A New Path through the Woods

I wanted to get John and Spike in the frame, but the time I had fumbled my phone out of my pocket they had disappeared round the corner...We went to the Sonoma Valley Regional Park and took the trail up the hill, past the pond covered with brown algae and up another hill. We shared a bench at the top of the hill with a woman who told us, 'This is my office for now.' She then asked us how old we were, saying, I hope that's ok. I'm German and we're very blunt.' We told her our ages and she said it was wonderful that we had made it up there, etc. etc. adding that, 'we have a saying in Germany, 'If you rest, you rust...'

After she left we discussed whether to go back the way we had come, or take the longer route down and back to the car. We eventually elected to do the latter, but began to realize that we seemed to be on a whole new path. Somewhere we had missed a turn, but there was little chance of getting lost and we eventually found our way back. I liked the new route which had more shade, but who knows if we will ever be able to find where we went wrong again. A bonus was that although dogs are supposed to be on a leash, there were very few people around on a week day and those we did see also had leashless dogs. It's much better for Spike (and John's shoulder!) All in all, it was quite a pleasant walk, though it took quite awhile longer than usual.

Not much likelihood of me rusting as Dana and I went on a little field trip to Montgomery Village in search of a few new t-shirts. I always appreciate her suggestions as well as her critical eye. In the end, I wound
up with t-shirts plus quite a few other things,  and checked out three different times, before we finally escaped from the store. John would rather throw himself under a bus than go shopping with me, so he was happy to stay home and pick up leaves in the garden