Berkeley winter greens

Another one of our Sunday walks. It seems like we may be leaving Berkeley soon, and now I'm feeling nostalgic of things as we live them. The weather has been so dreamy these last weeks, and we've been trying to explore our town a lot more.

Here's another Sunday walk. We had some Korean food and went to our favorite ice cream place.

An Old Friend's Visit - Big Sur!

A really good, really old friend finally came to visit after not seeing each other for 5 years. It was her first time in the US, and she was only here for 3 weeks. We took her to our favorite places in the area, but there was not enough time to do everything we should have done. She will have to come back soon!  

Here is our trip to Big Sur

Trip to Mount Tamalpais

School has been crazy this semester. In a month I will get my degree, and be done with school for a while, if not forever. 

You know how at the beginning of every semester you tell yourself that you will not procrastinate, and you will stop doing homework at the very last minute? Well, after 21 years of telling that to myself, on my very last semester I have managed to do it! it was about time. 

About a month ago, Alexei had a weekend day off, and we decided to go for a hike to Mount Tamalpais. We were excited to see how bay area hikes compare to New Mexico hikes.

The first thing we noticed? 

We never once felt like we were immersed in nature like we did in New Mexico. At the beginning of the hike you always had the gorgeous view of The Bay, which kind of made you feel like you were so near a huge city. Even once the bay was out of sight, we were never alone. There were a lot of people hiking, so you never went more than 5 minutes without encountering people. In our New Mexico hikes we would go for hours without seeing anybody or anything remotely "urban", which gave our hikes a more wild feeling. I am positive that there are places in the area that are more remote and isolated, but it felt good to hike in a little bit more of a 'crowded' environment for a change. 

Halfway through the hike we found the West Point Inn. This goes to show how "urban" this hike. The inn was built in 1904 when there was a railroad that went through the area, but since then the railroads have been removed, and the inn is now stuck in the middle of nowhere. We stopped here to enjoy some falafel and hummus that Alexei had woken up extra early to prepare. There were lots of families, cyclists, and hikers enjoying the view from this spot.

After the short break, we continued on to the top of the West Peak. About half a mile away from the top there was a parking lot. Needless to say, the area was very crowded. But we were still really proud of having hiked the whole thing.

We found a lonely spot on the top, and sat down to eat, again. This time we had sandwiches, made with the same Alexei-made falafel and hummus, and homemade bread from the day before.

At the end of the hike we drove down to Stinson Beach, where we enjoyed the sunset before going home. I really wish we had more time to explore The Bay some more, but it seems like we will be moving again soon :(
Hopefully we will have time to squeeze in a couple more trips!

San Francisco: Japanese Tea Garden

School is about to start. Hopefully this will be the end of the "School" phase in my life. It has lasted way too long. 

We have realized that we may not be in The Bay Area for too long. We may have to move agaaaain this summer. So we have been trying to explore while I'm still on break. We heard that the Japanese Tea Garden at the amazing Golden Gate Park is free on some weekday mornings! So we woke up bright and early and headed downtown. Parking in the park is super easy and free, so instead of taking countless trains and buses like we used to do, we decided to drive, and it was so easy! We will never ever ever take public transportation to the park again. 

(Note: I knit the scarf that I am wearing in these pics! :D )

The garden is small and quiet, but beautiful. The day was the coldest its been this winter, but we had the sun and some warm tea to keep us toasty. We also had some tiny sandwiches that would stick to the roof of your mouth and some edamame beans from the Tea House.  

There was this funny bridge that you actually have to climb on to. I would go to that place just to climb up and down the bridge! Thanks Japanese Tea Garden for thinking about childish adults! 

HA! Alexei's shirt has flowers on it!!! Look! 

 And here I am, as usual, disturbing the peace. 

We also walked around the Golden Gate Park a bit. We were walking to a crosswalk at a stop sign when he heard a tiny, small, faint "boom" and then saw a guy get out of a car and start YELLING at the window from the car behind him. I thought about how terrible of a person that guy was for becoming such a beast about such a tiny bump, and then I just kept on walking and trying to mind my business. Then the person from the other car got out, and I noticed that it was a very old man (at least 80) who was shaking and confused as he got yelled at. The younger guy was demanding insurance and registration and all sorts of things even though the cars hadn't even gotten a scratch, and the old man kept on nervously dropping everything to the ground. I couldn't stand that. Who did that guy think he was treating a person at least 2 times his age like that?! We walked over and asked the old man if he was alright, as the younger guy yelled at us to mind or own business. We helped the old man get his papers out for the terrible one to snap pictures of, and then we stayed until the mean guy left and the old man had calmed down a bit. We were a bit shaken up from the experience, but the man ended up being fine, and we just walked around and explored some more.

Then we left the park and drove around the city a bit, and visited Alamo Square, where we saw the famous painted ladies and where Alexei got a headache from me humming the Full House opening song over and over again. We did a little business at the playground and headed home tired and happy. 

The End!