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.