I watched this squirrel who is much larger than my little Harris’ Antelope Squirrel of the Sonoran Desert. I watched this guy scramble up the chain link fence and dance around the tennis players.
Our trip to help our son post surgery plus spend time with our daughter and DIL, has come to a close. We’ll see them in a few weeks at Christmas, which seems unbelievable! Time flies when you’re having fun.
Here are a few sights I saw on my way to the French bakery near the hotel:
Morning Glories!
This was a Bonzai in front of a house.
A very happy house, indeed!
I think this is some sort of a maple, but I’ve never seen one shaped like this.
At the bakery waiting in line. My son said this is the best bakery in the East Bay.
When a place is good and has a reputation there is a line. I waited in line for 30 minutes for sandwiches. They sold out within an hour Saturday, so Sunday I went right at 11 a.m. when they start selling them. Once inside, I read the sign that said: “Sandwiches Tuesday through Saturday.”
Oh well. I found a few other things to try.
Whew! Back at the hotel with a box of goodies. Ready to visit the kids for one last time before we head home.
Once home, it’s unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping and feeling grounded again.
I wish I had my camera, but on Veterans Day I spent some time taking pictures with my iphone around the Claremont Resort and Club, the historic hotel where we’re staying. I had to get photos while I could — because an atmospheric river and torrential rain was in the forecast for the rest of our trip.
Two days later it is pouring! I’m at my son’s apartment now and I couldn’t leap over the river that was rushing down the curb by his sidewalk. Now I’ve got soaking wet shoes and socks!
Flag at half mast for Veterans Day.
The hallway to our room. The blue light doesn’t show to the naked eye. I think it’s an effect of blue panels along the wall and the light reflecting on them.
Views of San Francisco from the resort.
Views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The lobby.
Looking from a balcony on the Lobby level towards the tennis courts.
Another city view.
A view of the hotel.
The Club — gym, swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room — can be found at the building in the background. The Club has memberships for local residents for tennis, swimming and the gym. It even has a youth swim team who practices there.
A view towards the Club from the Lobby.
Where are some of your favorite places to visit and favorite hotels?
These are photos from my recent trip to Berkeley and Oakland, California. I was helping my daughter, post her shoulder surgery.
This is the Cheeseboard pizza from Thursday. Cremini mushroom and Kale with a side of their famous cilantro pepper sauce to dip the crust. As an added bonus, they top your slice with a sliver! Cheeseboard Collective is an institution in Berkeley.
Here’s the background info from Cheeseboard’s website:
About Our Pizza
Cheese Board Pizza started with a simple, fun idea during one of our shifts
We’d grab some extra sourdough baguette dough, pick our favorite cheeses from the counter, and toss on veggies from the market next door to make pizzas just for us. Then, in 1985, we decided to share the fun and started serving a single type of vegetarian pizza to customers after hours on Friday nights. Each night, we’d make one fresh, unique pizza with veggies, specialty cheeses from the Cheese Board, and a thin, sourdough crust.
Today, that same recipe is still our go-to. The Pizzeria, now located just two doors south of the Cheese Shop and Bakery, is open for lunch and dinner four days a week. We’ve also added salads, roasted garlic, cookies, soft serve ice cream, sodas, beer, and wine. Live music is part of the scene at both lunch and dinner, adding to the vibrant atmosphere. Even though the line for pizza often stretches down the block, it moves quickly, with music keeping things lively along the way.
Here’s a rose I saw on my walk from my Berkeley Airbnb and Cheeseboard.
Beautiful Bougainvillea I spotted on a walk in Oakland with my son and daughter-in-law.
I’m not sure what these berries are. I just thought it made a unique shot on my walk to Cheeseboard for a slice.
Berkeley is a beautiful town when you open your eyes and notice the little things like flowers.
The tree-lined streets made for nice walks when I returned to my Airbnb after taking care of my daughter at my son’s apartment.
This was my cozy Airbnb — a separate room with it’s own entrance at the back of a home. I stayed here five years ago when my son had shoulder surgery. It has a bathroom, bedroom and a kitchenette.
Now for everything Cheeseboard:
My last three evenings, I walked from the Airbnb to Cheeseboard for a slice of pizza (and a sliver) before it got dark. It was my daughter’s idea. She told me to go home early so I could have Cheeseboard, which is a treat I enjoy when I visit my kids. Prior to my Cheeseboard walks, I was getting home after dark, exhausted and savoring a cup of chowder I had bought the day I arrived. I wrote about Cheeseboard years ago: How long would you wait for pizza? Hint: It’s Cheese Board.
I’d walk around Shattuck Avenue for about 30 minutes then get in line at Cheeseboard and walk home with my salad and slice. Yes, I’d get in line because there is always a line. There is also a cheese shop two doors down owned by Cheeseboard where I’d buy a few treats for the kids to bring the next day, like their favorite cheese, crackers, chips and homemade tomatillo salsa.
About Cheeseboard: They make one flavor of pizza per day and one salad. No special orders except Gluten and/or Vegan free. The pizza’s randomly change according to fresh produce and they locally source cheese. There is never meat on a Cheeseboard pizza.
I had this one and will say it was really, really good. I liked the Cremini/Kale better, though.
The pizza I had on my last night in Berkeley.
This is the line going into Cheeseboard. The open door near the front of the photo goes into their cheese and bakery shop.
The line wound around the corner and down the street.
If you go to Berkeley, I highly recommend a slice of pizza at Cheeseboard.
What’s your favorite pizza or a pizza spot?
What do you think of my Berkeley photos?
If you’ve never been there, did you think it would be so beautiful?
“There goes the neighborhood.” Mrs. leaves the birdseed block when a neighbor takes over.
