madbaker | Perhaps Violating the Letter, But Not the Spirit

I took yesterday off work. Even with the shelter-in-place order, I wanted to not be concentrating on work for our 20^th anniversary. Because dammit, with the stress of current life and losing Galen - I figured I needed a break to focus on something a bit more positive.

Obviously we couldn't go out for dinner. The wife suggested we go to one of the local open space preserves and get out in the fresh air. Brilliant! I suppose this goes against strictly staying inside, but we really were going for exercise which is allowed. Some of the areas are closed because people have been crowding (including the one she suggested), but I picked one that is relatively out-of-the way and we figured it would be okay on a late morning weekday.

After a pretty and not-crowded short drive, we arrived and the parking lot wasn't full so we were all good. We hiked about 4 miles up and downhill, among redwoods and oaks and stunning views. We didn't see very many people. It was refreshing and really what we needed. We even picnicked on the trail with high-end sandwiches: Acme rolls, house-made Frankenham, stinky cheese from upstairs, and arugula. Aruuuugula.

We did take a bit of effort for dinner, both dressing up. I cooked duck breast. We opened a bottle of port from our wedding year, which was a vintage year. (We stocked up a bit and have been opening them at 5-year intervals.) As I recall the port at 5 was way too young, 10 was a bit rough, 15 was nice, and 20 was pretty damn good.