Japanese Tea Garden

A few days ago, Bob, my 17yo daughter, and I drove into San Francisco to spend a few hours in Golden Gate Park. We started off at the DeYoung Museum (of which we’re members) to see the Real to Real: Photographs from the Traina Collection exhibit. We enjoyed the photographs immensely. My daughter was thrilled to see photos by Lee Friedlander displayed, including one of her favorites.

After wandering the museum, we headed over next door to the Japanese Tea Garden. I have fond memories of visiting it often as a child and love being able to revisit it as an adult. We started off having tea and snacks and then leisurely wandered the garden.

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A lovely way to spend the day!

Surf City, USA

We had a lovely week visiting my parents in Huntington Beach, CA. We love going there – we jokingly call my parents’ house our Beach House. It’s not a bad drive –  6 hours with one stop for gas and lunch in Kettleman City. We end up visiting three or four times a year at least. We fall into a routine and I sleep much more soundly. The beach is a short 1 – 2 miles away. Bob and I take Trixie on a walk to the beach at least twice a day. We love standing at the railing above the bike path, gazing at the ocean, watching the surfers and beach go-ers, listening to the soothing sound of the waves, and inhaling the scent of sand and salt.

That’s Bob and me in shadow. Trixie didn’t show up since she’s shorter than the shrubs. 😉

We tried a new thing this trip and rented one of those bicycle cars. Oof! Those things are heavy. Our fantasy of biking to Newport were quickly dashed and we never made it out of HB. We did have a great time, though!

Bob didn’t last long at the driver’s seat. Our daughter took over and did a fine job (except when I got out to take some photos and she peddled off a bit as a joke. ha ha).

I took a short break.

HB Pier and a couple of beach volleyball players.

I do love my new camera. The zoom is awesome and for the first time ever I was able to take some decent surfing photos. I do have to have a steady hand. Still figuring out the new camera, but having fun!

We had a great time as always! Coming soon, a sweet post on cupcakes and macarons!

Hiking Crystal Cove State Park

Bob and I are frequent visitors to Huntington Beach, California where my parents live. It’s about a 6 hour drive from our house to theirs. One of our favorite hiking spots is in Crystal Cove State Park which is located off PCH (the Pacific Coast Hwy) in Newport Beach. From the parking lot, we walk along a wooden boardwalk (where we’ve previously come across rattlesnakes) bordered by flora and fauna of the Southern California coastline. Off the boardwalk is a windy dirt path along the cliff that takes you down to the beach. At low tide, tidepools are filled with marine life. More often than not, we have the entire area to ourselves. Recently, we took our 17 year old daughter with us. She was, let’s say, less than enthusiastic to go hiking with us, but she ended up having a fabulous time!

It was difficult to choose what photos to share with you. We saw plenty of verbena, lupine, ground squirrels, phoebes, pelicans, anemone, crabs, lizards, and more! Bob got me a new camera (Canon PowerShot SX260HS) for my birthday – still a mostly compact, automatic one, but this one does give me the option to take the camera off of “Auto” and it has a 20x zoom. I had a blast using it and look forward to learning to use it better.

Cheers!

Hiking Close To Home

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We are fortunate to live near so many fantastic hiking trails and parks. Bob and I used to hike often when we lived in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, but that was a long time ago. We decided it was time to take it up again.  We’re starting off slowly, locally, and on fairly short trails of 3 miles or less. Currently, one of our favorite hikes is by Water Dog Lake in Belmont. Trixie, our rat terrier, has decided she loves hiking. We hike maybe 3 times a week, but we walk every day without fail. Trixie gets extremely excited when we get her leash and put on our hiking shoes – but when she realizes we’re not going to the car, that we’re not going hiking but instead going for a walk in our neighborhood, her disappointment is visible and comical.  Poor thing!  I promise to blog about our hiking adventures!