Week 9

January 21^st – January 27^th 2013

We are staying in California for additional 8 weeks (J. just need to sign the contract). The weather is still nice, relatively warm and sunny. On Sunday, we drove to Sunnyvale (about 20 miles) to check the place, where we might move for those two extended months. It was pretty nice place, pretty much same distance to Caltrain and downtown Sunnyvale. J. spent three days in Michigan and came back Wednesday night. There was some mechanical problem on the plane in Atlanta, so she was 1.5 hours late. That was quite unfortunate, because she had to work next day. She was very tired, so I drove her to work. I would say, that that night messed up following few days (I was quite tired too). Otherwise (not counting weather I guess) she enjoyed her visit at home very much. Oh … snow …

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, I drove to the coast. It was nice and sunny day, so I left pretty early. I parked on one small beach (dirt parking lot on the cliffs). The access to the beach was kind of hard, but possible. So I took nice walk on the beach. There were some people, but it was not too bad. Nice views, bit of wind and ocean without the end.

I drove probably 6 miles north on the road number 1 and at the end of residential street found newly formed park. I read, that several organizations in Bay Area are keeping up (and when possible) expanding open public space. It was smaller one mile loop in the hills above the town. There were some steep parts, but the views from the peaks were spectacular. I could see the town, small airport and whole bay (Half Moon Bay).

And again, it really looks like spring is here.

Just couple miles down the road, next to the airport, was Pillar Bluff County Park. It was small walk up and about a mile loop on the bluff. The views of ocean were incredible, wind was just light and pleasant. There were some people, again, but it was not too bad. There was no access to the beach (it looked like there was a beach with low tide). Still, the views were well worth it. Apparently, it was not on the map, there was path all the way down to the cove parking lot. I walked that way before realizing it and had to turn around, looking for shortcut, I ended up in the woods and I believe there were some shelters of homeless people. Strange.

There was really nice view of the airport and actually quite a few people were flying there. It was interesting to watch small planes taking off.

And that was pretty much all. I was hungry, so I was heading home. The town was really busy, there was probably 200 cars parked along the road and many people surfing in the bay. Luckily most of them were driving north, so I was just watching the line of cars half a mile long. Nice weather, holiday Monday (MLK) and ocean. I guess, next time we will go there on weekday.

On Tuesday, I took a train to San Jose. It took about 40 minutes. I did not have any plans, so I just started to walk towards the downtown. There was light rail track next to the train station (used by Amtrak and few other transportation lines). It was nice day (again). There was almost nobody on the streets, it was really weird. (It was about 10 am on workday.) I had small map of the city (San Jose is the biggest city in Bay area) so I was following it to the center. The city was somewhat strange, the streets were wide, many big buildings (some of them were nice), there were as well light rail tracks, but it did not work together. It was just strange and empty. There were few people, but mostly the streets were pretty empty. And … there was a lot of homeless people. Unimpressed by the downtown, I had sort of back up plan, to go to Japanese friendship garden. It was across freeway 280 and I did not have a map of that area.

On the way to the garden, I was just wandering around and hoping for some nicer and more interesting parts of city. It did not really happen. I took small break in the park with the water feature. Later I found out that it was the main park in the downtown area. Ok.

Without map, I was just following general direction, that I had in my head. It got more residential, few parts had small stores etc, but it looked kind of poor and trashy (for big part). It got really warm. I started to be worried that I was lost, but finally I found sport's facilities and next to them the park with the garden. It was nice, but kind of boring. At least they had fish there.

I found a lot of signs “for lease”.

I as well saw a lot of homeless people. Even on the way from the garden, there was few tents next to the road.

Later I read that San Jose is called “capital of Silicon Valley” and is pretty rich (measured by income and production). I had hard time to believe it after what I saw, but I guess everything is possible. I did not really find anything super interesting, so I just walk slowly back to the train station and went home.

Week 8

January 14^th – January 20^th 2013

Monday and Tuesday, J. was working. I took some walks in the neighborhood, did some reading and started my community college class (that will be interesting). The weather got more stable (no more rain) and is was looking like the place we wanted to come and enjoy. Tuesday night (after work day), I drove J. to the airport as she was flying to Michigan over night. Leaving nice spring weather for gray and cold Michigan. Enjoy!

I drove to Huddart Park in Woodside. I crossed the valley and drove through the small town of Woodside, and again I was in very different world. Nice one though. It was really big park geared towards picnicking and children. As it was work day (and winter), there were almost no people. I had about 4 miles walk planned for this park. There was actually pretty nice network of trails. It was nice forest.

J. took our camera to Michigan (to take pictures of babies and dogs, I guess), so I had to use our back up old one (which J. damaged long time ago). Out of five pictures, three of them ended up blurry and unusable. Oh well … I walked up and down, there were some nice gulches, few creeks and nice sound of birds singing (sometimes making just annoying noise). Nice trees though.

Two times, I had to cross the path of power lines. That was as well only place, where I could see a bit of the bay. This park did not have really any other views, but it was nice and secluded (really close to town) place to enjoy the walk. I met two or three runners and towards the end a girl, which asked about the time and then said, she was running since 9 o'clock (it was 11.30). It was really pleasant walk. After that, I drove thought some new parts of towns, did some shopping and cooking.

Another day, I took train to San Francisco. The morning was colder, but brisk walk kept me warm. I got to the city around 9.27 am. I did not have any plan, so I just started to walk along the bay. The sun was coming up and everything was pretty bright.

