52 Weeks: Week 33

Week 33: Bike Riding

Going for bike rides is one of Ava and Lola's favorite things to do. We used to enjoy going for family bike rides on weekends until thieves stole our cargo bike late last year, and more recently Kim's bike this past week. We've gone from having more bikes than family members to now just owning children's bikes. It's a sad state of affairs but we're not going to let the Bay Area's major bike theft problem stop us from riding, even if it is just the kids for now.

So this week the kids and I got out and about for a bike ride to nearby Albany. Ava and Lola rode their bikes while I pushed Mathilde in the stroller. There is a fantastic bike and pedestrian trail that leads from close by our home in Berkeley all the way to our destination - the kids' dentist! The trail actually continues much further but we've never ventured any further along it. The last few times we've planned to do so something has popped up to stop us. In this case it was discovering that Kim's bike had been stolen and therefore having to head home after the dentist to deal with police reports, insurance claims and blasting our building management.

Albany Bulb

The Bay Area is home to plenty of waterfront parks with stunning views. It's also home to a lot of quirky street art. Every now and then these two things combine and we end up with truly original places like Albany Bulb, here in the East Bay.

Albany Bulb is a peculiar place. A former landfill site created in the first half of the 20th Century, this small peninsula was, until recently, most notably known as a homeless encampment. From the early nineties through until 2014, Albany Bulb was home to a small community of residents who were otherwise homeless. More than just a tent city, Albany Bulb was filled with semi-permanent structures created out of scrap wood, discarded building materials and hard waste. We never went to Albany Bulb during this time but from what I've seen online some of the structures were pretty amazing, although not the most sturdy looking. You can see one of the biggest structures here.

Hidden Garden Steps

San Francisco is a city of hills. Being a city of hills means it's also a city of staircases. Most staircases around the city are just a means to reach a destination (usually with an amazing view at the top), but every now and then the staircase itself is the destination. 

Back in May the girls and I headed into the city to track down once such staircase.

The Hidden Garden Steps in the Sunset neighborhood is a gorgeous little staircase. Covered in mosaics depicting garden life, the staircase is located on 16th Avenue and Kirkham Street, just a few blocks away from the more well known 16th Avenue Tiled Steps. As the Hidden Garden Steps are relatively new (the mosaic project was finished in December 2013) and located in a residential area they are still somewhat "secret" and therefore, not as busy as their nearby counterpart. I think we saw two other people in the time that we spent at the staircase. In fact, we actually waited a while for a second person to appear so I could ask them to take our photo! 

52 Weeks: Week 32

Week 32: City Playgrounds

Last weekend we headed into the city to catch up with friends and hit up a couple of playgrounds.

Our first destination was Koret Children's Quarter in Golden Gate Park. A firm favorite with the kids, we try to make it to this playground as often as possible. There are so many fun things to play on for all age groups, plus the concrete slides and nearby carousel make it a pretty special place.

Sierra Nevada Snow Fun

Following on from my last post about our visit to Mono Lake back in May comes our unexpected snow stop on our way home a day later.

As we drove through the Sierra Nevadas on our way home from our visit to Bodie and Mono Lake we noticed that there was still a lot of fresh powdery snow on the ground. Kim and I decided that we'd try to find a spot to safely pull over so the kids could have a little play in the snow. We weren't sure if we would actually find anywhere so we didn't mention it to the kids. I didn't want to get their hopes up. Imagine their surprise when all of a sudden they realized that we were pulling over into a small parking lot in a snowy forest area! They were absolutely ecstatic!

The spot where we stopped for a little snow fun was Sonora Pass, 9624 feet high above sea level. Judging by the number of hikers in the parking lot this seems to be a popular starting point for hikes in Toiyabe National Forest. While it would've been lovely to go for a hike in his wintry wonderland, we weren't prepared for it so we kept our stop brief. On a side note, don't you just love the retro National Park signs throughout America?

Mono Lake

Remember back in May when we went on a trip to a ghost town and went panning for gold? It was a long time ago, right? Well, we also spent some time checking out the amazing Mono Lake, but I got a little distracted with planning our Australia trip, then taking the Australia trip, and then having three kids at home all day, every day, so I never got around to sharing it with you.

It's time to play catch up and finally share our visit to Mono Lake with you...

Back in May we visited Mono Lake after spending half the day at the nearby gold mining era ghost town of Bodie.

Mono Lake is famous for its amazing limestone tufa towers. The tufa towers are calcium carbonate structures formed by underground fresh water springs welling up in Mono Lake's alkaline water. These tufas should be under water, however in 1941 the City of Los Angeles started diverting water from streams that feed Mono Lake. Over the years this caused Mono Lake to drop by 40 feet, exposing 17,000 acres of exposed lake bed. Since 1994 Mono Lake and its tributaries have been protected and the water level is slowly rising again.

52 Weeks: Week 31

Week 31: Mathilde's antics

This week's post is all about Mathilde and the crazy sort of stuff that she gets up to regularly.

First of all, this little one is a total daredevil. She's constantly climbing on things: the couch, the beds, chairs, tables, ladders, even the window sills if she can reach. Several times a day I catch her standing on an arm of the couch. She giggles and then dives face first onto the cushions.