North America

Postcard from Historic Roseville,California 

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I recently posted a postcard from Sacramento so I though I would shine some light on the city to the north, Roseville, California.

Roseville has roots in the railroad and the telephone. I mostly drove right past as a kid on the way to Lake Tahoe and ignored it altogether. But, a revitalized old town is a fun draw. Food trucks, Irish bars, tattoo parlors, craft beer, theatre and a few very solid restaurants are bringing life back to downtown Rosy. 

Miserable cup of Joe but A+ ambiance.

Wasn’t expecting too see this flag here…

Love the image on the side of these locomotives

Who wouldn’t want to work remotely from here?!

I’ll be the first to admit that pizza on the west coast can barely be classified as pizza but this place makes a solid effort!

I really enjoy coming here partially because of the ambiance and partially because the crowds tend to gravitate towards the mall and newer areas. It was the perfect place to relax for a quick afternoon stroll with Mr.Baby.

High Hand Nursery

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Sometimes just getting out of the house for some fresh air can turn in to something delightful. The High Hand Nursery in Loomis, California is a lovely place to shop for your garden and a wonderful place to enjoy a quasi-botanical garden. And, they have a pretty darn good restaurant too! 

My little one is so interested in animals. He is fearless which makes me happy and scares me equally as much.

I’ve been lamenting lately that it seems we have fewer butterflies than when I was a kid. Anyone else notice that?

Sometimes you randomly run in to a stranger with a bird who teaches your cousin how to make it play dead! (Can’t make this stuff up.)


The trip out turned in to my favorite thing to do. Photograph flowers. Not too shabby for cell phone shots. 

Here’s to the end of summer! Bring on the fall! 

Cheers. 

Postcard from Sacramento

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Greetings from my home town Sacramento, California! I’m still alive. I’m just over here sequestered in my house raising a tiny human and working in between with the occasional break to eat and sleep. Thank you for your patience with my lack of posts and lack of travels. 

I headed downtown this morning for an appointment and snapped some random Sacramento photos of things not everyone would pick to highlight my town. I’ve never really posted much about Sacramento so I finally took a moment to focus on a few locations and things that have always been the background of my runnings around. These are some places I enjoy for one reason or another. The art, the old signs, the institution of it, or the plane weirdness emitted. 

Yup. That’s a cow on the roof.

Are we in Greece or Mexico with these color?

Flipper!

The Tower theatre across the street from what was the original Tower Records and Books

A clock on a cemetery sign?

Always loved this sign

Water tower that has just always silently been in the background

Bon Lair. As close to Scotland as I can get right now.


The food is marginal but I go for the name.

Charming

U2 Joshua Tree Tour

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Manchester has me thinking about the U2 concert I attended last week. As I have previously mentioned on this blog I love the band U2. They always have been my favorite and always will be. They are touring currently to celebrate 30 years of their Joshua Tree album. I have been excited about this concert for months. 

It’s easy to look at the concert a little differently this week. Some of the most perfect music ever uttered from Bono’s lips and Edge’s fingers happened on that album and that night. Some of the most creative and impressive lighting and video displays ever seen. An aura of nice Bay Area people smiling and happy enjoying the moment on a breezy and perfect weeknight. We were able to safely go home. 

Levi Stadium in Santa Clara holds 70,000 people. 70,000 souls I say! That is more than the population in the city in which I live! I can’t help but recall during the concert that this event would be the perfect place for a terrorist attack. There were armed police inside and outside of the venue with semi-automatic weapons keeping us safe. But, I don’t recall ever attending an event with this amount of law enforcement staff and artilery before. Security was so tight I was not even allowed to bring a small purse in to the stadium. But worst of all when the concert was over all 60 some odd thousand people went for the exits at the same time. Everyone filtered towards one of very few exits to an overfilled parking lot which is exactly where the attack happened in Manchester. Manchester. Young women. Eight year old child. 

