Courtesy of Emmanuel Garcia-Martinez, he took this photo of my mother (left) and me (right) on a sunny day out hiking at Mission Peak Regional Reserve in Fremont, California.

This past weekend my mother came to finally visit me from Southern California. She decided to just visit for the weekend because she had to go back to work on Monday.  When she got to San Jose early in the morning on Saturday, we came to the conclusion to rest and cook breakfast. We made a healthy breakfast of egg whites and an avocado. However, when we finished eating we wanted to do something productive instead of just laying in bed all day.

We decided to go on a hike. It was a perfect day to do outdoor activities, it was sunny and the wind had a slight breeze of fresh air. We told my boyfriend, Emmanuel Gracia-Martinez, to tag along with us to go on this outdoor adventure. He agreed and we all were on our way to Mission Peak Regional Reserve.

We got to the hiking trail ready to go until we couldn’t walk anymore. As the sun was beating on our back we continued to hike up the mountain. We saw many animals on the trail like cows, squirrels, and lizards. There were also picnic tables on the way up to the peak as well as a beautiful view of Fremont, California.

We tried to go as far as we could up the mountain, we were running out of water, and the sun became too much for the three of us. That day the mountain defeated us with its high peak and even higher temperatures. We completed a total of three miles up the mountain. As we finally reached the area where I parked the car. We were all out of breath, so we took a moment to breathe and then finally we went back to my apartment and relaxed the rest of the day.

Learn more about Mission Peak Regional Reserve here: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/mission/#about