Peckish Travels

Since we are housesitting, our time in Oakland has been mostly focused on the dogs and the house. The dogs can be chill when not being walked, but they also like to play together and with their toys.

We also hear and see the BART train in the house, although it is not loud and definitely doesn’t keep us up at night.

Yesterday after Bob did his 2.2 mile walk. I went out to try to see some new areas around the neighborhood. I ended up at Jack London Square. This area is Oakland’s only publicly accessible mixed-use waterfront and marina area. It is named for the author Jack London, who was born in San Francisco in 1876 and is just a 30 minute walk from the house.

The plaque under the statue of Jack London includes a quote from him, which reads, “I would rather be ashes than dust. I should rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stilled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

A very bold quote, and one I agree with in terms of living versus existing. It should be noted that Mr. London achieved great success as an author and died at the age of 40 from dysentery and late-stage alcoholism, so he didn’t become a “sleepy and permanent planet.”

Today, Bob and I took the BART one stop into Oakland (away from San Francisco) to walk around lovely Lake Merritt, a 150-acre tidal lagoon, known as the first official US wildlife refuge. We had walked around the lake during a prior sit in Oakland nine years ago. It’s still very pretty.

These are various views from around the lake. The trail around the lake is 3.1 miles.

After a quiet Easter in Oakland with a trip to the gym, a couple of dog walks, and a walk to the local Farmer’s Market, including a couple of tasty pastries, Bob and I decided to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) one stop over to the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. This was a super easy trip, as the West Oakland station is literally a walk across two parking lots from the house and we had our pick of trains going west across the bay, as they all stop at the Embarcadero Station.

The Embarcadero section of San Francisco lies along San Francisco Bay and is probably most famously known for the Ferry Building, the various piers, and Fisherman’s Wharf. We saw a bit of the waterfront but also checked out a few new (to us) parks in the area as we continue to increase Bob’s walking stability and endurance.

We also stumbled on North Park which had a number of sculptures.

Today, I walked about two miles along the busy Oakland Port to the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park on the coast of the San Francisco Bay. The park is a 38-acre waterfront park on the site of the former Oakland Naval Supply Depot, with panoramic views of San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Port, and the San Francisco skyline. It was an easy walk along 7th street which is the first cross street from the house. The walk is on sidewalks until you get into the heart of the port area and then it becomes part of the San Francisco Bay Trail. There is an observation tower at the far end of the park.

The park was quiet but not without visitors as a school class was having an outing there.

When the park was the Oakland Naval Supply Depot, it was a 541 acre facility that was equipped with dozens of warehouses with a combined floor area of over 7,000,000 square feet. The depot served as a supply center for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet from WWII until 1998.

No fooling, I’ve actually gotten out a bit in Oakland, although the first couple of days were mostly spent getting settled, getting into a walking routine with the dogs and picking up groceries. The closest grocery (Safeway or Target) is about a 50 minute walk from the house, so I tried to pick up a little more than I normally would. There are plenty of convenience stores around, but they mostly offer snack foods and most look a little sketchy. Since Bob’s not here, I have played within my cooking wheelhouse, which pretty much consists of roasting vegetables and/or microwaving meals. Since the homeowners offered what was left in their fridge, I roasted broccoli one night and summer squash the next.

I always like to research a bit about the places we land. This is some of what I have learned via Wikipedia. Oakland, California, lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay area. It is the county seat of Alameda County and has a population of approximately 441,000. The port of Oakland is the busiest port in Northern California. Historically, Oakland has been a focal point of the West Coast blues and jazz scenes and it is the city where the Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party was created to protect Black neighborhoods from police brutality.

Yesterday and today I walked into downtown Oakland, which consists of crossing under highway 980 from the West Oakland area where the housesit is. Downtown Oakland also seems a little rough, but it has some nice buildings and a couple of museums. As always, I visited the central library (not architecturally interesting) and went into the free and very small Black Panther Party Museum. I learned a few things but was hoping for more information on the origin of the party. Some photos below from my outings (along with another of the dogs). Looking forward to having Bob arrive Friday evening.

Bob’s sister and brother-in-law took me to the Des Moines airport yesterday morning to catch my flight to Denver and then on to San Francisco to begin a housesit in Oakland, California, for two dogs. Bob will be joining me next Friday after a follow-up appointment with his orthopedic surgeon regarding his hip replacement, which at this point seems to be going well.