Close to the train station (and as well some sport stadium) there was not many people. I passed few homeless people (how sad). And as well some people running or biking. Otherwise, most of the piers were converted into business or some type of warehouse setting. Yet, there were some public paths close or on the bay. It was interesting. There is as well a lot of construction going on. In the middle of this year, there is going to be some boat (speed race of some sorts) competition. For that, there are already some shops and they are working on other buildings etc. I walked on small pier, that had observation platform at the end. It does not get much better, relatively empty and peaceful, really nice weather and ducks making a lot of noises.

Obviously, big part of my walk, I could see Coit tower overlooking the bay and this part of town. It was really nice picture. Pretty early in my walk, I as well started to see Alcatraz. And later, to finish main tourist attractions, I saw Golden Gate. It was really nice. Getting closer to the tourist area (Pier 39), there were more and more people. Even it was early work day. Oh well …. it was still very pleasant.

Slowly, I got to Pier 39. I passed few tour stands offering Alcatraz or Bay Cruises (so many people). And of course, Pier 39, there was a lot of people (lines for Alcatraz) and so on … who knew. I walked through the pier. Later I found an information board explaining the history of the pier. It was actually constructed as a tourist attraction (and shopping area). I guess, that explains why there are just shops and restaurants. A bit sad for me, but I guess business is business. At the end, there is the draw for the pier, bunch of floating platforms and sea lions on them. I stood for a while with many other people watching those animals. They were really close (and funny).

Then I left the shore and walked towards the city. After I gave up on touring the submarine (there was about 16 people just entering it), I figured I could go on the Coit tower. So I walked towards the tower, just wandering the streets. It was actually getting too warm. Along the way, I found small park with maybe eight trees and a lot of bird's noises. I stood there, watching for those birds, to find out that they are parrots. Interesting (there was as well this statue in the park).

And then … surprise … uphill to get to the tower. There were some people, but it was not too bad. I bought the ticket (apparently just cash) and waited for the elevator. Old fashioned with the guy in it. The views were incredible. The weather was pretty good and I could probably see as far as possible.

I have enjoyed the views, look around and was glad I did it. After that, I just slowly walked through the city towards the train. Downhill, residential streets and later Chinatown. More less by accident, I chose the main street and was surprised by the number of people on the street. As well, the prices of some produce were really low (compare to the normal store or farmers market). Interesting.

Good for traffic, bad for the visiting place was my Saturday trip. I drove across San Mateo bridge (following my paper directions) and switched between the freeways and successfully exited in Hayward. I wanted to visit European Deli Market. It was not too hard to find (even the store was off the main road hidden in kind of alley). I went inside and was somewhat disappointed. It was tiny place with very limited selection (mostly Russian) of goods. Too bad. I can just wish for the type of Polish stores from metro Detroit. I had to get back on freeway and drove towards Mount Diablo State Park (and hill). Not too bad (to follow my directions), I found it and drove to the top. It was very “dinky” drive. Going up and up and turn and turn. We drove worse, but there was one difference, bicyclists. So many of them. And to pass them … it was not good. It was probably half an hour before noon when I got to the top and parked.

Unfortunately, the visitor's center was closed, so I could just walk around and look down. Even it was a bit hazy in the distance, the view was incredible. Maybe even too broad, too big to absorb (maybe a bit like Grand Canyon, it is amazing, but just maybe impossible to take in). It was sunny and there were some people, but not too many. I took a picture of some lonely hiker, he said he was training for some hike in Argentina (damn it, I would like to go there). I tried to take some pictures, but the old camera is too old (and some damaged), so it was hard to get some good ones.

I walked around a bit, just enjoying the site. I even found this: (sliver of snow)

Hard to see on those pictures, but still possible, you can see snow covered peaks in the distance. So all that was incredible, standing on the hill (or mountain) and looking around. Hard to believe, that all this makes Bay Area.

I had to drive down, there were two ways to get up (at one point they merged). Going up, I took South Gate, doing down I took North Gate. I had walk planned on the foothills of the mountain. I had to drive through some towns (and follow my directions). I did not get lost. It was not ordinary trail head. It was dead end street with on street parking. When I got there, I could not believe how many cars there was. I had to turn around and drive back to find the spot. And then I just walked.

I got Bay Area hikes book for Christmas, and this hike was there. I made a copy of the page with map. It was Donner Falls hike. For a big part, it was nice fire road next to the creek. And … unfortunately, it was somewhat loud. There was too many people. It was somewhat uphill and I walked too fast. I started to pass some people. The actual Falls trail was really uphill and at one point, I had troubles to catch the breath. But just before that, I passed some people and did not want to get passed, so I just kept going. It was really nice, narrow trail, for most of the way following the creek.

Obviously, the water falls were tiny, yet few of them were really pretty and it looked very much like Washington state. Again, who knew? (Probably a lot of people.) I found few spots with some frost and snow. Funny. There were some nice views of the gulch and the hills around, very few places had narrow view of the valley. But it was still really nice.

I thought it was supposed to be about 3.5 miles, so at some point it started to feel much longer. It was still nice walk, but nothing super exciting, so I sped up and tried to pass as many people as I could. And there was a lot of people. The group of four woman (I could hear them for like ten minutes) was talking so loud. So, all that kind of took some beauty of the walk. Back on the fire road, I saw sign 1.5 miles to the parking lot, so the walk was longer then I thought. There were some buds on the trees and I saw some flowers starting to bloom. Spring is here! (Drive home, via Oakland bridge and San Francisco.)