Week 5

December 24^th – December 30^th 2012

Well, this was kind of strange week. J. had her first night shifts and it did not work very well for us. But I guess so far, we were lucky as she was working just days. I did a lot of reading, took some walks around town and tried to be quiet. It is hard in such a tiny place. The weather was not working in our favor either (a lot of rain, relatively cold). On one nice day, I took walk in Laurelwood Park in San Mateo. The park is in the middle of the town. I took really steep trail up and could not believe I was in a city. It was really hard to climb up, but the views were more then rewarding. I could overlook big part of the bay, Bay bridge, San Mateo bridge and San Francisco. Well worth it.

Again, I would not expect anything like that (almost a jungle) in the middle of the town. California did pretty nice job preserving green areas in such a populous area. I stepped down some and looked for the trail down. I found something which ended up being just rain ditch. Steep and muddy, it was really unpleasant descent. Again, who the hell would expect jungle in here. I did some sliding, falling and mud stumping. Really nice.

We did visit Laurelwood Park together, after J. switched back to sleeping in the night. She was pretty tired, but at the end (we took better trails) she enjoyed the views as well. I visited Bay Park few times, just walked up the hill, watched the bay, planes descending (to San Francisco airport) and breeze. It is pretty nice place. And there is something special about flying planes.

On Friday, we decided to explore Oakland area. It was cloudy and cooler, but … Probably because of the holidays, the roads are pretty fine. We drove through Hayward (city across San Mateo bridge) and towards two county parks. It was detour, but there is not much to enjoy on freeway. As old as it is getting, it was pretty interesting, how close to the city is so much preserved nature. It was nice. The road was twisty and surroundings nice and green. We stopped by Redwood Park, but it was too muddy for hiking, so we just continued towards Oakland.

The descent to Oakland was nice, we saw the bay and nicer area of the town. It was really cloudy and we could not see any sunshine. Too bad.

We drove through the town and parked in the Lake Meritt Gardens. That was our first destination. We walked around a bit, before we realized, that it was big park and in the middle of that was a garden. It did consist of several different areas and it was pretty. There were some leftovers from vegetable and other community gardens. It was really nice how many plants was still blooming. It makes for a nicer winter.

Ultimately, we wanted to see a bonsai garden. The whole garden was fenced in, the bonsai garden had additional wooden fence around it. There was few small buildings, staging area with many different plants, and the place. It was nice garden with probably 70 bonsai plants. One of them was apparently about 200 – 400 years old. When we were done with seeing the plants, we got to talk to one of the docents. We learned some interesting things about bonsai. It means tree in the pot, they have to be picked up (once in 2-7 years) from the pot and the roots are cleaned.

Even in Oakland, California, there was some wildlife (not really wild).

There was more to the park, that we did not see yet. At one point, there was a palm garden, it almost felt like tropical island (minus the temperature). Well, it was nice place.

We were considering a exploration of downtown Oakland. As we drove, we apparently were seeing downtown, it looked deserted and not very appealing. As we continued towards the bay (and the Alameda island), we passed through the china town (or something similar). The city had a strange vibe. There were parts that felt almost like Detroit, parts with huge office and government buildings and parts of vibrant town. The china town showed us very different intersection and pedestrian crossing. You could basically cross in any directions you wished to. Strange.

We crossed the bay via Webster street Tube and drove across the island towards the museum ship USS Hornet. Again, it was strange area, few pop up (gated) developments, couple corners with shops and a lot of industrial buildings (looked mostly empty and run down). Hard to say. Without getting lost, we found the dock, but there was several ships (a bit confusing). We parked (a lot of cars there) and walked toward the ship. The ticket office was on the ship. And it was big ship.

It looked like there was some Navy recruitment event (explaining the number of cars). After we paid, we walked around. It was a hanger deck, the deck below and then flight deck, that were open to the public. It was huge ship, all the rooms and places and then the deck. I was not happy, that I could not climb into the planes and other areas of the ship, but it was still incredible view. We could see the Bay bridge and San Francisco.

There was one thing that stood up (among the exhibitions). The second deck had several exhibits (other naval ships, people, equipment etc). It was interesting, but the amount of information was huge, so it was too much to absorb. That one thing, it was about woman (the exhibit was being created). I guess the picture will explain:

It was definitely very interesting visit. We both were glad we did it. After we left the ship, we drove back to the town hoping we will find something more interesting. Not much luck there. We drove in circle, saw a lot of people in china town and were heading to the bay again. I read something about Jack London Square, so we figured out: why not? Here is as well the picture of the tube. The square was nice, kind of upscale plaza with shops and restaurants. As it was cold (and odd time), it was pretty deserted and sad looking. Home, let's go home.

On Sunday, we were going to see J's sister (she is visiting her family here with her husband and two babies). Another cloudy day. We drove towards Santa Cruz, and in state forest, we were supposed to ride the train (logging train, now tourist attraction) in redwoods. About an hour drive, we met them in parking lot. It was interesting site (everybody be a judge of it). Apparently, the train was almost sold out and we were last ones to buy tickets. It was ten adults and four babies. I did not meet most of those people before, but it worked out fine. An hour long ride (probably speed of 5 miles per hour). Unfortunately, the train had plastic sides and roof, so the view was obstructed and the ride was not so much scenic. It was still interesting and good. Kind of cold. After that, we spent the afternoon in their house, hanging out, had dinner and talked. Good times. Late evening drive home.

