A gardener goes exploring
I left my happy home at 1 a.m. and drove three hours in the dark to Tulsa International Airport. Only a few custodians and security folks were there to greet me. Very quiet except for escalators. At 4:30, lights came on, desk person arrived to turn on boarding pass machines and she was as helpful as could be because I was the first passenger of the day and she was not bedraggled yet. Less than four hours after leaving home I sat alone the terminal waiting for my plane ride.
Landing in Denver went easily enough. A long walk before a short wait only to find myself in the fourth row window seat in a very full 737. So many folks in the airport going somewhere for good reasons.
Two grandkids were waiting in Oakland with two others two hours north, my reason for dealing with airports. I quickly learned, in four-year old detail, why the bear in the dream did not leave the water, the history of every toy in the room plus how to juggle with one ball. His sister, almost one-year-old, had just as much to say but in her own idiolect so I responded in kind and appreciated the moment. It won’t last long.
San Francisco Bay appeared to be half the size of Arkansas as we strolled along the east shore on a sunny summer morning. Calm breeze softened the sunshine. Besides thousands of sandpipers, I saw black-bellied plovers and long-billed curlews searching for breakfast in the marshes.
Intense traffic is a long-standing tradition here. Another one is filling the space between buildings and warehouses with more buildings and warehouses. However, give Oakland credit for maintaining green spaces for hikers, bikers and roller skaters, a new tradition. Were those popping sounds I heard last night firecrackers or… ?
Thursday we went to the zoo. Wolves hid in the shade, bears frolicked, gibbons cavorted overhead, an alligator languished in the mud, and lemurs performed cabaret. Flamingos posed like a chorus line, but they didn’t dance. Another sunny day with no sign of smoke from up north.
Back at the house, four-year old wisdom pronounced, “The map has to be little before it gets big, and that’s how my grandfather wrote the Bible.” And then we all played music.
Another new summer tradition is constantly checking the AQI, or air quality index, because of the smoke from the fires. Everyone does it. Our weekend destination in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas measured more than 100. Not good. The redwood forest in Sonoma County measured 45, so we went there instead.