A walk among the Eucalypti

It was an unusually warm winter day in the bay area. With a long weekend in the offing courtesy a great black leader who is to be remembered we enjoyed a visit to a favorite haunt of mine - Tilden Regional Park in the Berkeley Hills.

The readers may recollect my narration about this area that I visit on many an occasion - less so in the recent past. Now with our child heading out to college once again and our likelihood of leaving the bay for good a distinct possibility I had to recharge and visit some of our fave haunts again.

So I went for a walk to Inspiration Point part of the park. Parking was at a premium in the assigned few spots this evening so we had to trudge a way out but all was well.

The vistas are magnificent from this mount which is about 1,000 feet elevation I suspect.

Sitting atop the San Pablo Dam watershed (the drainage feeds the reservoirs for drinking water for the area) I had a jolly good walk for a couple hours. The setting sun was beating down and the scenery was unusual.

The Golden Gate arose as if an alien craft was rising from a cloud deck below, perfectly blending with the mountainous curves of the Marin headlands behind it.

Then onward to my favorite part of the walk - the stroll amidst the fragrant Eucalyptus grove.

Now I am not sure if the plural of this magnificent wood is Eucalypti or Eucalypts (I guess I have heard both). Apparently these are an import from Australia brought in for their hard wood to make rail road ties when the trans continental railway was a thing.

It was a crowded evening as the sun was waning and we saw variety of usual and exotic breeds of dogs on leash, those in the dog loving crowds cooing as some odd Yorkie went by, bicycles of all sorts (some exotic and some mundane), multiple bird songs mixing with a bit of Russian, Spanish and German that I overheard; all ages and genders were having a wonderful time - with their mask on. Hey it is California after all.

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