Byxbee Park

Last weekend we went walking in Byxbee Park. It's along the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto. We've been there numerous times before. One reason we like it is that it has a slight hill. Of course, that hill is man-made— it covers an old dump. Yes, sadly, for many decades Bay Areans were like, "Let's take all our trash and just pile it up next to the water." But the sins of the past are now, if not atoned for, at least out of sight. Grasses and wildflowers cover the hill.



The hill isn't huge. It's a rise of 10-15 meters. I hesitate even to call this hiking; it seems closer to walking. But even from atop this hill's modest change in elevation, there are very different views of the surrounding marshland and bay than you'd get from sea level.



The photo above shows Fremont Peak in Fremont in the distance. It may not look high in this picture because of the distance but it's 3,171'. Below it, with kind of a brown color, is the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay. In the middle are some of the sloughs and marshes that make up much of the bay's edge down here.



Back down closer to water's edge on the far side of the hill I enjoyed this view looking south. It's hard to tell what's in the distance beyond the slough and marshland— and that's the point. In this photo you're looking at NASA Ames and Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View. And hey, there's actually a mountain view.



Once down the far side of the hill we walked the low trail back around to the trailhead. That's another thing we enjoy about Byxbee Park: the ability to take walks of widely varying lengths by choosing from among the network of paths. That, and having something nice to see in every direction— especially at this time of year, when flowers are in bloom.

Gin and Tonic Taste-off

Earlier this week I mused, "It's Monday night. What better time to get soused on gin?!" when I taste-tested 3 brands of gin. Well, if there's a better time to get soused than Monday night, it's got to be Tuesday night. 😂 So that's what I did Tuesday. Except since I'd already tried the 3 gins straight on Tuesday I tried them mixed as Gin and Tonic.



Much as I expected, trying the gins as part of Gin and Tonic cocktails mixed things up a bit. Recall that I found Bombay Sapphire tough to enjoy neat, with Hendrick's seeming a little too "cool as a cucumber", and Drumshanbo tasting stiff and spicy but interesting neat. Served as Gin and Tonic cocktails the three became interestingly close competitors.

One thing that tonic water changes about a drink is that its sugar balances out spicy characteristics of an alcohol. Bombay Sapphire has an oddly spicy character from some of the botanicals it uses. I think it's the orris root or grains of paradise. (Yes, those are real things.) The lightly sweet tonic water I used, plus a bit of citrus from a freshly squeezed lime, smoothed out the spicy character. It changed from jarringly spicy, like "WTF is happening in my mouth?", to refreshing.

Another thing that tonic water changes is that it adds effervescence. Hendrick's was almost boringly smooth neat. Mixed as Gin and Tonic it gains pizzazz that makes it interesting again. And the spicy, piney characters of gin are already well under control from the cucumber essence that's already part of Hendrick's distillation. As I note, I dislike the taste of cucumber as a food. But it's subtle enough in Hendrick's, and works in harmony with the otherwise harsh flavors, that I enjoy it as part of this drink.

Finally, Drumshanbo Gunpowder, the winner of the neat gin round. It remained a strong contender here in the Gin and Tonic round. The herbal nature of its gunpowder tea shined though the fizz of the tonic. Bombay Sapphire caught up a lot on this competitor that dusted it in the neat round. The two are almost neck-and-neck as Gins and Tonic. But here that herbal tea flavor component carries it to victory by a nose.

Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow

It was a hot one today. The high temperature was 91° 92°. That's the hottest day so far this year, and it's way warmer than the cooler-than-average weather we've been getting the last 6 weeks or so.

Sad to say, we didn't do a heck of a lot to enjoy the weather. I mean, we did drive around with the convertible top down as we ran a number of shopping errands this morning and early afternoon. 😂 That was nice. And this afternoon I trundled my desk chair out to the balcony to sit and sip a glass of chilled wine once the sun shifted to the other side of the house. I thought about unpacking the actual patio chairs for that but decided not to since we're about to leave for the better part of the two-plus weeks.

Yes, we're leaving again. We've been home nearly two weeks, and that feels like enough! Except these next two weeks are going to be hectic as I've got three trips that are back-to-back or nearly so.

On Sunday we leave for several days at the beach in the Cayman Islands. Several days at the beach! In the Cayman Islands! It'll be my first time out of the country in... *checks blog*... four years. When we return from that I turn around the following day and fly out to Las Vegas for a business conference for 3 days. After getting back from Vegas I'm home for less than 24 hours before we fly out for our Memorial Day trip. We're going to San Antonio to hang out at the Riverwalk for a few days and visit... umm... what's the name of that fort? Oh, I remember, the Alamo! 😅