Mount Tam on Memorial Day

We made plans with T's work buddy to go hiking. We decided on Mount Tamalpais in the North Bay. We also decided to go early in the morning to avoid holiday traffic / get a parking spot. We left the house at 7:20 (go us!) to get to the parking lot before 9. I was a worried about the drive because our girls aren't known for their road tripping skills (still). Luckily they were both happy the entire 1.5 hours there! There was a lot of fog and no traffic. This should be a great view of the ocean. Still a great view.

The other family has two girls whose ages match up (they are slightly older) with our Pippa and Roxy's ages. I used to not understand why you would ever do vacation with another family - it's hard to coordinate and you don't have as much flexibility, but I've since changed my mind. Pippa hiked all 2 miles (not a super long hike, but when you're 3 it's kind of a lot) since she had a friend to run and climb with. I know if it had just been our little family she would have asked to be carried .25 miles in.

We did a 1.5 mile loop then a steep / rocky .3 miles (.6 miles there and back) to the top of Mount Tam. A snack break with our little climbing mountain goats. The big girls really got high up!

View along the trail. Just right of the exact center of this photo you can see the tops of the buildings in San Francisco.

The view looking the other way.

The loop was easy and mostly flat. Our friend's two year old walked the whole way. Roxy was in our new hiking backpack for the entire way.

The .3 mile up to the top was kind of rough and very rocky. SO glad Roxy was in the carrier. We hung out at the top for a long time. I don't think we actually took any photos of the view at the top... But there were lots of great rocks for climbing.

You can't tell in these photos, but the girls actually had to climb far up the rocks to get here.

Ah, one from the very top.

We wanted to take a family photo at the very top, but Roxy was freaking out and would not consent to be held or moved. So we knew it was time to go back down. About 10 steps after we started down Pippa lost a special purple rock she found at the top. Tears commenced and didn't stop until we were back in the parking lot. Roxy fell asleep on the .3 miles back down.

Zero bug bites, zero sunburns, and missed all the holiday traffic (which we saw heading the other direction as we were leaving). It was a good trip! Roxy slept through the transition to the car seat and woke when we stopped for In N Out on the way home. Pippa slept after In N Out until we got home. So another good car ride! Unbelievable! Not that we're planning any road trips any time soon (Roxy still sometimes screams the whole way for a 15 minute trip) but it seems they are getting a bit better.

Our friend took some photos so if we get them we'll toss them up here, too.