he and Kendra have been up to, as well as to reminisce about life off the beaten track in Norcal. Now I'm craving Sushi on Main and bluegrass music at the San Gregorio General Store. Thanks, Joel. :)

After brunch, Chris, Cowboy and I headed to the mountains for a hike. We decided to do Pratt Lake in hopes that it wouldn't be too far into the snow line. We were wrong -- we hit snow about halfway up the trail. (Remember above, where I said that I packed away my boots? I regretted it.) Once again, we ended up off trail by following the footprints of the hikers ahead of us. The goal was to hike to a saddle from which we'd have a view of Pratt Lake, but we think we hiked all the way around the basin of the lake and ended up with a totally different view, perhaps not even of the same lake. Regardless, it was a beautiful view of an Alpine lake (Pratt? Talapus? Olallie? Mason? Melakwa?) with Mt. Rainier in the background.

After taking in the view while perched precariously on a steep snowy slope, we headed back home so that Chris could perch precariously on our roof to drink beer with Joel and Mark (I think Chris really wants a roof deck.) We ended the evening with a BBQ, making it official: BBQ season is open at the Hill house! Although once we start doing work on the house, we might not be fit to receive visitors for awhile (and definitely not for beers on the roof). In that case, we'll just have to convince Finn to host the BBQs at his place more often...