habitat ~ 11/19/13 ~ San Francisco Bay

 San Francisco Bay

November 19, 2013

Of course, it finally rained on the one day I had scheduled to return the lighting equipment to Pete Oboyski, the Collections Manager at UC Berkeley's Essig Museum of Entomology.  Three out of the last four times I've been to San Francisco, it's rained. The superstitious in me thinks I could have helped end this drought if only I had planned more trips to San Francisco.  The rain followed me home to Monterey about 7 hours after it first started as I passed through Oakland.  The local Herald claims this has been the driest year since 1949.  

After a leisurely lunchtime walk in the rain with Pete, I was a little concerned about the traffic for getting home.  I'm not a fan of the multiple lane highways in the Bay Area with everyone going 80 mph. Then, add in the wet, slick roads, and an accident is just waiting to happen.  Since it's getting dark earlier around 5:00pm, I decided I barely had enough daylight to do a scenic driving tour of San Francisco through to the much slower and less crowded Hwy 1 down the coast.  I stopped to take a look along the way.  The second picture was taken at the end of University Avenue in Berkeley at Shorebird Park looking across the Bay to San Francisco on the left and the famous Golden Gate Bridge on the right.  The first picture is a closer view of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken from near the Warming Hut at Crissy Field.  I enjoyed my drive home. Yay, rain!

ps 12/17/13 - Looks like the Herald misquoted.  Local t.v. station KION states Monterey records have only been kept since 1949, ergo "on record", which is different than saying "driest year since 1949" that implies 1949 was a dry year, too.  I had a little blog chat with John Wall comparing San Francisco and Monterey weather records.

habitat ~ 09/19/13 ~ Tilden Regional Park

 overlook to San Francisco Bay from Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley

What started out as a passing idea turned into a little adventure for me.  For our upcoming camping trip to Rocky Creek, I thought it'd be a fun activity to white sheet light for moths, so I asked around if anyone had DC (no electrical outlets available) equipment that I could borrow.  Of course, as usual, the only "local" moth person anyone knows of is Jerry Powell at UC Berkeley. Since he plans on using his equipment, he put me in touch with the Collections Manager at the Essig Museum of Entomology. Before I knew it, I was making the 2 hour drive north to Berkeley to pick up a UV light, two 12V batteries, and a charger, all in the name of fun.  Given the cost of gas and the money spent on food, I could have purchased a lighting set for cheaper.  However, I would have missed out on the adventure of visiting UC Berkeley, meeting Pete, touring the Essig, finding Tilden Regional Park, discovering Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes on Telegraph Avenue, and enjoying Ethiopian cuisine for lunch and Japanese cuisine for dinner.  Yum!

Regional Parks Botanic Garden

I am so unfamiliar with the East Bay area that I used google maps to find a park not too far from the University campus.  Obviously I didn't zoom out far enough, because once I got to the Botanic Garden, I discovered it's only a small part of a much larger Tilden Regional Park, which itself is only one of a whopping 65 parks in the East Bay Regional Park District.  What an incredible find!  It's an impressive park system.  I spent most of my afternoon walking through the Botanic Garden.  They took much of California's flora and squished it into 10 acres.  I noticed many well-established plants weren't faring so well.  Maybe given the drought we've had the past 2 years?  They had sprinklers going, which I ran through to cool off (always gotta do it... er, only if it doesn't smell like mixed fertilizer).  I'm so looking forward to the upcoming rains.

 incredible stonework by the CCC

There's a distinctive style of stonework frequently found in our National, State, and regional parks and forests.  Whenever I look to see who did it, it's almost always the Civilian Conservation Corps. Those young men certainly left an indelible legacy in only 9 years of work, a much better use of human resources than fighting wars.  As turbulent as the first half of the 20th century was, I'm continually amazed at what came out of those years compared to the seeming counterproductivity of today.

Lake Anza

If I lived in Berkeley (don't think I haven't considered this), I would probably come swimming here regularly.  The beach was crowded by young and old alike.  I also went to a place called "Inspiration Point", which didn't really inspire me.  Maybe in the spring?

Little Farm

It doesn't matter how old I get, I still like seeing farm animals, be it at the county fair or attached to parks.  I was very impressed with the variety of recreational opportunities in Tilden.  All in all, it was a good day, complete with a full belly.