Mount Diablo

Mount Diablo State Park was our tour destination of the day. This park is literally in Bryan's back yard, the park entrance is only about 10 minutes away but the drive to the summit actually took quite a while. It's a pretty steep ascent, with hairpin turns and sheer dropoffs, speed limit posted at 15 mph, and believe me that was fast enough! Richard was a good sport and didn' t mind letting me drive... I felt better when I had control of the wheel. The observation tower at the top give a 360' view of all the surrounding area, and the museum was quite interesting. One of my favorite things there was a continuing diorama, with a list of flora and fauna to find... not as easy as it sounds even for adults! We walked around the top, ate our lunch, and then on the way down we stopped at "Rock City". This was quite fun, as you'll notice in the second photo. There were all these rocks with little cave like features... it seemed like it would be a great place to bring kids, though you'd want to keep a good eye on them because it is pretty easy to explore to distraction and lose your bearings! Also, you have to be really careful when you're getting out of your cave or you're likely to bonk your head on the top of your cave, this is a personal recommendation learned from experience!
Tomorrow we go into San Francisco via the BART, and use our Go-Cards! Keep posted for more stories and photos tomorrow!