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Signs of the City.87

Two more from Pittsburgh: Below, City of Asylum‘s “Burma House” (do open the link and read about this wonderful organization of which I first learned only during this walk). Above, Randyland which is a personal museum qua expression of exuberance in the same neighborhood. 🙂 Apologies that I can’t offer photos with better lighting – it was a drizzly, gray morning but the only morning we had for this exploration.

Village Views.77

All from Sebastopol’s lovely Community Peace Garden.

Islands.57

Brunot Island is the first island in the Ohio River once it emerges from the confluence of the Allegheny (left, here) & Monogahela (right) Rivers at “The Point” in Pittsburgh, close the Three Rivers Stadium. No, it’s not three completely distinct rivers, but two joining to make the mighty Ohio, which becomes the third.

From The Air.47

San Pablo Bay (north end of SF Bay), Richmond-San Rafael Bridge; Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta stretching east from San Pablo to the Central Valley & Sacramento, with snow-capped Sierras in the distance; Mt Tam, Mill Valley, Sausalito & Marin County bottom right as we flew over on 16 April during that long, photo-productive approach to SF :-).

Mountains.37

Above, the Bear Mountain Bridge with the mountain named Anthony’s Nose to its right, on the east side of the Hudson River. At the bottom, and in the gallery below, Bear Mountain Inn &  the mist-shrouded Bear Mountain (on the east side of the river) as seen on the misty, drizzly afternoon of Sunday May 5th when Steve & I arrived. We were here for another personal celebration of our mother, who hiked us as teenagers across that bridge, where the Appalachian Trail crosses the Hudson River and immediately climbs to the top of the Nose, having already scaled Bear Mountain and various other peaks in both Bear Mtn Park & the neighboring Harriman State Park. To really focus on our memories of the trails and be close to Storm King (which, yes, we’ll be showing you also soon), we splurged to stay in this lovely old Inn – and were so happy that cousins Sam & Maria also joined for the Mom-celebration stuff, that Neal and Elizabeth came for an evening, and Chris for the Storm King day. Thanks, everyone and especially Mom who was certainly with us in memory and spirit :-).

County Views.137

This was the most curious and human-sociable of perhaps a dozen flamingoes at the aforementioned National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA. He seemed very clearly to want to interact with the humans more than the other flamingoes, which a staff member said came from his having been orphaned and raised by humans. This allowed me to notice the detailed markings flamingoes have on their beaks and heads, which I’d never been close enough to see before! (If you click on the individual photos, you’ll see full-size versions without the head cut off.) Below, several of the other interesting birds we saw that morning.

Small Wonders.236

The irises were abloom everywhere I went on that US visit in April and early May. This one was catching raindrops outside the National Aviary in Pittsburgh on May 4th :-).