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Happy Things Friday

Bunch of flowers in a shopping back. — Flowers I took to the tea party

It’s so hard to think about happy things right now with the news being what it is. Just last night I fell into the doom scrolling hole and of course went to bed too late again. Maybe I should start a rule no news and social media after dinner? I definitely should.

Inspired by Elisabeth and San I am going to try to think about the happy things in my little life this week even if the world seems to be falling apart:

We celebrated a friends birthday with a tea party at another friends house. I got to catch up with a lot of women I have not seen in a long time. We had a little sharing circle and the resounding plan for 2026 to look for more in person connection. I think it’s an excellent plan. My contribution to the event were some flower decorations (thanks to our backyard and Trader Joes).

I organized tickets to go to the Art of Manga exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. My daughter loves drawing and since it was about Manga even my son agreed to come along. It was really cool and got me more interested in checking out books by some of the artists especially Land by Kazumi Yamashita, Mao as well as the Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi or a book about Steve Jobs by Mari Yamazaki.

I got to meet with my fiber arts buddies on Monday via Zoom. We started this sometime last year and it’s nice to have some company while working on projects and chat about it. I met both of them through my German online book club and it has been a lot of fun.

The students are back! It was a long winter break here on the Berkeley campus and this week the students are finally back. The undergrads make the whole campus come to life and our lab gets busier again.

My daughter had her interview for an exchange program with our sister city in Japan. It’s competitive so even if she does not get to go in the end, getting to the interview stage was already great. I keep my fingers crossed for her and we should find out by mid February.

What was a good thing during your week?
Are you interested in hearing more about any of these highlights?

Walk around campus – bear territory

Multiple pictures of bears around the UC Berkeley campus.

The bear is the mascot of the University of California in Berkeley. It’s fairly easy to figure out as there are many bear sculptures and murals around the campus and the city of Berkeley.

There are multiple walking tours that look at the UC Berkeley campus from every angle. One of the self guided tours sends you on a hunt for the various bears around campus and I thought it was a very fun thing to do. Besides the campus is beautiful and full of hidden surprises. Here is a link to the map. It’s not completely up to date as University Hall, where the graduating bear was, was recently torn down to make room for a new construction. Maybe they moved it? I was reminded that I did the walk a while back when I suddenly spotted the South Hall Balcony Bear on another walk across campus (it’s in the first picture at the top – the tiny bear sits in the third circle on the balcony balustrade). Built in 1873 South Hall it is the oldest building currently. The bear was added in 1997 when the original wooden porch was replaced. I am convinced it was gone in between as I clearly remember not finding it the first time a did this walk. I may never find out.

One step in front of the other

I have a hard time putting my feelings about what is going on in the world into words. I am still as heartbroken, disillusioned and deflated as I was 2025. I had to be offline for a while. Reading the news each day to find out what hellish thing the government is cooking up next was and still is a lot. The only other thing I kept holding on to was Instagram to have something easy and quick.

I tried to make and keep up with in person connection. On a personal level the year has been good to me. I still have my job what is a miracle in itself considering the turmoil the US academic research is in, my online book club is keeping me reading (stumbled on via Instagram and met in partly person for the first time last summer), the kids (both in high school now) are doing well, made some new friends, caught up with some old ones and managed to finish a couple of house projects including a complete rewire. We got to visit our families in Germany last summer, vacationed on Corfu, Greece and visited our friends in Las Vegas. So on we go, one step in front of the other. I know I am lucky and am thankful for it.

The local county has a winter walk challenge I joined. They send out an e-mail each week with prompts what to look for during your walk and you can submit a picture in order to win a price. The above is my submission for week 1’s “Watch Your Step”. I am going to start posting about this weekly from now on – maybe it helps me getting back to my online community that I neglected for way to long. I hope you can forgive me.

Something to look forward to: my friend’s birthday tea party

What are you looking forward to?

Holiday Card Roll Call

I do like getting snail mail and I do like sending it. I have seen others offer to send holiday cards so here is my own offer to send you one. If you like to get a card from me please fill out this form by December 6 and I will try my best to get it to you soon! I can’t promise that it is a home made one like the ones above but we will see (or you will when you get the card). I found some cute ones at our local Barnes and Noble and I just could not resist getting a pack.

I already feel very festive today. December 1 marks the day when the Advent calendars are handed out and both my kids got one (they must have been nice this past year). And this year it is also the day when the first candle is lit to mark the first of the four Sundays before Christmas Eve. My big window already has the snowflakes hung up and it is getting more cozy by the second.

I hope you are having a good start into the month of December, too. Do you have any special plans for the holiday season coming up? If you don’t celebrate maybe you have something special coming up, too?

So long, until next time

Our road trip is coming to an end and we head back home. We decided to take a break on the long drive back to the Bay Area and stay in Bakersfield for the night before heading back on the 5. Death Valley is “just” a little over 2 hours from Las Vegas and you could say it is almost on the way. We did not do any hikes this time and only stopped at Zabriskie Point for the views and at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes but it was nice to see something other than sparkling lights and lots of people. The BIL and SIL are heading back to Germany and life will return to normal with school and work and all the other things (including loads of laundry to be finished).

