I only stayed a short time with Tracey in Livermore, but we managed to do several fun outings.
We walked every morning, which I loved. We both like to get our steps in! I was happy to be back on the Sycamore trail, which is near where John and I lived when we were in Livermore. A new addition since I was there last are these cute and handy lost-and-found posts.
After our walk we went out to eat at the café at the Garré Vineyard and Winery. It wasn’t busy that day and the weather was perfect.
Next we went downtown to poke around. I was entranced by this slowly revolving trivia ball. At first glance, Livermore might appear to be just one of many outer suburbs of the Bay Area. But it is also home to a large national laboratory.
I’ve always been interested in what geographers call a “sense of place.” That is anything that makes a place feel different from every other place.
After I finally tore myself away from the mesmerizing revolving ball, we headed to a holiday shop. At the end of August, it mostly had Halloween and Día de Muertos decorations. I fell in love with this doll.
Isn’t she fantastic? Packed in her box, she took up a lot of space in my minimal (for me) luggage. I ended up leaving several items of clothing and misc at Laura’s house in order to get her home.
As soon as I got home I perched her on a traditional kiva ladder in the living room. It has been over a month now, but I honestly don’t think John has noticed, lol. We don’t use that room as much as the family room next to the kitchen.
On the second morning Tracey and I had fog on our morning walk, but it soon burned off.
Later that morning we drove to the The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek.
Next – down to Santa Clara on the train, stay tuned.
On the way back down to the Bay Area from the northern coast, Laura and I stopped in San Rafael to meet my friend Tracey for lunch. Tracey came to pick me up for a few days vacation with her in Livermore, before I headed back to Santa Clara.
Before going to Livermore, Tracey and I stopped at Sausalito. I enjoyed seeing the water, but I wasn’t feeling my best and we faced rush hour traffic heading east, so we just walked around a bit and snapped a few pictures before heading out.
It would be fun to rent one of these places overlooking the waterfront.
I love marinas – they are full of the promise of adventures.
It looks like I might finally have time to go back and finish the series about my California trip at the end of August. Laura had picked me up from the airport in San Francisco and we went to spend a few days on the coast in Fort Bragg, just north of Mendocino.
One of the must-do activities on my list was the Mendocino Botanical Gardens. Here is Laura, looking at all the dahlias.
In addition to all the wonderful plants, this exceptional botanical garden has a beautiful ocean bluff walk. It’s one of my favorite botanical gardens. Every garden is special, but they don’t all have stunning ocean views.
Here’s some more photos in the garden.
The huge leaves of this plant made me feel like some sort of little critter.
John and I used to go to Mendocino and Fort Bragg regularly when we lived in California from 2012-2016, so I had my list of shops and activities I wanted to do.
For example, quite near the botanical gardens is an African import store where we always stopped. They have such interesting things! Years ago Laura had bought Alex a handmade ceramic coffee mug there, which he used every day until one day he accidentally broke it. We were very excited to find an identical mug to replace his broken one, all these years later.
We barely had enough time to do my favorite hike in the late afternoon on our last day. When we got to Russian Gulch, the ranger impressed upon us several times that the first section of the hike was steep and difficult. Luckily I knew better and we didn’t worry about it. It wasn’t difficult at all, but I guess they must get a lot of tourists who are unused to hiking. The park is right off the coastal highway next to Mendocino. My favorite trail in that area is the North trail, but there are several nice ones.
The coast was wonderful! Next we headed back to the Bay Area for more adventures.
In my ignorance, I imagined the LDS church as being very patriarchal and not likely to vote for a female president. But in my ignorance, I could be wrong. Although I am not a Mormon myself, the following quotes recently hit my inbox and considering the source, I am confident of its authenticity:
“…the Worldwide Leadership of the Church, known as the First Presidency, offers the following guidance to its members…We urge Latter-day Saints to be active citizens . . . exercising their right to vote, and . . . always demonstrating Christlike love and civility in political discourse….We urge you to . . . study candidates carefully and vote for those who have demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation. Merely voting a straight ticket or voting based on “tradition” without careful study of candidates and their positions on important issues is a threat to democracy and inconsistent with revealed standards (see Doctrine and Covenants 98:10).” First Presidency Statement June 1, 2023.”
