Day One of our summer afternoon adventures... we started the summer off with a giant purge of the basement and some client giveaways. SO weird to see my boys carrying a microwave, air conditioner and boxes too heavy for me!

We then hit a hike only a few minutes from us, the Montclair Railroad Trail (1.5 miles each way) built on the historic rail bed of the Sacramento Northern Railway. A leisurely gorgeous paved walk with lush trees. My kind of "nature-hybrid hiking" 😂

We ended the afternoon at Nieves Cinco de Mayo in the Latino dense part of Oakland for Mexican shaved ice and goat and rose petal ice cream (divine)!

Day Two with a visit to the Albany bulb... hard to believe we’ve lived here more than 10 years and have never been here! Lots of winds, lots of adventure trekking and far more art than depicted in these photos. Definitely worth another visit!

Today we explored Strawberry Creek Canyon trail, introduced to me by my good friend Lisa (and the boy’s former preschool teacher).

Lots of interesting branch sculptures and a lovely creek running through.. Birds, bugs, old moss covered trees and blue skies... ahhh California.

And what’s a good hike without some refueling? Especially sweet fuel! We tried U:Dessert Story an Asian dessert restaurant in Berkeley that specializes in “Mango Sticky ICE” (sweet shaved ice milk) and homemade mochi. Mmmm...

A winner for mom and reminiscent of my Pétanque & Pastis Party days (oh I miss those!)... today I dragged my begrudging boys to a lawn bowling lesson at Oakland Lawn Bowling Club.

Fortunately it turns out they have an adult league on my kid-free Wednesday nights. I’ll be back... without my stinky teenagers!

p.s. I won ;-)

The lure of vegan spamasubi drew us to Chef Reina’s all vegan take-out restaurant in Brisbane just past SF, a \240tiny “village” tucked inside a hill near the airport.

We ate our food at a nearby park and then explored the abandoned Bayshore Roundhouse, now a graffiti artist’s Mecca.

Unami, kimchi & crab rice triangles from Oori in Albany (post hair cut) and a trip back to Albany Bulb to find the labyrinth... just found more art relics instead!

We hit bullseye with this (free!) archery course that weaves through the beautiful redwood regional forests of Oakland. We will definitely be back for this meandering course that combines the beauty of nature with the adrenaline of retrieving arrows from patches of poison ivy! 😂

We ended the day at India Palace with Kristin & Will... a beautiful evening, warm sun, hot food, good company.

Tennessee Valley Trail: a gorgeous hilly 3.4 mile “walk” (we don’t use the h word in our house) that opens unsuspectingly to a beautiful crescent-shaped sandy ocean beach. Took me forever to convince Otto to take off his socks and shoes... and twice as long to convince him to put them back on. 😂 Moss remained unconvinced but enjoyed himself none the less.

A day of thirds! Third time at La Mise En Place for their amazing house smoked lox on homemade bread, third trip to Hal’s office on Solano for Lavendar lattes and our third visit to Albany Bulb where we finally found and wandered the labyrinth! Great afternoon (and poorly timed selfies) after some work at a client’s with my favorite child laborers. 🧑🏽‍🦱🧑🏽‍🦱😂

A full day of work managing the move of a client but the boys were patient... at least until their phones died. 😂 We managed to fit in a nice walk to UC berkeley though and finished the day with poki bowls from our favorite Hashtag Poki on Telegraph.