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Bay Area Adventures Part 4: Coyote Hills with Jackie
When I first got here, I sent a blast to all my Bay Area friends. I have a lot of friends here, partly because I went to college here, partly because I used to have family here, and mostly because all the cool artsy people live here. It’s probably one of the most incredible places to live. I think if I had to choose, only Paris and the South of France might even come close. It is beautiful.
My blast turned into a bunch of meet-ups, and one of those meet-ups was with Jackie, a childhood friend. My grandma used to live in San Leandro, and I used to go to Sunday School with Jackie in Oakland. I went to Sunday School with a lot of people here. There’s a whole crew of kids who grew up together and I was lucky enough to join them once a year or so when my parents shipped me off to my grandma’s.
Jackie suggested we meet up in Coyote Hills for a walk-and-talk date. It was the perfect day. We both love photography, so we talked up a storm and went off to find all the pretty things to take pictures of.
Spring is beautiful here. The air is crisp and you can walk and walk without getting too hot. Wildflowers were popping up everywhere.
Jackie is a birder, and funny story: we came across a group of second or third-graders on the path guided by a local ranger. The ranger was teaching the group about leaves of three, let them be, and leaves of five, stay alive, etc., when we suddenly spotted an owl way up in an oak tree. Jackie then turned to the group of children and said, Look, there’s an owl! and the whole class turned in our direction, hijacking the rangers’ lesson. The ranger looked annoyed, but the kids were overjoyed. What can I say? Jackie is just that kind of disruptor, in the very best way!
I’m not a birder, but after seeing her photographs of that owl with her big, fancy camera, I can see the appeal!
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Bay Area Adventures Part 3: I love Rockridge
I’ve been so busy having fun here in the Bay Area that my time is almost up, and I still have so many posts to write! I don’t like backblogging. I forget little anecdotes, and the details fade so quickly. But life goes on, and you can only document what you can document.
The title of this post should be “I Love Rockridge.” I found it after lunch with Torrie. She had to run to a doctor’s appointment, but she directed me to walk up a few blocks from Downtown Berkeley to College Avenue to find a bookstore she recommended. I followed her directions and found so much more!
After I checked out the bookstore, I texted Matt to find out how to get back to his place, and he said, “Don’t rush back; I’ll come to you,” which was really sweet because I was quite a ways away and had no idea which way to go. He met me at College, and we walked all the way to the Rockridge BART station, stopping along the way to admire all the many cute shops, wine bars, and coffee shops.
My favorite store is Maison d’Etre. Whoever curates their merchandise has my number. I love it more than Anthropologie!! I might even be over my Anthropologie obsession and its mass-produced art. I only want to support cute little shops like this from now on. I told Matt he could buy me anything in that store, and I would absolutely swoon over it. Not that he needs to be buying me gifts; I’m already spoiled rotten.
I found a flower shop called Wisteria and asked if they were hiring because I felt I’d found my calling. We were meant to be! But then Matt brought me back to earth by reminding me that I do have parents I need to go back home to, and we are actually not moving in together, no matter how much I fantasize about it. Stupid real life. But it’s not off the table. We have no idea what our future holds.
We bopped around a bunch of shops and then took BART home.
THEN!!! A very lucky thing happened. I got an email from Core Power Yoga in my inbox saying that I had five classes about to expire. What? I had completely forgotten about them. I bought them last year when I was living in Costa Mesa, but then I moved and had no hope of redeeming them because Hemet doesn’t have fancy places like Core Power Yoga. Matt and I poked around on Google Maps and found that the Rockridge studio was the closest to him. It was providence! I booked my five classes for the next few weeks and had a reason to spend more time tripping along my favorite new street.
I’ve been here so long that I feel like a local. A month is just long enough to enjoy all sorts of local haunts, but not quite enough time to annoy each other. Staying with anyone else would probably be more challenging, but Matt is incredibly easy to get along with. I was so worried I’d smell like fish after three days. I mean, you’d have to ask him and have him take a lie detector test to find out how this experiment went, but from my point of view, we’ve had a really good time.
I’ve also found all the best places to have coffee along College Ave. I particularly liked Hudson Bay Coffee and The Chocolate Dragon for their local vibes.
And that pretty much sums up Rockridge for me!
