Succulents and More™

Most of the trips I write about are plant-focused. Often I go by myself because my family would be bored to tears. Last weekend, however, the whole family went on an outing to San Francisco. If traffic cooperates, the drive from Davis takes about 90 minutes. But traffic and parking in San Francisco can be brutal, so we opted to take the ferry from Richmond: Ferry terminal in Richmond We left our car at the Richmond ferry terminal. There’s plenty of parking, and it’s free – as in $0. The ride across San Francisco Bay takes about 35 minutes and costs $4.70 one way. Compare that to $35+ for parking in San Francisco plus $8 toll to cross the Oakland Bay Bridge. Route map © San Francisco Chronicle To my delight, one of the first things I saw after exiting the ferry terminal in San Francisco was this mass planting of Agave ‘Blue Flame’ and Agave attenuata ‘Ray of Light’: As we were walking over to the Ferry Building Marketplace for coffee, I spotted several wooden planters on wheels fille...

We just got back from a week in Victoria , British Columbia to visit our daughter. Daytime highs were in the 40s, nighttime lows in the mid-30s. And except for our last day, we never really saw the sun, just caught brief glimpses. But when you’re surrounded by so much natural beauty, who needs the sun? In fact, brooding skies with towering clouds amp up the drama. We spent a couple of days on Pender Island , and on the ferry ride there and back, the spectacle was positively operatic. Victoria is only 75 miles from Seattle, and the flight is so short that there’s no beverage service on the plane. You’re in the air for just 30 minutes, but the views are spectacular. You can see the San Juan Islands , the Olympic Mountains in Washington, and of course Vancouver Island : View of the eastern shore of Vancouver Island as we’re descending into Victoria International Airport Victoria is spectacular place to live, and real estate is pricy, with houses right on the water costing many millions: ...