Author: bbpeck

As soon as Bob and I knew we would be in this section of Oakland, we knew we had to visit the Berkeley campus. A couple of days ago we walked just over 2 miles north from “our” house to the campus. One of our first sights was the student union where we realized (how did we not know this?!) that the U of Cal refers to the Berkeley campus. We weren’t sure what campus we thought it referred to, but we definitely didn’t think Berkeley. So now we know if any of our college teams play the U Cal Bears, they are playing Berkeley.

Our house owners had left us a section of the local paper that listed things to do in Berkeley. From this we learned about Sather Tower, the university’s campanile and most recognizable symbol. It is the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world and currently contains a 61 bell carillon that plays at designated times during the day.

We read that the public is able to go up in the tower, and we decided to do that once we got to campus. For $4 each we were able to take a short elevator ride and then climb a few stairs for these gorgeous views.

We had also read about the beautiful Morrison Library on campus, and since we’re always interested in checking out libraries (no pun intended) we decided to look that up as well. The Morrison Library was built in the 1920s and has wood-paneled walls, Turkish rugs, and cushy chairs. It’s open to the public (though no photos inside) and is the kind of place that makes you want to pick out a good book and read for a spell. It is located within the larger Doe Memorial Library.

Finally, the tag line for the Visit Berkeley campaign is “Everyone’s a little Berkeley,” which I think is a lovely thought. So go be a little Berkeley today.

Greetings from Oakland, CA, more specifically the Rockridge section of Oakland. Bob and I really haven’t spent any time in the area prior to this house sit though Bob had a brief visit with his nephews and brother-in-law on their west coast baseball trip a few years ago. (Cue Bob story/joke/wish about having a big bat or being winked at by some blonde.). I’ll probably get to hear one of these jokes in a bit as Bob returns from today’s Oakland/LA game.

I’ll just stick with discussing what we are learning about Oakland this go round. First, courtesy of Wikipedia, you should know that Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County. It is the eighth largest city in CA (home to many large cities). I believe that many people think of it as the step sibling to San Francisco (which I believe I first heard of thru the Rice-a-Roni jingle, but I’m old and not from these parts).

Also courtesy of Wikipedia, Rockridge is the residential and commercial neighborhood in Oakland bordered by Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, Oakland Hills, and 51st Street.

Anyhoo, for us, the most important part of Oakland is the great home owners for whom we are house sitting and these four cuties —

We have been enjoying getting to see Rockridge while walking the dogs. We started out with each of us walking one dog with separate harnesses but have decided we prefer taking turns walking both of them on a shared leash as they walk so well side-by-side and actually walk us when they get going.

The other thing that we love about this area are the beautiful craftsman style homes and all the gorgeous flowers. I try not to creep people out by taking photos of their homes, but I’m not as restrained about the plants and flowers.

All for now!

We are not in Tucson any longer, but we had a lovely stay and have plans to return. Our last few days in Tucson had us catching up with friends, getting some much needed haircuts, touring a big Cave, and going for one final hike (for this trip). Oh yes, and being “gifted” with two hummingbirds from Taj, the hunter.

In 2016, we house sat in Green Valley for 3 months. We met up with that couple (the humans not the dogs we cared for) for lunch and got caught up with their travels including an upcoming one to South America. They were kind enough to ask us to sit for them during that trip, so from late February to late March of next year, we will be caring for their new home in Tubac (a little south of Green Valley) as well as their dogs Molly and Maya.

We also had dinner with the woman for whom we did a 2.5 week house sit in July of 2017. We had a great visit with her after getting a tour of her newly-renovated house and getting reacquainted with her dogs, Dot and Raina. It was great catching up, and we hope to visit with her again when we are back in the area next year.

We also made time for a trip to the Colossal Cave just outside of Tucson proper. We had a fun tour and a little picnic on the grounds.

On our last full day in a Tucson we had a great hike to the Romero pools in Santa Catalina State Park. This was a challenging hike with some good elevation changes. While we were pleased to see that there was actually water in the pools, the scenery on the way is what really made the hike great.

