January 9, 2012 - SF downtown

Just a few pics from the window of an apartment where i moved a client.

January 3, 2012 - Rachael Meyers and family visit from London, UK

Rachael and i were both friends with Mike Lowey and have kept in touch since the 90s. She works for the State Department and has been all over the world. Right now she is in London, England. I was surprised when she called up one day and suggested we get together. This was the first time i met her husband Richard and her new baby Edgar.

We met at the Pyramid Brewery for lunch in Berkeley, CA.

She is from here so back visiting the family.

They suggested we take a stroll at the park by the Berkeley Marina. After years of driving past it i had actually never been out here. I learned they have a rare migrating burrowing owl that is protected here.

The ground squirrels are abundant.

We did meet one more time before they left. 

December 25, 2011 - Christmas at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve

With nowhere to go on Christmas (and a lack of desire to celebrate it this year) my friend Jim and i decided to go hiking. He came over to the East Bay from SF and we decided on a place we have been wanting to check out for a while. 

The Black Diamond Regional Preserve is just south of Antioch, CA and is known around here for being a former mining site of coal. Those days are gone and now it is a preserved area which is important in this heavily populated area.

These photos show how dry it is this year. Typically a December hike around here would find the hills completely carpeted in green, but this year we really haven't gotten much rain until March.

This egret may look out of place but we are only a few miles south of the Sacramento River which drains into the Bay.

Info about the mining town that once stood here.

Manzanita trees are common in the East Bay. 

The cemetery where locals were buried when a town existed here.