Germania and Windy Hill

It's only 10 am Saturday morning and there are already lots of weekend highlights I couldn't wait to share.

Went to a fun German restaurant in San Jose last night for a birthday party. Lots of fun people, lots of good food and lots of good beer!

Laura and I shared the Jaegershnitzel with Spatzel...haha, just typing german words makes me laugh! It was a breaded pork cutlet in a wine mushroom sauce with german noodles.

The birthday girl had LOTS of MEAT!!!! She's a photographer and so I didn't even have to ask for her to pose her food for me!! Good Company!!

And at the end of the night, this was the evidence that we had a rockin' time!

Then crazy me, I woke up at about 6:30 this morning to meet a couple of running buddies at Windy Hill for a trail run. I told them I was up for about 6 miles, but we ended up doing about 9 and it didn't even feel like it because I was so distracted by the beauty on the trail. I am so thankful that they introduced me to this place and I can't believe that it has been just 15 minutes away from me since I have been living here! We did a pretty steep 3 mile incline to get to the top of Windy Hill, I was gasping for air as they continued to cruise along, but boy the view at the top sure was worth the struggle! We had awesome views all around of the bay are and even got a great lightning show from the lightning storm that passed over us to the East last night. There was a thick cloud cover so we couldn't see the coast today, but we were above the clouds and it was gorgeous they way the clouds blanketed the valley below us. I am going to have to hike up soon so I can get some pictures, words just don't do it justice. The guys were so encouraging as I struggled up the hill which was really sweet and after we reached the peak we did about a 6 mile descent through Ham's Gulch and had lots of fun winding through the greenery...it was just beautiful...I forgot how much I love trail running! We ran into a couple local running groups and even one local ultra marathon training group and I was also reminded of how much I love the camaraderie that exists among runners.

My shoes are now coated in a beautiful layer of dirt and dust, my socks have stains that may not come out and it took a little scrubbing to get the dirt off my feet, ankles and calves this morning, but a little dirt never hurt, right?!