For about a week in Palo Alto, I could cycle in rudimentary painted-on, but segregated, cycling lanes, and it was a radicalising experience.

My rental bicycle from Bike Connection, a Liv Alight Disc in the smallest frame, parked outside Redwood Grove Natural Preserve, Los Altos. I brought my husband's Seatylock to secure the front wheel and the frame, and the rental D lock for the rear wheel, and thankfully did not suffer any theft attempt in my time there. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.

I know from my previous time there that public transport outside of SF in the South Bay Area is quite woeful—buses and trains are not very regular, and their routes don’t take you to many places of interest. Like most US suburbs, they are very much car-centric, and not having a car feels disempowering and stifling.

Bicycle paths on the road unlocks safe and efficient commuting and travel by bicycle, and it feels freeing and empowering! This is different from the Singapore approach of assuming that cyclists should share the paths with pedestrians below an inefficient commuting speed, or gamble with their lives on the roads with motorists who see them as annoyances, if not obstructions, and hate their guts.

Even if the cycling paths in the South Bay Area are not physically segregated, the fact that there’s space there for cyclists signifies that we have a right to be there, and we don’t deserve to be honked at or run over just for existing on the roads. That’s not to say there weren’t drivers who at best acted like they could not care less if they had killed me in order to save the five seconds or so of their time it would have taken to yield to me, but being able to concentrate on navigating traffic and the road, and even have leftover mental space to enjoy the wind and sights and dogs rushing past me as I cycle—instead of always feeling like I’m about to die on the road—was very much a welcome change.

I do already miss that so much.

*At Shoreline Park, Palo Alto. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2*

With a bicycle at hand (and a really mild, friendly climate to boot), a lot of places at the South Bay Area were suddenly open to me! I didn’t have time to make a dent on my list (especially for more communal activities—my bike rental didn’t come with lights, and a lot of these activities took place at night), but I still relished the places I could visit.

*At California Street, Palo Alto. Sony RX100V.*

(Some of the photos here have already been posted in a previous post setting out my thoughts on the Nokton 21/1.4. I’m reposting them here again to complete the narrative together with photos taken with my Nokton 40/1.2, Tokina 90/2.5, and Sony RX100V).

I particularly enjoyed being around the majestic giants that are the California Redwood trees. They are like plant dinosaurs, creatures from another time on Earth that might as well be another planet to us. They’re a reminder of our smallness, how we are a temporal blip, and also at the same time the fact that they basically still exist due to our (or a few of our) generosity and wisdom, the ridiculously outsized negative effect we have on all the other life forms that shared, still share, or yet to share this planet with us.

*A bisected Redwood trunk. Each ring is a year--that's a lot of years this former tree has seen. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.*

*Two workers taking a break from cutting down a trunk. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.*

*Back to work. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

*A reminder that autumn is approaching. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

*A close up on weathered Redwood bark lit up by the sun. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

*Keeping company among giants. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

This boardwalk was built over Adobe Creek--when I was there, it was dry, but it supposedly does flood in some seasons. Volunteers have stabilised the banks with natural engineering means. Redwood Grove Natural Preserve. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.

The aforementioned Adobe Creek is a stream that I came across frequently while cycling through Palo Alto as well (such as through the Magic Bridge Playground , which was fun!)—it flows into the San Francisco Bay at Palo Alto in the Baylands Marsh, which was where I was headed to next, via Shoreline Park.

*A worker trimming the grass at Shoreline Park, Mountain View. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

Shoreline Park is right by Google campus, and it really puts the Mountain View in well, Mountain View. We came back here on our last night at Palo Alto to view the anticlimactic Harvest Moon Lunar Eclipse—the clouds made sure we couldn’t see anything but a smudged indication of a moon.

This gull had been badgering a couple having lunch beside me for their In-n-Out fries, while also bullying any other birds that try to come close. Shoreline Park, Mountain View. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.