We have had so many good hikes in Tucson, but yesterday we got to Sabine Canyon Recreational Area, a lovely park which we had not explored on our prior visits. It is a national recreational area in the front range of the Catalina mountains.

It was a lovely Sunday, so the parking lot was crowded when we got there about 11:30 but luckily it’s a big park so our actual hike was not busy. We asked about recommendations for a scenic hike at the Visitor’s Center. They recommended the Phoneline Trail which is 5.5 miles one-way, uphill. It did not disappoint. While the uphill was not too challenging, the skirting of the mountain with just a drop-off on one side kept us alert.

It reminded us again of the beauty of the mountains and the appeal of the desert cacti. See what you think.

At the end of the trail, we walked down to the shuttle stop. After a quick snack at this lovely way station, we walked the 3.7 mile road back to the Visitor’s Center. We had seen others doing this during our hike, and it provided another lovely perspective of the park. The only automotive traffic on it is the park shuttle which only runs every 20-30 minutes.

We didn’t see any wildlife during our hike but then were surprised by this guy once we were back in the Visitor’s Center.

Our Tucson hosts left us the use of their bikes while they are away. They are great bikes, and the couple is conveniently about the same height as we are so we were good to head out for a ride. We have been blessed with much cooler weather here than we’ve had in the past (The hottest day has been 87 but most have been in the low 80s with wonderful 60 degree mornings.), so we decided to get out onto Tucson’s amazing bike loop. And, for our Austin friends it really is a loop. In total, the whole system of paved shared use (hike/bike) paths and short stretches of buffered bike lanes is 124 miles! The actual section that forms a loop is 54 miles — awesome! It goes all the way around Tucson proper.

We did not ride 54 miles. We rode about 20 something. And TMI alert: without bike shorts that was about what we could do even on their great bike seats. It was still a great ride. Below are some photos of our outing including scenery, signage, conveniences, artwork, and solar panels —

And just cuz they’re so darn cute a couple more cat photos —

The title of this blog is inspired by the somewhat dramatic ending to our homed status in Austin. As many of you know, Bob and I put our condo on the market in February and while we ultimately found a buyer for the right price the closing period wasn’t without a little bit of drama (mold, square footage issues, a rain damaged ceiling at the eleventh hour). Ultimately though, due to (in spite of) my determined fretting it all worked out.

We are successfully homeless — our next act with the ending TBD. As for now, we have house sits scheduled through early January both here and abroad. Keep us in mind if you have any need of home and pet care while you travel. We’re continuing to consider future plans but are in no hurry to settle down, as we enjoy being world citizens and have no great need for one single abode at the moment. We’ll see how long that lasts but feel like we’re in “create a life” mode with no need to find a final solution– just one that feels right for now.

We know that we will pursue ways to return to Austin in the future to catch up with friends and monitor the continued growth of our beloved city. Thanks to Austin friends for fun good-bye (for now) parties, happy hours, and dinners before we left. Some with their own dramatic endings!

Anyhoo, we’re in “retirement” mode now or at least destressing from last-minute work to clean and close on the house. If we aren’t smelling the flowers, we’re at least taking the time to notice them.

We especially love catching the cacti in bloom, as they don’t generally stay around for long.

The lovely home and pets that we’re caring for are also helping us chill. I don’t usually include photos of our homes, but the backyard here is just too lovely!

Life is good!

Sammy (gray) and Taj (orange) playing our nightly game of chase the red laser. They are adorable. Sammy is quick to move whenever he thinks it might be feeding time and Taj loves to be near (though not on) you if he’s not busy outdoors. They gifted Bob with a dead hummingbird the other day.

Sammy and Taj in their chill mode.

Best wishes to all — more Tucson adventures in future blogs.

Aveiro isn’t all canals and salt.  It also has a lot of public art to increase the happiness factor in visiting and/or living here.  This (public art) was one of the first things we noticed upon our arrival, as we were greeted by the square-face sculpture below.  We saw similar sculptures all over town.  These are the work of Luís Queimadela, a Portugese artist based in São Pedro do Sul.  The collection of 14 sculptures throughout Aveiro is titled “InVitro” and was installed in 2009.

