 I took a super enjoyable 7.9-mile loop through Windy Hill Preserve today. It was a glorious hike through a beautiful variety of forests and landscapes. It's made me wish I had explored deeper into this park before I moved away from the peninsula!
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 Yesterday was the first day of March, and it was a great day to visit a favorite place: Picchetti Ranch Open Space in Cupertino!
 Bear Creek Redwood Preserve is a newly opened Midpen preserve near Los Gatos. It's been on my list to visit for a long time--first I was waiting for it to open to the public, then I was waiting for a good time to visit after I moved away from the peninsula. My daughter and I finally made the trek out here! Although we did not hike as far as I wanted, we both had an excellent time here, and I am looking forward to a return visit!
 Today, my little daughter and I had a glorious day in Half Moon Bay with our friends, another mom who has a young son. We went to the western portion of Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve to have a nice picnic by the creek under the redwoods. The little ones threw rocks in the water of the creek and ran or crawled under the redwoods, checking out sticks of interest and banana slugs. Then, my daughter and I went on to Half Moon Bay State Beach on our own to "say hello to the ocean" before driving back to Livermore. Redwoods and beaches? What more could anyone ask for?
 Mount Umunhum is part of the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve, run by Midpen. This part of the park was opened to the public in September of 2017 after a long period of restoration; it had been closed to the public since the 1950s when it was used as an air force station and radar surveillance post. There are lots of trails of various levels of difficulty, but I had my baby with me in a stroller when I went, so I drove to the summit and just did the ADA accessible trail around the summit. It was really cool to be so high up (3,486 feet), because the ecosystems up there are just different from the lower elevations. This makes it "an island in the sky."
 Sierra Azul is the largest preserve in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD). Here is the blurb on the park from their website: Just south of the Town of Los Gatos, on the east side of the Lexington Reservoir, sits Sierra Azul, the District's southernmost open space preserve. Translated Sierra Azul means "Blue Range." Encompassing more than 18,000 acres, this is the District's largest Preserve. Sierra Azul Preserve is a true wilderness area, yet surprisingly close to the urban areas of the South Bay, making it a popular destination. Because of its size, Sierra Azul is divided into four areas: Kennedy-Limekiln, Mount Umunhum, Cathedral Oaks, and Rancho do Guadalupe. Today, I visited the Kennedy-Limekiln area for the first time. I took a loop that is just over 5 miles, and I was treated to a bay laurel forest, a mixed forest of oak and madrone, a chaparral ecosystem with manzanita and chamise (and 360-degree views of mountains), eucalyptus trees, and views of the Lexington Reservoir.
 I really enjoyed my hike today at St. Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve near Los Gatos. The preserve is contiguous with both Lexington Reservoir County Park and Novitiate Park, a Los Gatos city park. I was able to access the trailhead by parking at Lexington Reservoir boat launch (there is a small vehicle fee). Once I climbed to the summit of St. Joseph's hill (1,253'), I could see fantastic vistas of Mount Sereno (to the north), the Santa Clara Valley (to the east), distant mountains in the Diablo range (further east), the Sierra Azul range (to the south). and the reservoir (to the west).
 This MROSD park is all about the vistas! You get to El Sereno from Highway 17, and then peel off on the Montevina road (it's 1.5 lanes but two-ways!). You take Montevina all the way to the end of the road, so the vistas start before you even get to the entrance of the park itself. Here is a helpful blurb about the park on the MROSD webpage: El Sereno Open Space Preserve is named for 2,249-foot Mt. El Sereno, part of a prominent ridge located south of the town of Saratoga and west of the town of Los Gatos. A distinctive scenic backdrop to these cities, the 1,415-acre Preserve is primarily a chaparral community with some wooded areas near the creeks. I was lucky enough to go on this hike when the chamise was in bloom, and it was just gorgeous to see it in the foreground as the fog rolled in over Sanborn County Park to the west in the Santa Cruz mountains. The clouds made beautiful shadows on the waters of Lexington Reservoir below.
 This four-mile loop was a great trail to take in the spring, with so many wild flowers blooming! Another reason to explore this dog-friendly park.
 Shoreline Park and Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area are adjacent parks near the Google campus in Mountain View. The parks don't comprise a large area, so you can hike a pretty large percentage of the park in one visit.
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