a tour to Garnett peak

Today I felt somewhat compelled to write something in here. It's been so long since I last reported...
Let me tell you about a small road trip towards East: Garnett peak (Northeast of Mt Laguna)

It's a small elevation (1800m) Southeast of La Jolla. It's around 80 miles drive, and then 2 hours walking an easy trail. On a clear day, facing East of Garnett's, people say you can see all the way to Arizona. I can't vouch for that, but the view surely is overwhelming. And downwards, facing South, you can see Mexico too. It's an enjoyable hike, nothing too demanding. On our way upthere we stoped over at Pine Valley to buy a forest parking permit. It's a bit ridiculous to have such a thing for a huge park, but that's how it works around here: you need one of those in any national park to avoid a citation. Pine Valley is a realy small town but, as any typical american inland town, it has it's own road restaurant. The environment on a Saturday afternoon is a must! The parking lot packed with Harleys, and the restaurant crowded with leather jackets. Really ... a must see for any ocasional tourist.

The hike in itself went without any sort of trouble... except for the rattlesnake we bumped into on our way downhill. But, politely, we decided to go around her as she seemed a little bit upset.

I have two more weeks of instruction, then the finals... and one year is almost over. Impressive how time goes by!

Looking forward to see you all soon!

TETRA-CAMPEÕES!

Mother's day

First of all, my homage to all Mother's out there. Today is your day! At least in Portugal, because in the US, as in many other countries, Mother's day is just in the second Sunday of May.
In particular I would like to pay my respects to my Mother. In some sense Mother's day is a sort of a family day as well. So one tends to miss the family more in these days. At least that was my case. Fortunately (or maybe not) I had a special "entertainment" for this Sunday afternoon: grading homework for my advisor's undergraduate class (Digital Signal Processing II).


I just finished with the grading (the picture was in the beginning, hence the smile), and I'm taking some time to write a few words before going to bed. The class did well. I must say I'm a lenient guy in what concerns grading. Perhaps because I'm still taking courses myself... who knows! I'm what they call an easy-grader.

Last weekend I had the La Jolla half-marathon. Didn't yet had the opportunity to talk about that.


Got myself a new medal for the club's rich spoil (Veteranos do Parque da Cidade). I've participated in enough events like this not to be surprised easily... however, after crossing the finish line they gave us the usual stuff (a medal, some water, energy drinks, fruit) and then we were sent to something called the "beer-garden". Not surprisingly this was a rest area sponsored by Budweiser were young and veteran runners could have a couple of nice cold beers. Around 9.30am!! It's a damn good idea! We should this in Portugal as well. The thing is that in this race there were no big names, this seemed more like a social event rather than a sports event. Whereas in Portugal we usually have a couple of big names (national and international) to spice up the race.


Quite honestly, I can almost picture myself having a beer with Samuel Wanjiru or Haile Gebreslassie in the end of the LA marathon next year...