Mt. Diablo and Cat Sitter disaster

This was supposed to be a weekend away from home, but as they say, one thing you can predict is that something unpredictable will definitely happen.

On Saturday I left nice and early at 8 AM and headed to Mt. Diablo State Park about 2.5 hrs away from home. I was nervous going because a new cat sitter was supposed to be taking care of Kitty, but I met her once and she had great reviews on Rover, plus I explained to her what I wanted her to do. I arrived to the trailhead around 11 AM, assembled my new Osmo Mobile 2 and my cellphone and started hiking. I realized right away that my new gizmo is not gonna work for a long time because my cellphone battery drained faster than I anticipated using the device. This was the first "go wrong" thing. "It's ok," I thought. "I will just use my other cellphone." This was what helped me film some of the clips that you will see below.

The weather for the hike was good, nice and chilly, but the clouds spoiled the pictures I took because of the lack of light. Although I think that the gloomy atmosphere just adds character to the landscape.

Creepy picture, isn't it?

I hiked Mt. Diablo North Peak Trail. Rated as "Hard" by AllTrails, it was almost 7 miles round trip with about 2,200 ft elevation gain. In this cool weather I would rate it "moderately strenuous", but in the summer I bet it would be "Hard". The views were really nice. The trail was moderately trafficked on the weekend, but once you get to the end of the trail, there is pretty much nobody. In fact, the last mile I hiked without a soul around me.

The last stretch of the trail is really hard. The uphill is so significant, you almost need to rock climb.

Going back, the sun started to shine through, hence nicer pictures.

There were also lots of wildflowers around, although not as many as I saw at Hites Cove trail.

After finishing the hike, I wanted to go to John Muir museum, but unfortunately there was some sort of fancy event for the rich, and they did not let me in. Another "fail" of the trip...

I went to have dinner at an Italian place I found on Yelp, but even that was a disappointment...

Read Christy W.'s review of Bella Vita Family Bistro on Yelp

Finally, I decided it was time for me to check in at the AirBnb. This was a lovely place with a great host who made me some tea and gave some cookies. We had a nice conversation over tea and later I went to take a shower in a pleasant room he prepared for me. Great experience!

As the night turned in, I was watching the camera in my house and did not see my cat sitter. She showed up at 3 PM and then left. Around 8 PM, I was getting anxious, by 11 PM I sent her a message, did not receive a response and decided to head back home. She later replied to me, but did not show up to the house until 12.30 AM when I was already on my way. I was angry and frustrated, and tired, but Kitty could not stay alone all night, and I did not trust her anymore to take care of him.

I got home at 2.30 AM and was so relieved to see Kitty... I don't even know how I will find a cat sitter who is responsible enough to show up at a reasonable time.

The weekend ended on a crappy note, but I am still glad I came home. Kitty was happy!