Walking Tour

A month from today we will be in Prague. This is the time, before we leave on a trip, when I start hitting myself over the head for not "walking" for the last several months and wondering if I have the stamina to hold up to all those "city walking tours" which are on our itinerary. I realize that sitting on the ship looking at the beautiful scenery (which will be more beautiful than it was in China) is a lovely relaxing way to spend a vacation, but I'd also like to tour the towns.

This weekend I had the opportunity to get a feel for what it's going to be like, which is why I was happy that Susan came to town. Yesterday we walked around Old Sac for about 2-1/2 hours and today we spent about 2 hours walking around the arboretum. This was not a "Bataan March" like we had through France and Italy, but was reminiscent of some of the shore-tours we had in Russia and China...and it was OK!

I've been thinking I need new walking shoes. The ones I have worn for the past 3 trips have been used as puppy chew toys, so they look terrible. But they cost a bundle and it's only the edge around the ankle that looks bad. But I thought I would look into getting new shoes, but I wore some black walking shoes I got from Zappos a few years back and I don't think I am going to need new shoes ('cause I hate shoe shopping!)

We started early this morning, meeting at Mrak Hall (the administration building of UCD). "We'll meet at the Eggheads," I said, and we did...

We walked to the backside of Mrak to show Susan another of sculptor Robert Arneson's Eggheads (my personal favorite of the 8 or so statues around the campus).

Then we walked back to where we started and headed down to the path that runs along Putah Creek. We were so lucky with the weather, which was warm, but with a cooling breeze. The arboretum was beautiful.

We photographed egrets...

...herons...

...and bees...

(Oh my! ...hey, indulge me; it's Judy Garland's birthday!)

And when we found this tree with a fascinating bark pattern...

...we took a lot of time making sure we photographed it thoroughly.

We finally left the arboretum and went to the train station so Susan could take pictures there (I didn't get anything spectacular) and then met Anne at the Delta of Venus cafe for lunch...and to tell you the truth, I was so involved in our conversation (comparing our respective pets, giving Susan suggestions for how best to get to the airport, and talking about what a great weekend it had been), that I completely forgot to take pictures!

After Susan had left, Beth and I walked back to campus and to Mrak Hall, where our cars were parked.  On the way we found this sculpture which reminded me of the Mayan version of the Terracotta warriors of Xian!

 
I don't know how far we walked today--certainly not far in normal people's frame of reference--but for me it was the first walking I'd done....well, probably since China.  And except for the fact that I came home and was so exhausted I didn't even check the computer until I'd had a two hour nap, I was feeling fairly good about my ability to face Prague next month.