They don’t name a candidate, but it’s not hard to read between the lines. I applaud their flexibility and courage to cross party lines in service of their deeper values. The Mormons are a strong influence in all of the Intermountain West swing states like my own. In the past I have noted Mitt Romney’s courage (even though I don’t agree with him on many issues). Now I’m wondering if like-minded people right here in my own state could make or break this election.
Thank you to all the courageous Republicans out there, willing to set aside tradition and habit and vote Democrat this time – for the good of our country. You are my heroes this year. And then hopefully the Republican party can pull itself away from the brink and offer some thoughtful candidates with integrity in the years to come. And maybe someday we can return the favor. Because we all are in this together.
Happy October! Today is also, I learned this morning, Rosh Hashanah. The internet says, “Literally meaning “Head of the Year,” Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar. It begins a 10-day period of repentance and prayer which ends on Yom Kippur. We celebrate the holiday with services and apples dipped in honey to symbolize the hope for a sweet year to come.” I was told that it is not only the beginning of the year, but also celebrates the beginning of the universe. Well, that’s cool. Big Bang Day!
We are having record breaking heat in Tucson, so despite what the calendar says, it is still very much summertime here. I finally have a chance to sit down and blog a bit, because I had an unexpected cancellation of plans. Callan and Guen’s dog, Blue, is quite ill, so Callan was not able to fly down here to go backpacking with John and I this weekend. John and I have had a lot going on ourselves lately, so instead of going backpacking without Callan, we are rescheduling until next month. Hopefully it will still be warm enough to sleep on the ground in the beginning of November. Even Arizona gets cold in the mountains in the winter.
Now I have a whole weekend free to blog! Except not – I am rapidly filling my weekend. For example, just this morning my friend Dana invited me to go to a college volleyball game tomorrow. Not something I’d usually do – which is exactly why I decided to go. A new experience! I’m not much into sports usually, but I believe Dana went to Purdue on a volleyball scholarship, and was once a volleyball coach. So at least I’ll be going to see the game with an expert.
Then on Saturday I’m hoping to get a fountain installed in our backyard – we’ll see if John has time. Sunday it might be nice to drive into the mountains to hike, since we’re missing our backpacking trip. It is still too hot here to hike in the Tucson foothills – unless you like getting up earlier than I like to in the morning.
Although I missed quite a show early this morning at Sabino Canyon! Dana and her friends saw literally 20 or 30 coatis wander by. At first they saw one, and then two, and then they kept coming and kept coming! Big ones and little ones, all scampering by one or two at a time. They are fairly common here, but I haven’t seen one yet.
This movie may show up as just a blue or black square, but hit the play button anyway. It should show three little scampering coatis, first the mom, then a young one, then…wait…another youngster.
The internet says, “Females and their young form bands of 20 individuals or more, while adult males are solitary.” So the band that Dana saw this morning would be the moms and their young.
Looks like it was a beautiful trail too. It’s called Bluff Trail. I’ll have to check that one out!
I’ve been doing some good stuff this month – none of which I’ve blogged about because I’ve been having too much fun AND I’ve been stressed AND I never finished blogging about my California trip last month! It seems like so long ago now. I have several more California drafts started, so maybe I can plow through those and then get a start on September – before it’s October. I need to stop doing fun stuff until I have time to catch up!
I got overly stressed out for a week or two recently, so now I’m in middle of the difficult task of trying to figure out what to cut out. It’s all about balance! Travel in particular is stressful for me. I like being places. I just find it very nerve wracking getting there and back. In addition to my California trip, John and I have been doing road trips every weekend. Plus social events, which is great because we are trying to make local friends.
Getting the social balance finely tuned is a challenge. Ideally I like to hang out with one or two other people at a time. But I find that the best way to make friends is to join groups. Therefore, I’m currently attending several group events, and I even run one myself. I started a Meet-up group and I schedule local live music events, ideally with dancing.
