Catch-up Day: April 3

April 3

Tom is off doing networking, and I am getting caught up and reorganized.

Things that came up along the way that didn’t get posted:

1.) Did you know starfish are now officially called sea stars? Since they are not fish, but are echinoderms, there has been a movement by aquarium people to change the name to sea stars for accuracy. I haven’t yet recovered from the experts changing the names of dinosaurs from those I learned as a child—they are still brontosauruses as far as I am concerned! But I do sort of like the sea stars change.

2.) The streets of San Francisco are lined with London Plane Trees (a sycamore hybrid) which they prune back so drastically, that the ends of the branches become all knobby and gnarly. The new thin branches grow out of the rounded knobby ends. (The swollen branch ends look sort of like burls, except on the ends of branches, not the trunk.) The trimmed trees look bizarre without leaves. Budget constraints this year meant that only some were pruned, giving the rows of trees a distinctly odd look.
Visitors from England call them Plane trees, not London Plane Trees according to our tour bus driver.

3.) California’s state flower is the golden poppy, which seems to be more orange than yellow. I hope to get a picture, but so far have just seen them from moving vehicles.

4.) On the way to Yosemite, we passed grove after grove of trees I could not identify, and there were no helpful signs. It was driving me crazy. I did see one large wooden bin under the trees that had a sign stating, “Fresh tomatoes”. I have not been a country girl for a long time, but was relatively certain they were not tomato trees. On the way back we saw, amid the mystery trees, a sign identifying that place as an almond farm. So that is what I am calling them. (If Elspeth can do that sort of thing, so can her grandmother.) I researched almond trees online, and the pictures looked the same to me. Almonds they are.


I spent part of today poring over guide book entries. From here on we want to be more aware of possibilities ahead. We were a little lax in the research before we began. A detour into Sonoma may be in order. We’re “doing” the coast, but need to detour occasionally for promising ideas.

We have a stand of palm trees outside our window that are swaying in the brisk breeze. We have the sliding door to the balcony open and it is delightful—mid 70’s for those of you reading this in the NE.

We have always been lucky with California weather on our trips here.

The intrepid photographer at last photo op in Yosemite yesterday.

Had dinner tonight with an old friend, always a lovely way to end the day.

Tomorrow we're off to new adventures.