So, I got my days mixed up. The Campbell Farmers Market is on Sunday mornings, not Saturday. Oops! But that’s okay because I found something else to do:

The plan was to go hiking on a trail at the Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve in Cupertino. I parked my car and started walking and within minutes, I came across this sign at the entrance.

Let me zoom in closer to the bottom, yellow area:

Okay, I’m not a newbie to hiking. I’ve done my fair share of hikes – day hikes and overnight hikes – on trails that have been witnessed to have bears/mountain lions/etc.  I’ve gone through wilderness training and know what to do in case of an emergency. So, I kind of just accepted it and moved on.

I started my trek – it was a perfect day for hiking…not too cold, not too hot, and just the right amount of wind. I hiked along the trail  for about a quarter of a mile, stopped to take a picture……

……and then realized it was just ridiculously quiet. Aside from the birds and the bugs, I couldn’t hear much (which is surprising cause there’s a shooting range less than a mile away from the preserve so I started off hearing nothing but gunshots). That should be peaceful, right? Away from all the sounds and the annoyances of our day-to-day lives (and those damn annoying gunshots. Seriously, why is that even allowed in this country?). But instead, I started getting paranoid. That some mountain lion was just gonna POUNCE me. The thing is, even though I’m not new to hiking, I am new to hiking alone. And nobody was around! So a quarter of a mile in, I turned back around and started trekking back to my car. When I reached the parking area, I noticed a family get out of their car and start heading in the direction of the trail. I was seriously debating whether or not I should try tagging along with them, but told myself I’d drag Jen here with me some day and, instead, I’d go for a run on the main road.

I started running up the mountain (and by running, I mean ridiculously slow jogging and a TON of huffing and puffing). I turned down a small little road that was pretty flat for a couple of yards to try to catch my breath. And then continued up that mountain. I heard a bunch of screeching but when you’re around so much wildlife, the weird sounds don’t really faze you. As I continued to go up the hill, the screeching got louder. I looked over to my right and realized there was a peacock on the gate. I stopped running to watch it and realized that it was an entire peacock garden:

The one that was screeching was off in the distance so I couldn’t get a great picture. So I continued walking up to see if I could find any more in the entire garden. There was one perched on top of the gate facing the road I was on. It was my assumption that since there was a gate, the peacocks stay within the garden. But as I got closer, the peacock just hopped off the gate and plopped right in front of me as if to say, “Get off my turf, bro.”

He just stood there (well that’s not true, he ran with me for a bit). But I didn’t get too close. Cause I was still on the fearful train from almost getting killed by a mountain lion. I hung out for a bit just to see if he’d do anything interesting, but he was just flaunting his pretty colors. So I left him alone and went back down the hill. <—-still, HOW COOL IS THAT?! I wish peacocks weren’t so darn loud – then I could just make lots of money and get a peacock garden of my own.

I ran for about 20 more minutes and then decided to head back to my car. What a great workout though. My legs are going to feel that tomorrow.

It was lunch time at that point, so I just went straight to the Saratoga Farmer’s Market. First stop was some iced coffee:

I’m pretty sure the milk that they use is full-fat milk. It has to be. There’s no way iced coffee has ever tasted this good. But I didn’t ask – I just wanted to enjoy it without thinking about it too much! 🙂

I also got some strawberries, blackberries, and pluots. They had a few options for meals there. All looked great, but I really wanted to try a savory crepe: 

I got the savory works which is the Special with all the add-ons. I waited until I got back home to eat it because I wanted to just sit down and enjoy it. And let me tell you…it was incredible. Like, “put your phone away, turn off your computer, just focus on your plate” kind of incredible. I don’t remember the last time I had no interruptions while I ate. But I think it definitely added to the enjoyment of my meal.

It was really big so I ate half of it for lunch and half for dinner. And I’ve been snacking on my yummy fruits throughout the day:

After lunch, I decided to do some reading, but it was such a nice day out and I didn’t want to be cooped up in the apartment. So I made myself my Pink Drink (<—recipe coming soon), grabbed my book, and went out to the pool.

Now my nose is red and I have all sorts of weird tan lines, but it was totally worth it. Beautiful day 🙂

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What is your favorite thing to get at your local farmers market? 
Any fun-in-the-sun weekend stories?