Beautiful Mountain Blog of Belmont

What's that big Blimp doing in the Bay Area sky?

Look, It’s a bird, it’s a plan no it’s a Dirigible?

Actually it's not a blimp at all. Look to the skies on a calm day around the Bay Area and you just might spot the world’s largest Zeppelin in your neighborhood. What’s it doing here? It was the brain child of Brian and Alex Hall to offer sightseeing flights around the Bay area. This lofty business venture got its start in 2006 when Brian first rode in a Zeppelin while in Germany and immediately was hooked. First, an order needed to be place for only the fourth Zeppelin NT in the world. Then, just two years later on October 23, 2008 the Zeppelin “Venture” was launched from Moffet field. This isn’t your mother ship Hindenburg; it’s filled with Helium instead of Hydrogen and uses gas engines to propel itself through the skies at lightning speeds up to 35 MPH. The Zeppelin NT07 airship can carry up to 12 passengers and is the largest airship flying in the US. At 246 feet in length, it is more than 50 feet longer than the largest blimp. It uses inert gas helium for lift, and vectored thrust engines for flight. So what’s the difference between a Blimp and a Zeppelin? Blimps are non rigid dirigibles and Zeppelins are rigid (and can carry more passengers). The Hindenburg by contrast was much larger and filled with Hydrogen (an extremely volitile gas). At 805 ft long, it could carry 73 passengers and flew at a blazing 80 MPH. Oh, and any DIRECT-IBLE flying machine can be called a dirigible.

 

(I took this picture out of my sunroof while in San Mateo)

Belmont--Holiday Season Events

Twin Pines Holiday Craft Faire - Nov 22 & 23 10 am - 4 pm - Twin Pines Park   Belmont's City Parks and Recreation department would like to remind you about some fun, free and low cost events coming up. The Holiday Craft Faire in Twin Pines Park, Belmont, is on Sat. and Sun., November 22nd and 23rd - FREE for visitors! Many vendors with all handmade items, all price and interest ranges.   When: Saturday & Sunday,  November 22nd & 23rd, 2008 Time:  10:00 am to 4:00 pm Location:  20 twin pines lane, Belmont, ca  94002 Info:  the faire will be held in 3 buildings at the beautiful twin pines park - twin pines senior & community center, lodge building and cottage.

 

All Hallows' Eve

Halloween might mean a night of relentless doorbell rings and handing out candy, or if you are lucky enough to still have trick-or-treaters of your own to take around, a night of scaring your nieghbors with your little goblins, but this Holly day is steeped in tradition.

All Hallows’ Eve gets its contraction "Halloween" from the “eve” or “even”, both abbreviations of evening. It’s the eve before All Hallows’ Day, perhaps better known as All Saints Day.

Rooted in Celtic origin, All Hallows’ Eve was the one day a year that the dead could come back and mingle with the living. Jack-o-lanterns and bonfires were lit to safeguard the living from the spirits.

For an interesting history of how the Catholics commandeered this day to prevent the Pagan holiday celebration, here’s a great link.

Be safe, and have fun.

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Belmont's Beautiful Weather

It was really neat to meet our Belmont neighbors at our open house on Hallmark Drive yesterday--thanks to all who stopped by. We had an amazing turn-out and the weather couldn’t have been more cooperative. Incidentally we did a survey at the open house where we asked our guests if they thought the home was a good value. Overwhelming, but not the least bit surprisingly, potential buyers gave lower scores for value than homeowners in the area--propagating the theory that sellers always view their home as worth more than a potential buyer.

The many nice compliments on our blog and web page were also appreciated. I had no idea so many of you read our blog and it inspires me to keep it up. Feel free to comment on anything you read too because it gives me a sense that there’s a real-time audience out there.

So the story of the day is about the last of the nice weather for awhile. We had an unusually warm October with 70+ degree evenings ‘til midnight. For those of you new to Belmont, September and October are getting to be our best months of the year. I say getting to be because my anecdotal evidence is my memory going back 40 years when I distinctly remember September being rather cool and October downright cold.

This graph looks at what is referred to as “Cooling Degree Days”. Cooling degree-days are used to estimate the amount of heat that must be removed (through air-conditioning) to keep a structure comfortable. Heating and cooling degree-days are based on departures from a base temperature, typically 65ºF (18ºC).

One cooling degree–day is the amount of cooling required to keep a structure at 65ºF when the outside temperature remains one degree above the 65ºF threshold for 24 hours. One cooling degree–day is also the amount of cooling required to keep that structure at 65ºF when the temperature remains 24ºF above that 65º threshold for 1 hour.

So the bottom line is the more cooling degree days the warmer the month. Don’t forget when we have extreme weather storms this winter you can go to our live weather station located in Hallmark for current rain rate, or frost conditions.

