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Kimberly and I were in Hawaii on Mother's Day, but we were very happy to get together with my mom today, when she came up to Berkeley.
There was an ulterior motive: my mom was interested in a store called Paco Collars, which makes fancy semiprecious-encrusted leather collars for dogs (and cats ... and matching bracelets and belts for people). Some of her friends had ordered collars from there, but she wanted to see it in person to really get to pick one out up close and personal. With, of course, the new pup Joy. Who is now about twice as big as she was when we saw her at Christmas.
Kimberly and I have actually gone by the store any number of times, because it's down on Shattuck just across from Berkeley Bowl, but we'd never previously gone in. Now we did, with mom and pup.
It's a cute little shop, with much of the front set aside with a gate to keep dogs in, so that you can take them off leash and test out the collars. My mom was looking for purple-and-gray, to match her flyball team's colors, and customer service rep Phoebe was able to construct her precise collar as we waited. It was pretty cool local craftsmanship.
Meanwhile, Kimberly was won over by the bracelets, and my mom got her one of those with a melody of Kimberly's favorite colors. Or rather, she ordered her one, as they didn't have leather in quite the right size and color. But unlike my mom, Kimberly can just go over and pick it up, as she's right by there every week.
So mission successful!
Next stop was lunch. Realizing that we'd have a bundle of Joy with us, I'd spent part of the morning researching dog-friendly restaurants in the Berkeley area. I settled on Picante, a Mexican restaurant in north Berkeley, because they seemed super-dog-friendly with a large patio and even posted signs about how dogs could be good patrons. (It included a prohibition against licking the plates, which is of course something that no Wiedlin dog would ever do.) And, it turned out, it was the place Kimberly and I had eaten at when we were picking out tiles for our bathroom remodel last December.
We had good food. And good company.
Our one other plan for the day was a hike with Joy. But not Kimberly, because she still has a broken foot, even if she's a bit more mobile than before as long as she uses her boot.
So, we dropped Kimberly off, then drove up to the steam trains at Tilden.
We walked from there along the ridge line, and then back via some of the other paths. I'd estimated it at about 2 hours, but it was closer to 3. It was a bit longer than the mileage on the map indiciates, and I also learned that walking with a dog slows things down, at least if you're respectful of the dog's desire to smell everything (and we were).
It was extremely windy, the windiest I've ever seen it up there. I at least was grateful of times that we were in the areas with more coverage, and not in the wind all the time.
But I got to show my mom the fabulous sites up there, that I've walked by many a time, including San Pablo Reservoir, Brionnes Reservoir, and of course the views out across the Bay, from Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco, up to the Golden Gate, and the Marin Headlands and Angel Island.
I got a little turned around on the way back, because we weren't walking my usual paths. And, I made the mistake of depending on Google Maps, rather than the map of the park that I had right in my water bottle carrier. The problem is that Google Maps sometimes shows routes that are somewhat "unofficial".
So, we got back to the Vollmer Peak area OK, which is almost to the steam trains parking lot, but Google showed us what turned out to be a "shortcut" between two segments of the Vollmer Peak Trail. It seemed a bit overgrown at first, got moreso from time to time, and also had several short bits that were quite steep. I took Joy so that she wouldn't be pulling my mom over on these steep areas, and we managed.
My mom says she was whining about the trail, but she totally wasn't. She commented that the trail was unruly, I agreed that it sucked, and she gamely continued on, and even mentioned that when we'd gotten lost out biking or hiking when I was young, she always said it was an adventure.
So, we had a short little adventure.
We were both pretty happy when we got back to the real trail, and I think we were both pretty tired by the time we got back to the car.
A nice day overall, and great to have mom up here for the day.
There was an ulterior motive: my mom was interested in a store called Paco Collars, which makes fancy semiprecious-encrusted leather collars for dogs (and cats ... and matching bracelets and belts for people). Some of her friends had ordered collars from there, but she wanted to see it in person to really get to pick one out up close and personal. With, of course, the new pup Joy. Who is now about twice as big as she was when we saw her at Christmas.
Kimberly and I have actually gone by the store any number of times, because it's down on Shattuck just across from Berkeley Bowl, but we'd never previously gone in. Now we did, with mom and pup.
It's a cute little shop, with much of the front set aside with a gate to keep dogs in, so that you can take them off leash and test out the collars. My mom was looking for purple-and-gray, to match her flyball team's colors, and customer service rep Phoebe was able to construct her precise collar as we waited. It was pretty cool local craftsmanship.
Meanwhile, Kimberly was won over by the bracelets, and my mom got her one of those with a melody of Kimberly's favorite colors. Or rather, she ordered her one, as they didn't have leather in quite the right size and color. But unlike my mom, Kimberly can just go over and pick it up, as she's right by there every week.
So mission successful!
Next stop was lunch. Realizing that we'd have a bundle of Joy with us, I'd spent part of the morning researching dog-friendly restaurants in the Berkeley area. I settled on Picante, a Mexican restaurant in north Berkeley, because they seemed super-dog-friendly with a large patio and even posted signs about how dogs could be good patrons. (It included a prohibition against licking the plates, which is of course something that no Wiedlin dog would ever do.) And, it turned out, it was the place Kimberly and I had eaten at when we were picking out tiles for our bathroom remodel last December.
We had good food. And good company.
Our one other plan for the day was a hike with Joy. But not Kimberly, because she still has a broken foot, even if she's a bit more mobile than before as long as she uses her boot.
So, we dropped Kimberly off, then drove up to the steam trains at Tilden.
We walked from there along the ridge line, and then back via some of the other paths. I'd estimated it at about 2 hours, but it was closer to 3. It was a bit longer than the mileage on the map indiciates, and I also learned that walking with a dog slows things down, at least if you're respectful of the dog's desire to smell everything (and we were).
It was extremely windy, the windiest I've ever seen it up there. I at least was grateful of times that we were in the areas with more coverage, and not in the wind all the time.
But I got to show my mom the fabulous sites up there, that I've walked by many a time, including San Pablo Reservoir, Brionnes Reservoir, and of course the views out across the Bay, from Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco, up to the Golden Gate, and the Marin Headlands and Angel Island.
I got a little turned around on the way back, because we weren't walking my usual paths. And, I made the mistake of depending on Google Maps, rather than the map of the park that I had right in my water bottle carrier. The problem is that Google Maps sometimes shows routes that are somewhat "unofficial".
So, we got back to the Vollmer Peak area OK, which is almost to the steam trains parking lot, but Google showed us what turned out to be a "shortcut" between two segments of the Vollmer Peak Trail. It seemed a bit overgrown at first, got moreso from time to time, and also had several short bits that were quite steep. I took Joy so that she wouldn't be pulling my mom over on these steep areas, and we managed.
My mom says she was whining about the trail, but she totally wasn't. She commented that the trail was unruly, I agreed that it sucked, and she gamely continued on, and even mentioned that when we'd gotten lost out biking or hiking when I was young, she always said it was an adventure.
So, we had a short little adventure.
We were both pretty happy when we got back to the real trail, and I think we were both pretty tired by the time we got back to the car.
A nice day overall, and great to have mom up here for the day.