Hiking when the Mercury is hot

Sunday was a gorgeous day - still up in the 70s in September!

Finally made it to Almaden Quicksilver Park (yes, their page is hosted on Geocities)

Hike Rating:
6 - scenery
4 - difficulty

Nice drive out past New Almaden - a cute old mining town. All the signs point out that in the 1870s, this was the biggest mercury mine in N. America.

The best parts:

• getting some great glimpses back towards San Jose from the top of the ridge
• seeing the old mining equipment just starting to decay
• reaching the top and looking down back into the canyon

All the way to San Jose

We've started hanging out in San Jose a little bit more often. Not the hottest spot, but some good finds.

I recommend:
Roving Mars - Imax movie at the Tech museum. The images of Mars rendered in full Imax with CGI versions of the rover landing are truly astounding. You almost feel like you are there. The 25-minute prelude about the mission is standard Imax documentary dull though...

Los Cubanos - Cuban restaurant near San Pedro square. The food is outstanding - I had the chicken breast - pounded thin, marinated, and covered with delicious fried onions. The Arroz con Pollo is basically Paella without the pretense. And the sweet plantains on the side are a great touch. Definitely get the soup over salad - the soup is very homemade, the salad is iceberg. The Cuatro Leche for dessert (cake soaked with 4 kinds of milk) is a great topper. And we still have leftovers.

Sometimes you lose, sometimes you get beat... And sometimes it's the refs fault

Ok, I went in very hopeful for the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl, but also pragmatic that the Steelers might pull it out.

Never did I expect to watch a game in which the referees turned the game over to the Steelers. I mean how much did the NFL really want the Steelers to win?

It seemed like pretty much anytime the Seahawks had a good thing going, the refs made a call - from questionable to downright absurd to take the game away from them. Not to say the Steelers didn't make a few good plays, but jeez the Hawks dominated.

Questionable Ref Calls:

• a really short spot on a Mack Strong reception that should have been a first-down
• a holding call on Locklear on a pass to Stevens (caught this time!) down to the 1. Locklear touched the pass rusher twice - but very little holding
• a block-in-the-back on the Seahawks best punt return of the day - the guy who was blocked was very much out of the play

Very questionable ref calls:

• offensive pass interference on Darrell Jackson on his touchdown in the 1st Quarter. He touched the defender and switched directions. Very light and no interference. Not like the defender had a chance with the gaping hole there anyway. Good lord, the ref just didn't want to see the Seahawks score
• actually giving Roethlisberger a TD on his 1-yard attempt. Pretty clear that he was just short of the goal line, but an acting play to put the ball over at the end confused the ref who wanted to give Pittsburgh a TD just for playing.

Absurd ref calls:

• Calling a 15-yard penalty on Matt Hasselbeck on an interception return where he went down low to tackle the returner. How can you call him on a block? That's adding insult to injury!
• Calling a fumble on Hasselbeck when he was down and tackled. At least that was overturned.

All in all, for the first time in 30 years, the Hawks made the Super Bowl. The least the refs could have done was to give them a chance.