We obviously need to return to Aveiro, as we didn’t find the whole set!  We did stumble on some other pieces though —

 In addition to sculptural art, there was unusual brickwork, painting, tile mosaics, etc.  Aveiro is such a beautiful city anyway, and the art just adds to its charm.

The lovely Aveiro, Portugal is the Venice of Portugal with its network of canals that originally facilitated the commerce of salt for the area.  There are 4 canals — Canal do Côjo, Canal Central, Canal das Prâmides, and Canal de S. Roque.  Ten companies now vie to provide narrated rides for tourists, making the canals an active, vibrant place.  The rides cost about $12 per person and last approximately 1 hour.  We enjoyed both watching the boats from our Airbnb room (gorgeous! Best one yet), walking along the water, and finally as a participant.  The boat “drivers” keep things fun by interacting frequently with individuals on the other boats as well as people watching on the shore.  

While the salt trade in Aveiro is much reduced, there are still salt beds being worked.

In addition to Aveiro’s canals and art, it also has some beautiful architecture and parks.  (The food isn’t bad either, especially the ovos moles — a lovely little sweet that is basically an egg yolk confection in a paper-looking wrap in the shape of a shell.  This is why we walk around so much — to either “earn” our treats or work them off.). But back to the buildings —

A very attractive building close to our Airbnb

The former rail station, located right next to the new one

The first building you see on the way out of the train station (right past the block-headed sculpture). It just seemed so incredibly white!

While the hotel looks a bit boxy, it has a lovely bar over looking the lake where you can watch the boats go by and the people playing in the park. You can also see a bit of the I love Aveiro sign, and a another sculpture near the lake.

This former ceramic factory is the only factory building in this once industrial area that was retained. It has been repurposed for governmental offices. All of the factories still in existence have been moved to an industrial park outside of town to make space for the lake, park, and residential/retail developments along the canal.

The former canal administration building that now houses governmental offices



The church of Misericórdia dating from the 17th century

The beautiful art nouveau building that now houses the City Museum

Aveiro’s city center has a number of buildings in the art nouveau style. This building is the Art Nouveau Museum which honors the Portugese heritage of this design style.

Chapel of São Gonçalinho

Just some houses that we liked

Traditionally colored Portugese facade — gold over blue

An attractive building in the modern part of town

The Santa Joana Museum of Aveiro which contains collections of religious art in a former Dominican monastery

The Aveiro Cathedral next to the Aveiro Museum

We also explored a little bit of the campus of the University of Aveiro.  It is only 40 years old with 12,500 students and offers 58 baccalaureate, 40 masters and 25 PhD programs.

One of the many signs up announcing the 40th anniversary

One of the science buildings on campus

The University of Aveiro Water Tank

From the University, we walked back to our Airbnb through a lovely park.

A little lake with a duck house

A bridge across the lake

The tree- lined street that splits the park

A fountain by the tennis and pickle ball courts

Plan A for our second trip to Porto was to take a day trip into the Duoro Valley to see some of the wineries that make the country’s renowned drink.  However, we didn’t realize how far Porto was from the valley (about 2 hours by car).  A day trip was definitely an option, but after having spent a full day in a bus, neither of us was eager to spend 4 hours in a train (solo journey) or Van (group tour), so we decided to just enjoy the day in Porto and make another visit to the Port houses across the Duoro River in the Vila Nova de Gaia.

We did a bit of shopping (both window and the real kind) in the morning with a return trip to the Bolhão Market and the St. Catherine pedestrian street area.

So after a hard morning of shopping, we thought we’d try our luck getting into one or more of the port houses in Vila Nova de Gaia.  The area was hopping, but we managed to try 2 new houses  — Taylor’s and Ramos Pinto. We had done a tour and tasting at Graham’s last year.

Other photos from our time in Porto —