Family Time

 

At the end of January our daughter came to visit for three weeks. At the beginning, three weeks sounded like a wonderfully long time, but in the end, time, of course, flew by way too fast. We filled those three short weeks with a lot of fun activities and tried to make the most of the time. Unfortunately, the Geek couldn't take off all of the time, but we still got several weekdays that we could spend together.

Since she still has quite some clothes here and didn't need to bring any, she filled her suitcase with the delicious things that we miss here.

Since she misses it so much in Germany, we spent a lot of time at the ocean, walking along the beach during sunset...

whale watching (unsuccessfully) ...

hiking the headlands ...

spending an incredibly windy day in Point Reyes, looking for elephant seals and their pups ...

and watching more sunsets.

One day she came with me to German School and did a fabulous presentation about Germany for my students. They loved her and we ended up having a pretty lively conversation in German.

We walked around the lake where we discovered American White Pelicans for the first time.

We walked among ancient Redwoods and she tried to hug one...

She spoiled our friends' dogs and the resident cat in our garden; they in return adored her.

We played cards on those rainy afternoons (we didn't have many of those) while drinking feshly pressed blood orange juice (this, of course, is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday; it feels good to be back!).

And way too soon it was time for her to say goodbye to her parents and California.

There will be more about our time with Kaefer in upcoming posts.

An Appointment in San Francisco

On Thursday the Geek had an appointment with the German Consulate General in San Francisco. We decided to make a day trip of it.

We left early because you never know how traffic is on 101 - it can be a smooth ride, but it can also be a never ending traffic jam. We were lucky and arrived 90 minutes before his appointment at the bay. Not eager to hang out in front of the consulate, we took the last exit before the Bridge and drove down to Fort Baker. I had always wanted to go here to the water front because it offers you another great view of the Bridge. Since it was a rather gloomy day - typical Golden Gate summer weather - my photos of the bridge are quite gray - but I can't help myself still thinking they are so characteristic of this area.

I probably mentioned several times on this blog how much I love the Golden Gate Bridge. After all these years and the many times I crossed this bridge I still get goose bumps. No wonder it is such a tourist attraction, albeit a very cold and windy one.

We walked along the waterfront and onto the old pier. I liked the look of the weathered dock pilings.

Then it was time to get into the city. We were done with the appointment at noon and were debating how to spend the rest of the day. Originally we had thought walking out to Land's End Lookout, but changed our minds and drove back North across the Bridge and onto the Marin Headlands. I had read about the coastal trail from Rodeo Beach to Tennessee Point and we both thought this was the day we're going to hike the trail.

The day was still overcast when we arrived. Immediately after we had arrived we saw the first of flocks and flocks of Brown Pelicans. They're common here along the coast and I never tire of watching them. (Since we were going to the consulate, I hadn't brought my good camera. These photos are all taken with my phone.)

There were so many! I think we saw 200 to 300 Brown Pelicans that day.

They seem to prefer flying in flocks and they are completely silent. Look at that graceful gliding flight!

They kept us company for our entire hike. First we climbed up a steep incline to the cliffs and then more or less moderately on top of the cliffs with beautiful views across the ocean - despite the gloominess of the day. In some places the trail was fenced off because the ocean had taken a part of the land (or the wind, who knows). In others we saw beautiful flowers and plants.

Sticky monkey-flower

Fennel

The trail was well kept and soon we could see Tennessee Point.

It looks closer than it actually was, but eventually we were almost there. The trail led through a small cypress grove that gave way to a stunning view.

California sure has some dramatic coastline.

We turned to the left and there it was - the Tennessee Point labyrinth!

All the way I wasn't sure whether we would see it. I had read that it had been destroyed, but obviously it has been restored and I was very happy about it. It gave a nice touch to the barren flat top.

It is a rather small labyrinth and it took less than two minutes to walk to its center. It was a bit too windy to do it in a meditative way. The Brown Pelicans were always with us.

Eventually it was time to walk back to the parking lot at the beach and drive home. We stopped at a Turkish restaurant in a neighboring town for a very late lunch/early dinner - the Geek had a Döner wrap and I chose the Köfte kebap wrap. I remember having delicious Köfte in Turkey and these weren't bad either.

It was a wonderful excursion!

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art Date.

Fresh Air

 

After 28 straight days of bad, unhealthy air we finally got a breather! The air quality had been so bad here on the West Coast, a by-product of all the wildfires that are burning in California, Oregon and Washington. At the beginning our air became poor when we had two big wildfires here in our county, started by dry lightning. But then those wildfires became more and bigger, and not all of them were the result of natural causes but unfortunately were started by the carelessness of some people. Who needs gender reveal parties and why? 

When we said goodbye to Kaefer on Tuesday of last week and went back home, the Golden Gate Bridge looked like this:

We are used to see this bridge in fog often, but this is soemthing we had never seen before. If you think this looks unhealthy you are very right.

But the following day was much much worse.

I took this photo at 8:25 in the morning. The greyish-orange hue never disappeared throughout the entire day and it never got light. It was a foggy day with a thick blanket of smoke on top of it that prevented the sun to break through. It felt rather apocalyptic. We stayed inside with doors and windows firmly shut. I had never experienced something like this in all my life. It looked like the end of the world was near.