My heart goes out to the victims and to Ms. Grande who must feel terrible. I recently chatted with a friend about this. We should keep going to concerts, right? We should keep going to public events and malls, and vacations, right? We can’t let them win. No matter how young the victims. No matter how much I shake my head at politicians and how useless they all can be at times. We have to live our lives. Sad this is the new reality for us. How long will we be making generic statements like “We can’t let them win?”

Is any of this business preventing you from living your life as you would like? Or are you sticking it to them and going about your activities and travel as normal? Whatever the “new normal” may be these days…

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – MOMA

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San Francisco is home to a world class modern art museum called the MOMA. It recently underwent a multi-year facelift. I had been meaning to check it out and the opportunity finally presented itself recently.  The building is gorgeous boasting six levels of art with an outdoor living wall, oculus bridge, outdoor fresh air sculptures, and an outdoor terrace with art and a view. Highlights for me were the Thomas Saraceno’s Stillness in Motion: Cloud City, special Matisse collection, Diane Arbus photography portrait collection, and the British Sculptures.

The museum has a really great app to keep people interested as they plan their trip and walk through the exhibits. It provides information on each floor and collection and even immersive walks. One can buy tickets ahead to save valuable time waiting in line. I recommend getting  there early as it can get pretty busy which can take away from the vibe. 

Rothko has been a favorite of mine since I was in high school and was dumb enough to think I could easily paint something this simple. Spoiler Alert: It’s harder than it looks.

What do you think this person is thinking?

I love this painting. And it made me smile to watch hoards of young people taking selfies in front of it. Yes, not great Museum behavior. But, it made me smile to watch lots of young kids enjoying the art one way or the other.

This piece reminded me of the white rock found at Newgrange in Ireland. It was arranged in a beautiful circular pattern on the ground. I loved it.

Probably my favorite exhibit was Thomas Saraceno’s Stillness in Motion: Cloud City.

Everything in this exhibit seemed floating on air if by magic

The use of mirrors was perfect and helped with the air of weightlessness and mystery

This young lady was sketching a Matisse and was doing a great job!

Special exhibit on now is Matisse/Diebenkorn

The museum is making an effort to interest young people. Near one of the cafes they have a machine where you can make your own selfie art. I couldn’t help myself.

Living wall

Simply gorgeous

For another silly post on the MOMA clickity clickity here.

Looking for other fun and quirky stuff to do when visiting San Francisco check out my other posts here. 

Treasure Island Flea Market

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The Bay Bridge stretches from the Oakland area to San Francisco. Halfway across the bridge it connects to Treasure Island, a man made Island meant to be a sea plane airport. Once the location of the Worlds Fair it is now trying to reinvent itself. One way is by a very popular flea market. 

Day drinking anyone?

I challenge you to show me a flea market with a better view!

Clocks artistically made from old records

Creepy

We are very close to Napa

A vendors pet was getting a lot of attention

The view isn’t too shabby

For another post on Treasure Island please clicky clicky here. For some interesting and off the wall posts on San Francisco please look herehttps://bulldogtravels.com/?s=San+Francisco&submit=Search! 

Maidu Museum & Historic Site -Roseville,California

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California spring has sprung and its only a matter of minutes before temperatures will top one hundred degrees. Little baby and I broke out of our fortress of solitude to visit the Maidu Indian Historic site only minutes from the house. The Southern Nisenan Maidu people lived on and visited the site until the Gold Rush people brought disease with them on their search for gold. 

The site boasts a lovely little museum and walk. Along the walk visitors can view well-worn petroglyphs and hundreds of grinding rocks/mortars used to mash local acorns. Native plants like soap root and rattlesnake grass still exist as well as visuals used primarily to educate groups of elementary school kids.

I’m very happy I finally visited this site whose mission is to protect the site and to share Native American culture. The fresh air was much needed. 

Proud California Poppies

They assure me there is a petroglyph on this Rick but it is too worn to see without close examination

Anyone feel like making acorn mush with me?