My purpose for starting the Meet-up group is to meet other women to go dancing with, because John doesn’t like to dancing (the freestyle kind of dancing I do doesn’t require partners, luckily). So all I need is a friend or small group of friends to go with. I don’t actually like running the Meet-up group. It’s a big pain the butt, frankly. My plan is to give it a year, with the goal of having some dancing friends at the end of the year. I started the group in March or April, so I am going to keep at it going through the winter. Let’s see if I come out of this experiment with some friends to go dancing with!
Between all the things I’ve been trying, I’ve been going to too many events lately. As soon as I got back from California, I went out every night for 4 nights straight. That’s too much! Also several things have come up recently that I hadn’t counted on. Because life is like that!
I really just want to do it all! Huh, funny, but I can’t. It’s like sticking to a budget but with fuzzier data. With a financial budget you can at least see how much you have, so the only guesswork is related to unexpected expenses. Personal energy budgets are harder. Not only are there unexpected energy sinks, you don’t know how much you’re starting with. Imagine trying to stick to your financial budget when random days you have more money in your checking account than other days. The only way to handle that much uncertainty in my personal energy budget (if occasional crashing isn’t an option) is to leave a large cushion. That means limiting myself to less every day than I could actually happily do on most days. Well, darn!
I’ve always loved doors and often photograph them when I’m traveling. We came across a highlight at our favorite restaurant in Fort Bragg. The restaurant, Mayan Fusion, was walking distance from where we stayed and we ate there twice.
On the second time we visited, the west sun was low, shining through the stained glass doors.
These are the original main doors. Here they are, viewed from outside on the sidewalk. Currently the door being used for the entrance is a few feet further down the sidewalk. These original doors lead directly into the main dining room. They have a large potted palm blocking the doors so their customers don’t get confused and try to come in the wrong way. But looking through the plant, you can see that on the outside, the doors read, “Restaurant”.
Which makes perfect sense. But you need to know that because it explains the inside, which reads, “The Rest of the World”.
That in itself is funny enough. I can’t help but think of ancient maps, labeled along the sides, “Herein lies monsters.” But what’s even more funny is that they commonly prop the one of the doors open to catch the sea breeze.
With one of the doors propped wide open, the remaining door reads, “F THE WORLD”. This our server gleefully pointed out (in case we hadn’t noticed), when I complemented the late afternoon sun streaming in through the stained glass windows.
I remember seeing logging trucks in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970’s with huge trees – so big that they could only get three on the entire truck. I almost think I saw a truck with just one enormous log once, but I’m not sure, I might have imagined it. It was a long time ago. Now the trucks carry much smaller trees. Once upon a time, the trees really were that big.
It’s sad that we cut the old growth down. It’s rare to see a tree of this size anymore. We don’t have trees – or any kind of wildlife – the way we used to. I don’t think most of us can even comprehend what it was like before the loss of most of the wildlife. Huge old forests full of wild creatures have become a thing of mythology.
It’s a tourist train that was stationed immediately outside our living room window (photos and video taken from our window). The train was actually rather loud inside our place. I’m not sure why all the racket wasn’t picked up by my video. You can hear the little toot at the end of the second video, but it was much louder in person. My phone must have been filtering it all out as background noise.
And once again, I win the award for most boring videos. Youtubers would have jumped out the living room window waving a cowboy hat and landed on the train 😉
After failing to find beach access on our walk south from our loft in Fort Bragg that morning, we walked the other direction in the afternoon.
On the map it looked like the nearest beach access, at Glass Beach, was about a mile and a half north on the bike trail. We were not quite yet to the official beach when it began to look like we could almost scramble down to the shore. We stood looking at a steep and eroded dirt trail, and contemplated our choice of footwear – flip flops for both of us. It was only a short distance down, but steep and dirty and slippery in flip flops.
We had almost decided not to bother scrambling down and just go on to the main beach when a woman, standing nearby picking wild blackberries, overheard us debating and urged us to go ahead and go down to this cove.
