Twas the week before Christmas and all kinds of stuff has been happening! On Friday I hiked at Windy Hill Regional Preserve with a former ED colleague, Lolly, a new place to explore for both of us. It was wonderful to get outdoors in between rainstorms. The mushrooms growing on logs and posts were fascinating. We caught up on each other’s lives, she is planning a trip to Italy in the fall and is taking on new tasks at work. She is such an inspiration for me as she has created a happy, sustainable life for herself, working 20 hours a week and spending lots of time in nature. That’s my goal!
On Saturday I took the bus to San Francisco and met up with my friend Julie and a group from the SF Crosstown Trail to hike sections five and six of the crosstown trail. About 25 of us started at the ferry building under threatening skies. Over 80 people had originally signed up, but many dropped out because of the weather forecast, as well as it being the Saturday before Christmas. I sure people had a lot of last minute things to do. But the ones that showed up were an enthusiastic, positive group of people from all over the Bay Area, and even some visiting from Spain! The leader set a very good pace and while we had occasional showers, they weren’t heavy and never lasted long. We ambled around the Embarcadero enjoying views of Alcatraz surrounded by fog, making a stop to check out the Fisherman’s and Seaman’s Memorial Chapel. What a sweet little place, they have a Latin mass once a month – Amazing! From there we headed to Tunnel Tops park, such a wonderful area that they’ve created there with lots of space for people to enjoy. There’s even free shuttle service from the ferry building to encourage more people, especially tourists, to come out that way. We stopped at a little cafe that had a sheltered outdoor eating area with heat lamps for lunch. The skies were growing darker at that point, so about a third of the group decided they’d done enough walking, and happily took the free shuttle bus back to the ferry building.
The rest of us hearty souls continued on going past the Golden Gate Bridge, and down to Marshall’s Beach, which entailed descending and ascending quite a few stairs. I wore tennis shoes and did not bring hiking poles as I had not thought about the fact that we might be walking on muddy trails since it was mostly a city hike, which meant I ended up slipping and falling in the mud a couple of times! No big deal, as it was soft and I didn’t get too muddy. Further on we slid down the sand ladder to Baker Beach – I discovered the sand ladder is much easier to go down when the sand is wet than when it’s dry! The last time Julie and I went down it with our friend Gabriella was a few summers ago and I remember how challenging it was. We saw a dog having the time of its life, running up then bounding down the sand ladder, the biggest grin on its face, tail wagging like crazy and tongue hanging out, it was such a joy to see. We finished the walk venturing through Land’s End and going by the Sutro Baths ending up at the visitors center.
The original plan had been to stop at a local cafe for coffee and hot chocolate. But when we arrived at the visitors center we discovered there had been a huge power outage throughout San Francisco and everything was closed. So we trooped over to the closest bus stop only to discover the buses were going to be quite delayed because of the power outage. Julie and I decided to get an Uber, and offered our two extra seats to any other walkers who needed a ride. Fortuitously, one of them had walked the Camino Portuguese on her own a couple of years ago on pretty much the exact route we wanted to do. She gave us some great hints and the name of the company she used to book her trip. Our journey took over an hour from the Land’s End visitor center to Embarcadero Bart, going a very roundabout way trying to avoid sections of town that did not have power. It was so strange moving through neighborhoods without power where there weren’t even blinking red lights next to other neighborhoods operating with full power. I said goodbye to my travel companions who were heading to the East Bay on BART and made my way to the Salesforce Transit center to get my bus home. By the time my bus left, about 20 minutes later, it was dark outside and most of downtown was out of power. It felt like I was inside a dystopian movie. There were only about a half a dozen of us on the bus, as we moved slowly through the pitch black downtown, lit only by car and bus head and taillights, stranded Waymos with flashing lights at pretty much every intersection, people walking in the rainy darkness. We eventually got out safely. The rain picked up quite a bit heading over the bridge and winding through Sausalito. I finally got home after a long, interesting adventure. Despite all the craziness at the end I would definitely do some more hikes with that group again.
The days leading up to Christmas were uneventful – I wrapped presents, cleaned out and organized the spice shelf, spent time editing my gap year guide, doing volunteer and paid work and hanging out with my mom and sister Christina. I had a video call with Annemarie on Christmas Eve (her Christmas in New Zealand), while she and her roommates were making brunch. I also had a wonderful morning at the Sweetwater Music Hall which now opens its doors early to sell coffee. It was a lovely, quiet spot to work, unlike most of the other busy, noisy coffee shops in downtown Mill Valley.
On Christmas morning I was up early writing by the fire, when my Mom came out of her room and said she needed to go to the hospital. We had visited the doctor about a week before because of swelling in her legs and she felt it was getting worse. Her left leg, in particular, was very tight, and her toes were starting to go numb. I woke up my sister to let her know we were leaving and headed to the hospital. I discovered that 5:30 in the morning on Christmas is a great time to drive somewhere as there is no traffic at all. The emergency department was so quiet that Mom wasn’t even done signing her intake paperwork when the nurse called her in to be examined. After an examination from two nurses and the doctor, many questions, an EKG, X ray, ultrasound and blood work they couldn’t find anything specific that was causing the fluid buildup so they decided the best course of action would be to double up the diuretic her doctor had ordered the week before and encouraged her to keep her legs elevated as much as possible. She was feeling fine by the time we left, and we got home in plenty of time for me to make the breakfast that I’d been planning to have about three hours earlier (A Christmas morning favorite – eggs, sausage, scones with cream and jam, and pineapple). Soon the rest of the family arrived and we had a noisy, full house. Everything was going great until my brother in law told me that the oven didn’t seem to be working, which was very strange because it was totally fine three hours before when I had made scones. The problem was we had six uncooked pizzas and a large group of hungry people. After inspecting the oven and determining we couldn’t figure out what was wrong, we dispatched the pizzas in batches of two to various sisters and friends’ houses in nearby towns. Eventually, the pizzas all returned, cooked and we ate then did our usual opening of stockings and presents. It was definitely a more hectic than unexpected day but turned out fine in the end. After what had been a relatively mild morning and afternoon, with a few showers, it poured with rain just as everyone was venturing home.
We all took it easy the day after Christmas, exhausted from everything the day before. On Saturday, I went to see Kieran and Kourtney, as they had decided to spend their first Christmas as a married couple at home, which I totally understood, since it’s a two and a half hour drive in good weather to my mom’s house. They made me a yummy lunch and told me about their upcoming trip in January to either Yosemite or Lassen National Park. While I would have loved to have all my kids together for Christmas I’m glad I got to spend time with two of them in person, and with Annemarie via video. Maybe in 2026 or 202 we will have Christmas all together.
On Sunday I got together with my college roommate, Stacy, at IKEA, so we could relive a little of our Sweden trip. We were both impressed by the meatballs and shrimp sandwiches in the restaurant. It was good catching up with her. She is also dealing with parent health issues which take up most of her free time. She is loving her third grade class. It’s so wonderful to see how her eyes light up and hear the excitement in her voice when she talks about her students. I think they help give her the sustenance she needs to handle the more challenging task of supporting her parents.
On my way to meeting Stacy, I stopped at the Richmond Shoreline for a walk. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I found a little beach with a view of Mount Tam. I spent time just sitting in the sunshine with my eyes closed, it was heavenly and reminded me of how I need to do that more regularly. That motivated me to get out of the house earlier on Monday and stop for a walk at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline on my way to Concord, where I was meeting a former colleague for coffee then my boss to get some end of year work done. It was great to have such a nice social couple of weeks during the holidays.