 

Belmont's SAVE THE MUSIC

 

This is a great opportunity to get out and support the Save the Music foundation while enjoying a great day with your neighbors and friends. The whole town becomes one giant street faire with food vendors, music and dancing—all outdoors at the Twin Pines Park.

“Twin Pines Park is the perfect backdrop to grab some delicious food, sip sangria or an Oktoberfest brew, and listen to classical, jazz, rock, and salsa performances. Feeling the need to move your hips? Grab a partner and hit the Club Mistral dance floor, or just groove out in the meadow. 3 Stages brimming with music and fun!

Parents will love the variety the event offers for the whole family. The Children's Area offers all the games young children love, as well as jump houses, train rides, and the wonderful children's performers. Of course, Music is the main event so take the family over to the “Musical Instrument Petting Zoo” and have fun trying out all the different instruments.”

We hope to see you Sunday, October 5th - bring a friend!

About The Foundation

Whether it's Bach or the Beatles, The Rolling Stones or The Wiggles, each of us is moved by music.

In 2003 School-Force, the Belmont Redwood Shores School District foundation, created Save the Music with the Little School District that Could to help save disappearing music enrichment programs in our schools. Since its inception, the Save the Music Festival has raised more than $250,000 through corporate sponsorships and community participation, funds which have been used to retain music teachers, develop music curriculums, and purchase music instruments.

Twin Pine Park Picnic--September 21st 2008

Belmont's best weather is upon us in the month of September and this event should be a fun day for the whole family.

Belmont Picnic in The Park

Sunday, September 21st 2008

11AM – 3PM

Twin Pines Park Meadow

Celebrate National Neighborhood Day! Bring a blanket and a picnic lunch for this day

of bringing families and neighbors together promoting a stronger community.

Come for great fun with children’s games & activities including

• Tug Of War • Disaster Preparedness by Belmont/San Carlos Fire Dept.

• Public Safety by the Belmont Police Dept. • Music and much more!

Sponsored by: Belmont Youth Action Committee,

VOICES (Volunteer Outreach Involvement in Community Events &

Services) & the Belmont Parks & Recreation Department.

For more info: 595-7441

Contest Winner-$50.00 Gas Card August 2008

The winner of this month’s drawing for a $50.00 gas card is Kathy Schwarzbeck!

Congratulations Kathy, we’ll be sending you your $50.00 Chevron®   gas card right away.

And just for fun, we drew two other names for a $5.00 Starbucks® card.

Natasha Flaherty & Jeanette Weisinger your Starbuck's card is in the mail.

Thanks for joining us for this contest and responding to The Morgan Report Newsletter. Remember you can always register for our on-line version of the Newsletter here and help save a tree!

Belmont's Greek Festival!

What’s going on in Belmont over the Labor Day weekend?

Be sure and stop by the Greek Festival held every year on the grounds of the Greek Orthodox Church at the corner of Ralston Ave. and Alameda de las Pulgas. Over 15,000 people are expected to attend over the three days of festivities.

There is great food and fun for everyone with music, dancing arts & crafts. Admission is only $5.00 for adults and children under 12 are free. This year they’ll have a special “fun zone” for the kids too.

If you are a foodie like us you’ll enjoy BBQ lamb, Dolmades, Spanakopita and of course desserts like Baklava layered with honey and nuts.

Here’s their schedule of activities if you can’t decide when to go.This is one of Belmont’s best get-togethers for the community and if you see us be sure and say hi!

We usually get some complimentary tickets since we contribute to the festival's directory so if you’re planning on going let us know and we’ll send some out to you.

FREE Gas Giveaway!

We’re just two days away from our drawing for a FREE $50.00 gas giveaway card. If you receive our print newsletter you’ve probably already sent in your form, but if you’re a blog reader you can still enter by sending in this on-line version of the form.

And don’t forget you can help us go green by subscribing to the on-line version and you’ll be emailed once a month with market updates and our quarterly newsletter. Don't worry, your email address will remain annonymous and we'll never share it with anyone for any reason.

With gas prices recently dropping, this $50.00 gas card will go a lot farther than it did just a few weeks ago.

Good Luck! The winner will be announced on this blog August 20^th so hurry and register!

James Outman Leads San Carlos to All Star Victory

Even if you don’t have a horse in the race, watching the All Star little league teams is a real hoot! These kids can play. At nine and ten years old they are throwing unhittable curve balls. Monday’s game between the San Mateo Nationals and San Carlos was a real nail biter with James Outman standing off two runners on base with only a 1 run lead, he struck out the last batter for a 2 to 1 victory and a chance to move on to the race for the finals. Don’t miss tonight’s (Wednesday, July 9, 2008) game at Marina Field in Belmont See the whole story here…

James Outman closing out the game in style.