 We made a return trip to Cable Car Beach at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park on Monday this week after having such an amazing trip last week.
0 Comments
 Roberts Redwood Regional Park (tucked in between Joaquin Miller Park and Reinhardt Regional Park in Oakland) is a wonderful park for families. My daughter and I explored this park together for the first time ever today on an easy hike.
 Image above is a painting by my mother, Christel Carpenter Dawkins I have been looking over some of my archives from years past lately, and I've been thinking a lot about Lake Berryessa. This place was very special to me during my time in grad school, but I haven't been back in a long time. Read more to hear about some of the highlights from the past.
 This was a return trip for me and my daughter to Caswell Memorial State Park. Last time, my daughter was not in the mood for hiking, so we mostly hung around the lovely picnic area. This time, I brought my toddler backpack carrier, so we were able to complete a longer loop, going along the aptly named Majestic Oaks Trail!
 Caswell Memorial State Park, in Ripon, CA, is pretty magical in autumn. It is an example of riparian oak woodland, which once flourished throughout California's Central Valley. This ecosystem is threatened and still declining, so this forest really feels special. The oak trees are majestic (no matter the time of the year), and there is a wild grape vine that runs rampant in the park; the leaves of the grape vine turn yellow and red in the fall, which really adds to the golden feeling of the forest.
 May Nissen Swim Center in Livermore is a really nice alternative to the more modern--but also more expensive--Robert Livermore Aquatics Center.
 Last winter, I made a couple of lovely trips to Shadow Cliffs Regional Park to walk through the quiet arroyo area of the park. This morning, my daughter and I went swimming in the beach area and walked along the marina.
 This is not a hike, but another fantastic East Bay swimming hole. The Robert Livermore Aquatics Center is a great public place to get exercise outdoors, and it's very kid-friendly. I was blown away by how nice this pool is, and the 9:15-11:15 am Toddler Time was just perfect for my 2-year old toddler.
 Like Don Castro and Cull Canyon, Contra Loma is an EBRPD park that focuses on a swimming lagoon. Unlike the other two, the water of the swimming lagoon is clearly chlorinated and filtered, so it seems more like a pool and less like a secondary reservoir. This made for an interesting swimming experience! The pool has actual sand in its 0-depth area, but no sand in its deeper sections. My toddler loved this feature! We first hiked the perimeter of the reservoir and then we swam in the pool to cool off afterwards.
|
Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