This day also marks the end of NaBloPoMo. I do have some catching up to do on all the posts I missed in the last few days. Blogging was already a lot while travelling and family just came first this time. I did not quite think it through when I signed up. It was still a lot of fun though and I am happy to have found some new blogs on my radar. Thank you as always to San for organizing!

Jumping around at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley

Las Vegas Day 2

Because the sun was out we decided to take a walk around the strip. We stopped by at a sweets Shop to the delight of the kids and saw the fountains in front of the Bellagio.

There was still a lot of scaffolding up from the car race the weekend before so we had to cross the street or bypass through Casinos to get where we wanted to go.

In the early afternoon we headed to our friends’ House for Thanksgiving dinner which was excellent as always.

We finished the evening with a Feuerzangenbowle. It’s basically mulled wine with a bit of extra alcohol and sugar. You have to have this special tong which holds a sugar cone. You soak it with rum (at least 54%) and light it on fire so that the caramelized sugar drips in the warm punch. I found this recipe in English if you want to have a closer look. It also has all the links to the ingredients you need. It’s tasty but I haven’t had any this time since I was the designated driver. Funnily enough the sugar cone was eyed with great interest during the security checks at the airport. It was always passed the drug and explosive tests since it is really just sugar. You can also get it here but is much cheaper in Germany. Would you give this a try?

Las Vegas Day 1

So, what do we do in Las Vegas? Most of the time we come here to visit our friends, but this time we also came because BIL and SIL like going to Las Vegas. There was a visit to the Outlet Mall on request so I and the kids dropped off the rest of the party and made our way to yet another game store in another part of town with a pit stop at the Boba shop. Game stores seem to become a new theme whenever I want to make the kids happy. We also had time visit the Writer’s Block. It’s an awesome bookstore my friend introduced me to and now we come here almost every time. By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost time for heading out to our dinner reservation where we met up with our friends.

The restaurant Buddy V’s is in the Venetian and with a little extra time we walked through the canal streets. The first time I saw the artificial blue sky I did a double take.

The main attraction of the day was a visit to the Sphere. It’s that big dome with projections all over. You probably came across one of the gigantic Smiley faces before? Inside is an event space/movie theatre. We had tickets for Postcards from Earth. It is shown on the world’s largest high Definition Screen and provides an interactive experience. That includes temperature changes, wind, chair vibration and smell. It was really something. I did not care much for the story (humans send in pairs to other planets to populate them because humanity destroyed Planet Earth) but the images were stunning. The entrance area reminded me of a space port in science fiction movies. Everyone left impressed.

Into the desert

Abandoned house on hill in Calico Ghost Town

It surprises me every single time how long the drive to Las Vegas is. We started in Tehachapi in the morning and arrived in Las Vegas in the dark. To be fair we did do a road stop at the Calico Ghost Town. It does not really feel like a ghost town since a lot of the abandoned buildings in this old silver mining town are occupied by touristy shops now. It’s quite the production.there are parts that still have the abandoned charm of lost places but most of it feels more like a tourist trap. It was a place to stop but one time was enough in my opinion. We walked around, took some pictures and headed back out. The lunch we had at Peggy Sue’s Diner beforehand was way more worth it. It has fun decorations in each dining room and the food was quite good for the price.

When we arrived in Vegas we still had time to try out the hotel pool and the kids got a pizza dinner while the adults took a walk along the strip. This city is a bit crazy, loud and sparkly. I do like looking at all the lights for a bit but don’t care much for the casinos. We missed the Bellagio fountain but had a look at the new Christmas decorations in the botanical gardens. I kept wondering how many poinsettias there might be.

Rainy day at the coast

I quite like Pismo Beach and the surrounding area. We have been here before multiple times and the plan was to go on an ATV ride in the dunes in the morning. Unfortunately the weather forecast was correct and it was pouring the whole day long. We had some time to kill because I had booked an escape room for 4pm that we could not move. We started by going to Barnes and Noble in San Luis Obispo. A bookshop is always a good idea in my opinion. We were hoping the rain would let up a little so we could have a look at the bubblegum Alley – not so much. A wall of bubblegum is quite yucky in the rain (it is yucky all the time but even more in the rain).

We made our way to Pismo Beach and spent the rest of the time with games and lunch at an arcade place. The escape room was a full success. It was the Alice Room at the Locked Inn. It was one of the best and hardest rooms I have done so far and it was really fun.

Driving on to Tehachapi to spend the night there and be closer to Las Vegas.

Stop at Sculpterra

Entering Sculpterra Winery & Sculpture Garden

On day 1 we drove down to Pismo Beach from the Bay Area. The main tourist attraction Highway 1 along Big Sur was out of the question because you can’t get through right now due to a landslide. The last couple of years this has been a pretty regular occurrence but it sure is beautiful when it is open.

So on this fine day we took 101 instead and stopped at the Sculpterra Winery & Sculpture Garden in Paso Robles. It was a nice break from the road and the adults had a glass of wine while wandering through the gardens.

There are quite a few sculptures in the garden and it’s really beautiful out there

The best thing? Probably the late afternoon sun on the fall leaves. It’s magic right there.