I’ve been home since Sunday and I gotta say, I miss the Bay Area!!! We have sunshine here with lots of wildflowers and Spring is pretty… but I miss Matt and being able to walk everywhere I want. It is just NOT the same here in Southern California. Where I live nothing is walking or biking friendly! I’m out in the country where there are no sidewalks or bike paths or green spaces. Just long roads with no shoulders (or if there are shoulders they are gravel and cause sliding accidents) and  fast cars whizzing by. Nobody cares about pedestrians around here.  Sigh.

I’m not here to complain though. I subscribe to the theory that you can make the best of wherever you are and I will continue to enjoy living in the desert with my parents. I have a lot to be thankful for. This is my chapter for now. But!! I will also be back to visit Matt again and I’m very happy about that. I really did have the best month with him. I was so worried that living together in close quarters for a month might break us because we’ve always had a long distance relationship, even the first time around. I’m so happy and relieved to say this experimental month-long stay worked out wonderfully.

My last few days included a bus ride over the bay to North Beach for coffee, breakfast at Mama’s and exploring all the old haunts.

A trip to Berkeley for a long walk while Matt and his brother played tennis.

I walked to the Berkeley Rose Garden and back.

The view was impressive but the roses weren’t in bloom yet.

I met up with an old friend for coffee (at Flowerland again! yay!) and a hike along Solano Avenue to Indian Rock Park for good talks and amazing views.

My last adventure was my favorite. Matt took a day off from work and we explored the Albany Bulb. One of my tricks whenever I find myself in a new place is to pull up “local flavor” on yelp. Yelp isn’t what it used to be now with all the sponsored crapola but the local flavor category rarely disappoints. I checked out the Albany Bulb long before I traveled there and was really excited to see the Marble Run.

What I didn’t expect was the amount of art I would find. The bulb is covered in old rubble from back in the 80’s when contractors would dump cement and building debris in the bay to create new land masses. It’s been a dump, a homeless encampment and during Covid an art movement that took on a life of its own. Everywhere you looked were installations and graffitied slabs of cement. It was a treasure hunt of delightful things. I told Matt that it is probably one of the best dates I’ve ever been on because it combined  three of my favorite things: nature, art and exploring!

The day was dreary, gray, and cold but it really was the best weather for hiking around outside. I constantly took my coat on and off because I’m always running hot and any bit of exercise makes me sweat. I hate that about being menopausal. But misty gray days are my body’s temperature regulator’s best friend so I was thankful for the lack of sun.

The marble run did not disappoint. It was way better than I expected. Almost all the runs worked AND there were even marbles in a bucket to play with if you forgot to bring your own. It was fascinating. I loved the sounds the marbles made as they clinked around curved paths made of  broken saucer plates and trickled along musical stairways. I need to do more research on who invented it because there didn’t seem to be any kind of master plan but everything worked no matter how spaghetti-like and tangled the paths seemed. It kind of looked like a work in progress with new ramps and runways just smashed on top and sideways with no rhyme or reason.

Sigh… I’ll miss this view. East Bay has more charm to me now that I’ve stayed here for a month and found so many new neighborhoods. I’ve always loved San Francisco but now with the downtown being basically a homeless ghost town, it’s not doing it for me like it used to. Back when I went to college in the East Bay in the 90’s, we always thought San Francisco is where it’s at. Not anymore. I still love North Beach but the vibe of the city just isn’t the same. I hope it comes back though.

But mostly I’m going to miss Matt. We really had the best time. I’m so happy that we get along so well and maybe just maybe someday we can live together. I don’t even need to make hard plans. I just need to know that it could be a possibility someday to make me happy.

For now, what we have works.

Until next time Bay Area peeps! Keep it weird for me!