While I’m up in the San Francisco area taking care of my children, I didn’t bring my camera or lenses. I did have some photos downloaded to my laptop of Red and Mrs. that I didn’t get a chance to look at before I left home.
I have taken a few photos with my iphone at my favorite grocery store called Berkeley Bowl, which was built in a former bowling alley, hence the name. I’ve written about Berkeley Bowl before HERE.
Here are a few views from Berkeley Bowl this week. Look at this variety of pumpkins at the entrance to the grocery store!
Sweet potatoes anyone?
Pomagranites, melons, apples and more.
More backyard bird buddies:
I was pleasantly surprised with how crisp and clear my photos of Red, Mrs. and a Mourning Dove turned out. I took these the day before I left to take care of my daughter.
Mrs. and her new pal Papa Quail. He doesn’t want to leave her side!
What a handsome guy! I worry that when I’m out of town, my Red and Mrs. will leave. My husband has assured me that he’s making sure they are well fed. They should be in my backyard when I come home.
A Mourning Dove fluffs up his feathers after a rain.
Happy Friday everyone! What plans do you have for the weekend? What’s your weather like?
A few years ago we were visiting our kids in the Berkeley area. The weather was perfect and we went on a quest to see redwoods.
We walked through the woods in the Redwood Regional Park in Oakland with our kids and future daughter-in-law. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed a treat our son prepared for us. Brillat Savarin cheese, blackberries and crusty bread. It’s the first time I had tasted that cheese. If you have not tried it, it’s mild but the creamiest. I found this description online:
It is a triple cream soft-ripened cheese that is luscious, creamy and faintly sour.
We did find a few redwoods and it was such a peaceful place to be outdoors in a forest with the people I love.
After our hike, we went to Rockridge in Oakland to a cafe and window shopped. What a beautiful day with family.
Once at home, I searched for the cheese. I went to five different grocery stores and none had Brillat, including the expensive, fancy schmancy one. Years later, I was picking up vitamins I normally order on Amazon at Whole Foods. (For some reason, Amazon directed me to pick up my vitamins myself.) Wouldn’t you know it? I spotted Brillat Savarin!
What are a few of my favorite things? Spending time outdoors. Spending time with family. My favorite cheese that brings back those memories. Olive. And yes, “The Sound of Music.”
More cactus blooms in our yard. Isn’t that amazing for July in Arizona?
I wash my hands a lot. Every time I go outside and come back into the house, I wash my hands. I realized that my constant handwashing was a habit I picked up during COVID. I get up from typing on my laptop or using my phone and wash my hands some more.
I remembered other things that changed from the COVID shutdown days when we didn’t know much about how the virus was being spread that stick with me today.
Washing hands is number one.
Number two is I don’t like being in crowds like going to big sporting events or the movies.
Three is I’m not as social as I was before.
I worry about travel on airplanes. I’ve gotten sick from COVID after travel twice.
I was very confused about masks. In CA, masks and vaccination cards were required to go in public spaces like restaurants. After we moved to AZ, you rarely saw anyone in masks and no vaccination cards were required — even through we got vaccinated in huge stadiums in AZ with thousands of others driving through the parking lots of the State Farm Stadium where the Cardinals play and the AZ state fairgrounds. After visiting our kids in Berkeley, I’d be back home and realize I was the only one wearing a mask at the grocery store.
I had a close friend in Palm Springs whose daughter was working for a grocery delivery app. They’d have her strip at the backdoor after work and put her clothes in the washing machine, shower and then enter the rest of the house. They also took their groceries out of their car and wiped them down with alcohol wipes before bringing things into the house.
I have friends who traveled to visit family in Michigan and Ontario Canada this week who got COVID. They are holed up in a hotel recovering, but are not very sick.
Last summer, during our beach trip to Santa Barbara, we had several friends cancel getting together with us because they all got COVID. It was eerie. We ended up leaving early because of it. We checked websites and local news and COVID was breaking out everywhere in that area. We decided to go back home to our wildlife of Arizona.
I did lose my mother to COVID on January 1, 2023, so I so know COVID is a real threat to our health. I have to say, I was more worried about cancer after my daughter-in-law’s diagnosis of stage 3C colon cancer during last summer’s vacation. That was way more on our minds than our friends in Santa Barbara getting COVID. Thankfully, everyone, including our DIL and Santa Barbara friends are doing well!
Has COVID from 2020 to today changed any of your actions or behaviors? If so, what has changed?
What was I up to in the New Year of 2022? One of the things I like about blogging is being able to look back on what I was doing, thinking and feeling.
A year ago to the date, I was returning home from Berkeley after taking care of my son post surgery.
Imagine that!
AND my husband wasn’t answering the phone. I was worried about him. It turned out he was sick in bed with COVID. As sick as I have ever known him to be.
I took a Lyft home from the airport in Phoenix. The Lyft driver was not happy when he learned how far away I lived. I didn’t mean to be an inconvenience, you’d think drivers would want to pick up a long ride. But I think we are so far out, there’s not much of a chance for the driver to pick up any rides on the way back to Phoenix. Plus, he was going to be late picking his wife up after her work. I wondered why he accepted my ride in the first place?
In any case, I moved into our Casita and kept my husband isolated in our Master bedroom. (I heard master isn’t PC to use, but I really don’t care.)
I cooked him homemade chicken soup with onions, garlic and carrots. I carted it to the front porch and then called him to let him know food was waiting for him. This went on for several days.
When he was finally better, we went exploring and hiked the Sears-Kay Ruins. Then we went to hang out with friends who invited us over to watch football.
What were you up to a year ago? Do you find yourself doing many of the same things year after year?
This was last night in our backyard. We call them “Mulies” short for Mule Deer.
This was Olive, checking out the Mulies from the bar in our living room.