I was really worried about a couple of things with the flight — getting through security, which has become a problem at a number of airports due to the partial government shutdown, and finding the train at the airport that I needed to catch to get to the housesit. As it turned out, those two things were about the easiest parts of my trip. The real hiccup was getting into the San Francisco airport to find that my checked bag had arrived but had been missorted and couldn’t be found. I waited for about 45 minutes before filing a claim and heading to the housesit. Luckily, the bag was located and delivered at 10 p.m. last night.

The homeowners for this housesit are a younger couple who are expecting their first baby at the end of July. They left this morning for Japan with the husband’s father. They live very close to the West Oakland BART station which is super helpful. Their home is a lovely 2-story townhome style house in a neighborhood that is in the process of gentrifying and/or changing from industrial to residential.

They have two Australian labradoodles — Whisky (brown) and Peaches (white) are super cute and chill (with the exception of getting ready to go for a walk when Whisky gets very vocal.

The following are a few of the photos I’ve taken to date including one of the dogs, some showing a bit of the cultural background of the area, its industrial past, as well as some lovely California flowers and new development.

It’s been a minute, but we’re still around! Bob and I are currently in the Des Moines area of Iowa and have been since we left Janesville, Wisconsin, at the end of last month. The plan was to catch up on some medical appointments while seeing family, doing a housesit, and staying in hotels as needed.

The initial plan for housing changed a bit when our 2 week housesit in March was canceled a few days before it was to start. Our homeowner had her tour to Israel canceled due to Trump and Israel starting a war with Iran. The bombs sadly continue to fall.

So we have leaned on Bob’s sister and brother-in-law a bit more than anticipated but have also stayed in hotels as well just to keep from being too much of a nuisance, especially when preparing for medical procedures required more of a change to the normal routine.

Bob and I have come through all of our check ups and procedures with good news and hope to continue that streak tomorrow when Bob finally has his hip replacement surgery. He is barely getting around at this point and does so mostly with the use of a cane and ensuring that his right foot is turned just so to avoid triggering sharp pains down his leg.

It hasn’t been all bad though. We have been able to catch up with family, watch a lot of basketball, and I’ve gone for a couple of good walks.

We stayed at a hotel for a few days when we first got to town, and unknown to us, they were undergoing renovations.

We then stayed at Bob’s sister’s house both while they were there and when they left to visit friends and family for a week out of state.

The temps have gone up and down. A few days ago, the high was 90 degrees, and I went for a two hour walk on the Great Western Trail near where we were staying.

I also did an hour hike yesterday at Brown’s Woods. It was a great walk. It seemed like I was the only one on the trail for quite a while, but I did see a couple of trail runners and another hiker before I finished my walk.

It’s been a busy month. Will keep you posted on Bob’s new hip and our upcoming housesits in California.

Bob and I arrived into O’Hare airport from Heathrow on Wednesday afternoon about 1:30 pm. In Chicago, our airport assistant who pushed Bob in the wheelchair took us all the way from the plane through customs to baggage claim and then onto the tram to the Multi-Modal Transportation Facility where we caught a bus to Janesville, Wisconsin.

My cousin Jared who had let us park our car at his place for about 6 weeks picked us up at the bus station in Janesville. We then drove him back to his house before heading to our hotel. I then spent most of two days with my mom, with Bob staying at the hotel the whole time due to his hip. I got to help my mom finish a jigsaw puzzle, do some shopping, and see an aunt and another cousin as well.

This morning we left Janesville for Des Moines, Iowa. We left at 8:00 am to try to avoid the snow that was coming into Wisconsin. We were successful. On our 4.5 hour drive to Des Moines we learned from our homeowner that our housesit that was to start on Saturday, March 7, is likely off, as she was scheduled for a tour of Israel. Trump’s decision to bomb Iran has thrown those plans up in the air.

We visited Bob’s sister and brother-in-law in Des Moines before heading to our hotel. Bob and I have a number of doc appointments while we’re here, starting with Bob’s appointment on Monday with an orthopedic surgeon to learn what may be needed to help improve his hip.

Today Bob and I traveled from Madeira to London Heathrow, which I’ll describe later, but I need to confess to some “confusions” I had while we were in Madeira.