We took to our N95 masks again - it seems to be an annual recurrence. The news about the fires were horrific. Entire towns in Oregon burned down. My good friend Jo who moved to Portland, OR a few years ago said that the air was terrible (I think their air quality index was over 500). 

But then after 28 days of staying inside and only going outside when we really needed to the wind changed, the sky showed a faint hue of blue and the air improved by the minute. On Tuesday afternoon there was no way I would stay in the house. I grabbed my knitting and sat outside under the privet tree, sipping my iced coffee. The birds in the tree were singing like there was no tomorrow - I guess they were just happy about the fresh air as well.

Yesterday I moved my office outside (i.e. my laptop) and prepared my German lessons in my garden under the watchful eyes of Otis, one of the neighborhood cats who like to hang out in my garden. I was surprised how much I got actually done - I had thought that I would be too distracted, but I wasn't. I got my entire lesson plan done and created some worksheets that my students will get as their homework.

And today - I went to the lake. For the first time since the beginning of the shelter-in-place in March.

It felt so good! I was a bit hesitant because I thought that too many people would be there since it is a very popular spot. Yes, it was crowded, but I usually don't walk along the popular paths anyway and prefer the smaller nature trails that weren't crowded at all. I watched a Green Heron for some time who didn't feel threatened by my presence at all. I visited one of my favorite places, looking for cairns and when I didn't see any I built one. For a while I sat on a bench writing in my journal. And I simply enjoyed breathing fresh air and enjoying nature around me.

This is supposed to be only a short breather. Over the weekend the air is going to be poor again. But for the time being I am thankful for the on-shore winds that brought us the great gift of fresh air.

Never will I take clean air for granted.

Sunday Gratitude

This has been a very short week, a week with my main gratitude happening towards the end of it.
Here goes:

1.
We had our citizenship interview on Friday in San Francisco. We had applied for US citizenship in September, had our biometrics appointment last fall and received the invitation to the interview at the beginning of January. We were quite excited about it, but the closer we approached the date the more nervous I became as well. There honestly was no reason for it. Thanks to a very nice immigration officer who made me feel relaxed the interview was over way faster than I had thought. I didn't blank out during the test portion (which was my main concern) which is the second part of the interview and after that I was free to go. The Geek had his interview at the same time (with a different officer of course) and he also passed. It will take a few weeks until we will be scheduled for the oath ceremony in Oakland.

2.
Since we know that morning commute to the city is pretty heavy we left early and thus avoided any traffic congestion. We were at the Golden Gate Bridge shortly before sunrise. We had time and stopped to watch the sun rise over a foggy San Francisco - in the photo above you can just see the top of the Transamerica Pyramid and if you know the city you will also recognize Coit Tower if you look hard. It was such a beautiful morning and a hopeful sign for the day.

3.
The weather was lovely that day and we decided to enjoy it after our interviews. We drove up Conzelman Road to the Marin Headlands. This is one of my favorite roads in the area. It offers great views of the Golden Gate Bridge, especially in the evening when the setting sun throws a golden glow on the bridge at it shines in a warm red-orange tone. No such luck this day since it was way too early, but we didn't care. It was beautiful anyway.

4.
Yesterday Kaefer took the SAT at our local Junior College. She wants to go to university after she will have graduated from high school in spring 2016. She knows that she needs to pass several tests for that, which means that this spring will be loaded with AP exams and perhaps even subject tests. It's a bit crazy, but she knew before that Junior year is the hardest year in high school. So we were quite grateful that she had the opportunity to take the SAT already in January, and of course she hopes that she did well enough. Some of her friends had decided on this date as well, and they could encourage each other while they were waiting in line.

5.
While Kaefer took her test, the Geek and I decided to take a short hike in our State Part. I used to hike there pretty often, but I haven't been there even once last year. It was gorgeous to be back again. We hiked the Rough Go Trail (in the photo above) up to the ridge and then back again (since we were running out of time). I had almost forgotten how beautiful it is here! We saw some deer who weren't afraid of us and passed us rather closely. Every time I see them I'm thankful for the wildlife we have here.

6.
Although we didn't have much rain in January, the hills in our county are green and juicy - the cows are definitely happy cows around this time! I took this picture out of the driving car while going along the highway on our way back from the city. I just love the hills, the meadows and the solitary trees - this is so typical for my county. Only most of the year the hills are brown and not green.

7.
I haven't really baked very much since the beginning of the year. A few breads, but nothing major and I didn't try anything new. Except I'm still trying to improve my baking rolls capacity. In Germany we eat a lot of rolls, they are freshly baked every day and usually you can get them early in the morning in the bakeries (starting at 6:00 am). These rolls are very different from the dinner rolls you can get here. I haven't found anything here that really compares to them, that's why I still haven't given up baking them myself. Every time I get closer to our German rolls, but so far I haven't made one that is "it". Last week's batch, though, came pretty close - another item on my gratitude list.

That's it for today. Now it's your turn - what are you grateful for this Sunday?

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A good way to express your gratitude is to write in your journal.

Journals in different sizes are available at my Etsy store,

some of them featuring my artwork as a print.

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