Week 4

December 17^th – December 23rd 2012

J. is in her normal routine (even she has to drive herself). The weather is quite goofy. It is raining quite often. Yet, it is still better then foot of snow in Michigan or in Flagstaff. The end of the year is coming, we do not have any special plans. We had some errands to run and finish, so we took this week pretty easy. I took few longer walks around the town. It is interesting, because we are almost on the shore, but it as well mean we are a bit further from the downtown. I guess you barely get everything at once. Both days I walked along the shore, where is the park with small hill. I learned, that it used to be a landfill. All my walks were in pretty nice weather, so I had a view of San Francisco and Bay Bridge. It was really pleasant.

On the top of the hill in the park, there are information panels, some benches and binoculars. Even nicer view of the city. I tried to take the picture through the lens. It is really nice view of the bay and surrounding area. Unfortunately, there is not much to see of San Mateo. It is flat area without any special buildings.

I even found “Detroit drive” road, there is water treatment plant on that street. It is as well interesting to see those dinky small houses that cost around 450 thousand dollars. There is as well many small ponds, lakes and channels, those have many houses around. It has to be nice to have a place there.

I walked through the area with many office buildings and newer developments. It was strange area. It is border area between San Mateo and Foster City. Apparently Foster City's elevation is 8 feet. Still, it is incredible difference between Flagstaff and this area. I think, I feel much different (and better) then in that high elevation. Who knew?

It was really nice to walk in relatively warm weather, enjoy the breeze and watch blooming plants. There is not many trees, but there is plenty of small parks and grassy areas. In the end, it is quite pretty and enjoyable. And all the palm trees …

By one office building, there was small pond and a lot of ducks running around. Well, they were not really running, just hanging around and eating grass. I was wondering if you can hunt them. Or, you could probably just catch them with bare hands, for lunch.

At that point, I got into busier part of the town. It was the intersection of two freeways (101 and 92). There were sidewalks, so I did not have to run all over the roads, but there was as well a lot of traffic. Oh well … I crossed 101 and walked along 92. It was strange. So many cars. And so many views of bridges and structures.

After crossing that part, I walked through the residential area. Pretty nice. A bit too much sun, I was getting too warm. And looking forward to be at home. And again 101 freeway.

And Third Avenue Pedestrian Bridge. Almost home …

We made a reservation at Ano Nuevo State Park for a guided walk to see elephant seals. The forecast was not the greatest, but if we would be waiting for nice weather, we would not see anything. The morning was cloudy and gray. J. had hard time to get up and get going (as usual). We picked 9.45 am time. It was Friday before Christmas, so the traffic was light. The drive was normal, at the time, we got to the shore, it started to rain on and off. That was not good sign.

It got really windy and the car was somewhat shaking as we were driving along the ocean. It was interesting view to see cloudy and dark sky, really wild ocean and all the rain. But it was not good news for our walk. We had to pay entrance fee and park. There was few cars in the parking lot. We had some rain gear, but did not know what we will need. At that point, it was not raining yet. There was old barn redone as a visitor's center, where we picked up the tickets.

We had about 10 minutes. We walked through the small exhibit. There were some people coming and looked like they were going to walk with us. Two more younger couple and a family. The exhibit included as well big screen projecting “seal cam”. There is a camera on the beach streaming the video. The seals were there, so we were hoping to see some.

It started to rain. We were sent to the staging area. It would be nice and pleasant walk (about 20 minutes). However, it was windy and raining, so it was quite unpleasant. We got to the small house, half way to the beach. At least there was a roof to stand under. We got a guide, were told few things and walked toward the beach. Apparently, the seals are more active in this weather. The path was fine, for the part it was even like boardwalk, after that, we just walked in the sand. The weather got worse, it was raining and really windy.

And apparently, we were supposed to stay at least 25 feet from the seals. We were soaked. It was not nice. After some walking in the sand, we were close to the ocean and then we saw it. There were giant seals lying around. We were probably about 30 feet away. The female weighs about 1700 pounds, the male is between 2500 – 5000 pounds. We were close to some smaller ones, and it was unbelievable. We were so close, we could pretty much feed them.

After seeing those ones on the inner beach, we walked on the hill and were standing really close to huge male. Apparently, he was making noises to scare other males. It was really amazing view. On the beach below us, there were probably 30 more seals. We even saw two males kind of trying to fight. Even we were completely wet and pretty cold, it was still well worth it. While we were looking around, the big male was making more noises.

We made one more stop and were heading back to the station. It got darker and there was more got. In a way it was kind of magic picture (not counting us being completely wet and cold). At the station, he told us some more stuff about seals, and that was the end of our walk. Apparently, they were declared extinct, but today there is about 170 000 seal worldwide.

Walk back. We were so wet, that it did not matter anymore, so we walked some extra, taking a trail along the angry ocean. Again, pretty nice view.

We were planning to stop by some other beaches and stay bigger part of the day, but we were just too wet, so we changed our mind and left for home. It rained even harder and it looked like the end of the world (which should come 12-21-12).

We drove home the same way as we came. We figured out, we would get home, change and then do some grocery shopping. After we crossed the mountains (hard to call it like that, but …) the rain and fog was gone and we saw some blue sky. There was a rainbow. What a nice day. Not even 15 miles driven. We too the rest of the day easy. The same is true for Saturday. J. did not feel well, so we did some reading, resting and I washed the car. On Sunday, as J. did feel any better, we stayed at home, resting, reading and doing pretty much nothing. It was raining most of the day anyway.