On Wednesday, I took the day off to go with my barn friend to Alice’s restaurant. I’ve ridden there before, but she hadn’t. The ride to Alice’s goes through one of my favorite parks: Wunderlich. We started out at the mostly empty parking lot, which boded well for the day. The park and the restaurant can be insanely crowded on the weekends which is why we decided to go on a weekday.
I haven’t been to Alice’s in a long time because the connector trail from the Wunderlich parking lot to the upper half of the park was closed due to a landslide. they reopened it only recently and with a caution that equestrians might find the trail challenging. I figured we’d go out and if we couldn’t make it to the restaurant, we’d just turn around and it’d be a nice trail ride either way. Because I knew where we were going and I have a really good sense of direction, I didn’t grab a map as we left the parking lot. I think this drove my friend nuts as she proceeded to ask me if I was sure I knew where we were.
Then we got to the section of trail that had been destroyed and it was indeed challenging. They couldn’t repair the trail and had to build a new trail instead. The new connector was intensely steep. Levi kept trying to turn around because he was convinced there was no way this was meant to be scaled. I got no pictures of this section because I was too busy trying to steer Levi every single step. Since I’d never been on this trail before (because it never used to exist) I made the mistake of saying I didn’t know where we were for a moment and I think my friend thought we were lost. No worries though, despite all their concerns we were not going to die from climbing hills or get lost.
We made it to the restaurant and it was surprisingly busy for a random weekday. We lucked into the last post on the patio so we could keep an eye on the ponies while we were eating.
The view from our table
Alice’s is great for having nice hitching rails for the horses and they’ll bring you a bucket of water for your horses. When we asked for water, the busboy who was sent to help us was very concerned that the water coming out of the hose was a bit warm because it had been sitting in the sun so he went and got ice to add to it. He was being too nice for me to explain that horses don’t need ice, so I just took it. Levi though the ice was a fun new addition to his water. Devro thought the bucket was terrifying and refused to drink from it.
Once we’d finished lunch, we let the ponies graze for a bit on the lush green lawn. They were quite happy with that arrangement.
Then it was back on the trail to go home. For the steep section, I got off and hand walked Levi down the trail. Even hand walking was difficult and my feet were skidding down the path as we went. I don’t know why they built the new connector like that as it’s not even easy on hikers, let alone riders. Of course, the fact that the sides of the trail were still layered with straw from the construction made it much more difficult for me as Levi kept weaving side to side trying to snatch mouthfulls of straw as we descended.
This was from a flatter section near the end.
We took a different route coming back so we could check out the views from the meadow. One of the things I love about the bay area is all the open space. There are so many protected open spaces and parks, that it’s possible to be minutes from the heart of Silicon Valley and yet feel like you’re out in the wilderness.
Because Devro’s still young and Levi has foot issues, we kept to a walk for the entire ride. Which meant it was a long ride. We didn’t get back to the trail until about 4pm. Then it was time to load up and brave rush hour traffic to get back to the barn. It was a lovely day. I wish I could spend every day riding out to lunch. Maybe one day.
Being able to ride to lunch is amazing. I’m glad both boys behaved well for the ride even through the hairy section.
They were awesome. Especially when we had to ride past the barking dogs hidden behind tall fences section.
How fun! I had a friend ride her horse through a drive thru before but riding to Alice’s Restaurant is way cooler!!!
Riding through a drive-thru is totally on my horsey bucket list. There’s no where near me to do that though.
What an incredibly fun day!!
So much better than work.
We used to go to Alice’s for lunch sometimes when I actually went into work at Stanford. I do miss that. Riding up there sounds like so much fun!
It is good food. I hadn’t really thought about people going there for lunch from work. The place was hoping for the middle of the week.
Very cool! We used to always ride to Rosotti’s (now Alpine Inn) through Arastradero Preserve.
I’ve been thinking about riding to Alpine Inn, but I’m not sure where we could park to start the ride.
What a cool ride!
That’s so neat! I don’t think they have any ride-to restaurants around here. That’s adorable that the waiter iced the horse water!
It was pretty funny. I didn’t think Levi would drink it since he’s suspicious of strange water even without ice, but he seemed to like it.
very cool and what good ponies! LOVE the busboy trying to cool the water off for them. How nice 😉 I am glad you had a nice ride on what looks like a gorgeous day. What is that orange thing in the sky OH THE SUN! LOL
PS Remus is the same way with steep inclines he likes to stop going down and i am just sure we are going to both tumble down the incline 🙂
Levi can barely avoid face planting on level ground. There’s noway I’m trusting him with hills that steep. When I first got him, he couldn’t go down a hill for the life of him. He’d try to zigzag back and forth or just give up and try to run down. I always had to get off. Now we can go down normal hills, just not tis crazy-ass new trail.
This is so fun – wish we had a place we could ride to for lunch. I keep saying that I’ll take her on the trails but it seems like the stars have to align
Apparently there are a few places around here you can ride to for lunch, but Alice’s is the only one I’ve done.
I wish I could spend every day riding horses to restaurants, too. What a fun little venture.
Me too.
You have some really close by and fun places to ride out! What a perfect day!
We’re honestly spoiled for good places to ride around here. Especially during this time of year.