“It’s the best,” she told us. “There’s nothing at Glass Beach. You have to go here. It’s worth it.” I didn’t know what she was talking about nothing being at Glass Beach and remained skeptical. But she insisted; it’s worth it, it’s easy, just do it, you have to.
Finally I realized that she was telling us that the beach glass was better here than on Glass Beach. We were not looking for beach glass, but earlier that same day I had bought a small book about beach glass collecting as a gift for my friend Tracey, who I would be visiting in a few days. I hadn’t read the book, but I looked at it long enough to decide to buy it, so I had a vague idea. Broken glass gets tumbled in the waves and polished into glass pebbles, and deposited onto certain beaches depending on the currents. Apparently Fort Bragg is famous for beach glass. I also had a vague memory of John and I looking for glass on Glass Beach some years ago and not finding anything.
Laura and I decided to check the little cove out. When we got down to the beach, I was absolutely astounded. Here are the photos I took when randomly pointing the camera downwards. The entire cove was like this:
I couldn’t believe it. All those white stones, plus the green, amber and blue, were all beach glass! I had never seen anything like it in my life. The whole beach was like that! That’s all polished glass!
I had no idea which pieces to pick up. There were so many! I picked up a few random ones of various colors. Laura found one with writing still on it, which apparently is “better.”
It was everywhere.
I tried to pick up some blue because it seemed more rare.
It was particularly beautiful when wet.
These are all just random shots taken pointing at the ground.
Truly beautiful trash. Everywhere!
It was close to low tide, as you can see from the exposed anemones.
There were a few other people down there, who seemed to know what they were doing. But I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of polished glass.
This is Laura, listening to the tinkling sound of the glass in the water.
Laura took a video of the sound of the glass in the gentle waves in the cove.
And here are two videos she took of hermit crabs. It’s sweet how she is talking softly to them as she takes the video. Makes me laugh!
I just wandered around in a daze, taking pictures of the ground.
We had a long walk back and were getting hungry, so we didn’t stay long. The path down to the cove doesn’t look like much at all from the beach. It’s just a slight bluff.
Here is Laura clambering back out.
I went a slightly different route, less climbing and more slip-and-slide. I held onto blackberry vines to haul myself out. She is a better climber than me.
What a well-kept secret! I’m amazed that the kind local woman picking blackberries told two obvious tourists wandering around in flip flops about that cove. That beach was amazing and now I want to go back!
It was the start of our first full day at the coast, and we hadn’t been to the beach yet. We headed out in the morning, thinking we’d walk along the nearby paved bike trail to the beach. I love bike trails, and this one was only a block from our Airbnb.
We looked at the map, made a guess, and headed south. We didn’t find access to the beach. We were close, but it was a long way down there.
These terrifyingly graphic warning signs were all along the route.
I grew up north of here and the crumbly nature of sand cliffs was well drilled into my head as a child. No wonder I’m afraid of cliff edges!
This little squirrel was right at home, and hoping for a handout.
After giving up on beach access, we continued south, enjoying the views from the bluff.
When we were about to turn around, we met a local woman on the trail who suggested that next time we walk north to Glass Beach for access. That looked to be over a mile past our loft, and we had already walked at least a mile and a half in the other direction, so first, lunch! John and I always used to get fish tacos at the Mendocino Café, so Laura and I hopped in her car and headed down there.
These tacos are particularly good because the grilled fish comes separately and you get a whole dish full of fish. Often fish tacos have just a little spot of fish buried somewhere under the cabbage. These come with so much fish you could never get all of it into your three little corn tortillas! Luckily it also comes with a fork, lol.
Later that day, we did find a beach – I’ll tell you all about that in the next post.
{"id":null,"mode":"text_link","open_style":"in_place","currency_code":"USD","currency_symbol":"$","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/turning51.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/turning51.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":500,"top_media_type":"none","featured_image_url":false,"featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Leave Kristina a tip","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"Turning51","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"Turning51","form_subtitle":null,"currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you for being a supporter!","payment_confirmation_title":"Turning51","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