First, the evening of the first full day we had in Madeira, we walked up a pretty restaurant-lined street to a market where we bought food for dinner. As we were walking back by the restaurants, I commented to Bob that “they even have an Iranian restaurant.” Bob was immediately interested as he has an Iranian friend from Austin that he thought of when I said that. Well, if you notice the word “Madeira” is Made + Ira. So, when something is made in Madeira, it is termed Madeiran. When we walked by a Madeiran restaurant, my mind saw it as Made + Iran and read that as a made in Iran restaurant or an Iranian restaurant. Bob never let me forget it, as there were quite a few “Iranian” restaurants that we saw while in Madeira.

My second misinterpretation came during our first tour when the guide was talking about a walk that you could do from Funchal to the fishing village that we were looking over. He kept saying that the walk started at the Lidl in Funchal. Well, there is no Lidl supermarket in Funchal (I looked!). On our second tour,we picked up people from a hotel near the Lido Beach (didn’t know there was such a thing), when I suddenly realized where the walk started (thus my walk yesterday).

Finally, I just guessed when I should have looked something up. In my viewpoints blog, I showed a photo where I thought I was looking through an avocado or mango tree. I was not. Due to our second tour guide’s insistence on telling us all things flora in Madeira, I learned that the tree I had looked through was actually a kapok tree, whose flowers are a silky fiber used to stuff pillows.

So there you are, some Americans are able to admit mistakes…

Our travel goal today was to get from Funchal, Madeira, to the Sofitel Hotel at the London Heathrow Airport. First step was to get from our hotel after breakfast to the Madeira airport. That was easily done, as Bob had scheduled car transportation via the Bolt app for pickup at 8:30 am.

We were flying Easy Jet airlines and had requested Special Assistance due to the current state of Bob’s hip. This didn’t mean much on our arrival, but we got the full treatment this time. Bob had a wheel chair pickup at check-in that took us all the way to the gate and then to an impressive people mover transport onto the plane.

It looked like this.

First, we stood on the flat platform in front of the bus where we were lifted up to entry level into the bus. There was Bob and another woman who had the Special Assistance. I just got the benefits. We strapped ourselves into our seats and when the plane appeared ready for us, the bus drove over to the plane.

It moved the platform to bus and platform to the level of the plane door, and we walked directly onto the plane. All other passengers were also bussed out to the plane where they climbed stairs onto the plane.

Tomorrow, the hotel has scheduled a wheelchair pickup for Bob here to assist with getting us through check-in to the gate and onto the airplane. While it is a bit heady to go right to the front of the line for travel, it will be even better when we can finally understand next week what is going on with Bob’s hip and when it can get fixed.

Bob and I returned to our room about 1:00 pm from our tour. Bob was ready to chill given his hip problem, but I was up for getting out. I decided to walk about 25 minutes to the Lido Beach and then walk south along the coast towards a fishing village. This area has a lot of very nice hotels, natural and private swimming areas, etc, The following are my photos of the walk out and back with minimal descriptions. You will notice that the beaches are black and/or rocky.

Once Bob and I understood that walking was difficult for Bob, we booked 2 tours for while we were in Madeira — one full-day tour and one half-day tour. Today was our half-day tour to Nun’s Valley.

We were to be picked up between 8:55 and 9:10 am. Our driver, Eduardo, picked us up almost 10 minutes early. It turned out to be one of my least favorite tours ever. There were only 6 of us on the tour, so the tour company ( the same one we used last Friday) used a smaller vehicle. There were 2 seats alongside the driver and 2 sets of three seats behind. We were the first couple picked up and were put in the seats next to the driver since another couple had requested the row of seats immediately behind the driver. This was a tight fit for the whole trip with me between Bob and the driver, holding my backpack on my lap.

If anyone knows me,they will know that I like a certain amount of personal space and certainly don’t want somebody right next to me blathering on during the whole trip. Mostly, he wanted to share information about the local flora, but I see no need to stop in the middle of a highway to share any information, let alone the different colors of calla lillies that can be found in Madeira.

We stopped initially at a viewpoint over Funchal called Pico Dos Barcelos. It was a nice 360 degree view, although at the time we were there it was too hazy over the ocean to get good ocean views.

The 2nd stop on today’s tour was at Eira do Serrado, which overlooked the Nun’s Valley. It consisted of a hotel, souvenir shop and cafe near a steep slanted and then stepped walk to a viewpoint over the Nun’s Valley. I was a bit miffed that the tour company hadn’t suggested another trip for us as I had said that Bob was walking with a cane. He was unable to get to the viewpoint.

Finally, our last stop was in the small community of Nun’s Valley. We had 45 minutes in a town with a few shops, a church, and a museum.