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From Temescal to Sintra
Something that has surprised me since we've been in California is the idea of preemptive COVID testing. I've had three different people note they'd recently tested negative when I arrived at gatherings, one of them mentioning that he tested before every gathering.
Probably good public health, sure, but totally alien to the Hawaiian experience of the pandemic.
This morning, we had no lunch plans because we'd had to cancel with my sister due to a cold running through their family, so I ran out to Boston Market to get us some lunch. (This Air B&B is really nicely located.)
I got a chicken on ciabatta sandwich, and it was really tasty, in part because the bread was so good. That made me remember how the Safeway sandwich I got to take up to Panoramic Hill also had great (Dutch Crunch) bread. I swear there is *no* good bread on Kauai. It's all soft and tasteless, no matter claims it's a French Roll or Sourdough, or whatever. So that's a nice change of pace.
Here at the Air B&B I'm reminded of how cold tap water gets in winter. Yowtch! That's something I haven't missed living in Kauai.
After lunch I went for a walk up to Lake Temescal.
It was a common destination for me for a number of years, I'd often bike up there after work and/or on weekends. It's where I wrote most of the original batch of product histories for DnDClassics.com, many of them on cold, gray, threatening days in December 2011 and January 2012 (I think!). It's where I finished reading A Dance with Dragons, discovered that it was entirely incomplete and non-conclusive, realized I might have to wait six more years to see those plots completed (ha!), but didn't throw it across the room because I wasn't in a room.
I didn't expect to ever return to Lake Temescal, out of all the places I might see in the Bay Area, because it's kind of isolated, up above Rockridge without much nearby ... but we're right here in Rockridge, so it's just a mile and a half above our Air B&B.
The walk up was slightly grueling. I'd forgotten how steep Broadway Terrace is at places.
I enjoyed seeing the lake and the park again, though not for *too* long, because it was cold. (We're having a notable cold snap in the Bay Area, and I'm thrilled to discover that my cold resistance hasn't been eaten away by two years in the tropics.)
And then hiked back down on Broadway enjoying the views of the Golden Gate and San Francisco as I did.
I swung by Trader Joe's on the way back to pick up some tasty treats for Kimberly and myself.
Outside I was accosted by another petition-signing beggar, again not wearing a mask. I yelled at her to back off when she started advancing on me, and told her she should wear that mask she had around her neck if she wanted people to actually sign, but she was too busy begging me for signatures to listen.
In the evening we had a dinner date than a gaming date with Michael and Katherine, which was nice all around. We got to enjoy La Mediterranee, another favorite restaurant, and we got to play a third game of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (which Mike deftly won).
Good company, and a good penultimate day in Berkeley.
It'd be nice to have some friends like that in Hawaii.
I finished up one Christmas book, Forged, today, and started in on a new one, A History of What Comes Next. I've done a lot of reading on the trip, and that's been nice because I've kind of fallen out of the reading habit during our years in Hawaii. It feels like there's never time. Hopefully this reading habit will stick.
Tomorrow is our last full day: a bit more friend seeing and hiking planned and some simple food before we fly on Friday.
(Lucy! We're coming home!)
Probably good public health, sure, but totally alien to the Hawaiian experience of the pandemic.
This morning, we had no lunch plans because we'd had to cancel with my sister due to a cold running through their family, so I ran out to Boston Market to get us some lunch. (This Air B&B is really nicely located.)
I got a chicken on ciabatta sandwich, and it was really tasty, in part because the bread was so good. That made me remember how the Safeway sandwich I got to take up to Panoramic Hill also had great (Dutch Crunch) bread. I swear there is *no* good bread on Kauai. It's all soft and tasteless, no matter claims it's a French Roll or Sourdough, or whatever. So that's a nice change of pace.
Here at the Air B&B I'm reminded of how cold tap water gets in winter. Yowtch! That's something I haven't missed living in Kauai.
After lunch I went for a walk up to Lake Temescal.
It was a common destination for me for a number of years, I'd often bike up there after work and/or on weekends. It's where I wrote most of the original batch of product histories for DnDClassics.com, many of them on cold, gray, threatening days in December 2011 and January 2012 (I think!). It's where I finished reading A Dance with Dragons, discovered that it was entirely incomplete and non-conclusive, realized I might have to wait six more years to see those plots completed (ha!), but didn't throw it across the room because I wasn't in a room.
I didn't expect to ever return to Lake Temescal, out of all the places I might see in the Bay Area, because it's kind of isolated, up above Rockridge without much nearby ... but we're right here in Rockridge, so it's just a mile and a half above our Air B&B.
The walk up was slightly grueling. I'd forgotten how steep Broadway Terrace is at places.
I enjoyed seeing the lake and the park again, though not for *too* long, because it was cold. (We're having a notable cold snap in the Bay Area, and I'm thrilled to discover that my cold resistance hasn't been eaten away by two years in the tropics.)
And then hiked back down on Broadway enjoying the views of the Golden Gate and San Francisco as I did.
I swung by Trader Joe's on the way back to pick up some tasty treats for Kimberly and myself.
Outside I was accosted by another petition-signing beggar, again not wearing a mask. I yelled at her to back off when she started advancing on me, and told her she should wear that mask she had around her neck if she wanted people to actually sign, but she was too busy begging me for signatures to listen.
In the evening we had a dinner date than a gaming date with Michael and Katherine, which was nice all around. We got to enjoy La Mediterranee, another favorite restaurant, and we got to play a third game of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (which Mike deftly won).
Good company, and a good penultimate day in Berkeley.
It'd be nice to have some friends like that in Hawaii.
I finished up one Christmas book, Forged, today, and started in on a new one, A History of What Comes Next. I've done a lot of reading on the trip, and that's been nice because I've kind of fallen out of the reading habit during our years in Hawaii. It feels like there's never time. Hopefully this reading habit will stick.
Tomorrow is our last full day: a bit more friend seeing and hiking planned and some simple food before we fly on Friday.
(Lucy! We're coming home!)