Just casually cycling through here let me see more birds than I would see for months in Singapore, like a Great Blue Heron, an egret, and a pelican. Unfortunately I didn’t have any super telephoto lens to catch them in action. I did see quite a few birders stalking especially the trails at Baylands with bazooka lenses—the Baylands is one of the best birdwatching spots at the West Coast, apparently!

I spent some time in the lazy afternoon watching people kayak and sail at Shoreline Lake. The wind here makes it probably even more challenging of a place for a beginner to learn sailing than it is anywhere in Singapore. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.

*Cyclists of road, gravel, commuting, and touring varieties took advantage of the scenic cycling path. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

There is a rich variety of vegetation types in Shoreline Park and Baylands. I didn't manage to capture the wetlands variety (mostly just marvelled at them as I cycled slowly past)--this one, some kind of dock(?) might be the non-native grassland area (please correct me if I'm wrong). Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.

I also managed to visit the Stanford Dish hiking trail at noon on a Tuesday. It seemed to be a popular enough time for locals for their lunchtime hiking and trail running! It’s wild that this patch of wilderness is a stone’s throw away from downtown Palo Alto / Stanford campus.

*Stick to the path! Stanford Dish Hiking Trail. Sony RX100V.*

*The trees here have ~characters, even the dead ones. Sony RX100V.*

We spent the weekend at San Francisco. Our first thought was to take the Caltrain from San Antonio to San Francisco back and forth, but the earliest train ran way too late for us, and we had to take Lyft into the city.

*Morning in San Francisco. Sony RX100V.*

I’ve passed by SF before—I’ve transited at SFO many times in the past—but this is the first time I’ve been to the city proper. It immediately caught my eye and soul with its sheer vibrance and… just how alive it was, even though it was pretty early in the morning. It certainly helped that the weekend was very foggy, and the city’s skyline emerged out of the low lying clouds as dramatically as possible as our driver sped down the highway, and the sun lit up the sparkling waters of the Bay, and the unnatural orderly lines of square houses perched up the steep hills.

Also, the vegan food options here are excellent.

*We had vegan omakase in the otherwise non-vegan sushi restaurant Chisāi Sushi Club. Some of the vegan nigiri was a literal explosion of umami in my mouth. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4.*

Our first stop was Muir Woods, and I had reserved seats on the shuttle bus from Larkspur Ferry Terminal. We did the Canopy View to Redwood to Sun Trail to Dipsea Loop trail, which was around 5 miles. It took us up from the base of the Redwood trees, to the foggy grasslands at the top of the cliff, before coming back down.

*The fog only increased as we climbed higher up the trail, and the trees gave way to a grassland. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.*

*A fallen tree trunk caked in dirt near the end of the trail. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4*

Larkspur Landing from Marin Country Mart. There were two ferries on stand-by--one would take us back to San Francisco Ferry Terminal, and another one is picking up Giants fans, I'm assuming to their stadium, which we would pass by the next day kayaking. Sony RX100V

*The San Francisco Ferry Terminal at Embarcadero. Sony RX100V.*

*Fishermen and pedestrians at Pier 3, Embarcadero. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4*

*An angler at Pier 3, Embarcadero. Sony A7IV + Voigtländer Nokton 21/1.4*

*A Golden Gate Bridge Ferry docked. Sony RX100V.*

Near the Bernal Heights Summit. We were so surprised to find a breathtaking (literally!) climb in the middle of a busy neighbourhood. It gave us a beautiful overview of San Francisco in the foggy sunset, and was a beautiful way to cap our weekend trip. The wind was so strong at the summit that I thought we would be blown off to the Golden Gate Bridge. Sony A7IV + Tokina 90/2.5.

I hardly skimmed the top of my list of things to explore and do around the Bay Area, and hopefully next time, armed with a bicycle (maybe a rental car) and even better planning (and driving refresher course), I could get around to them!

The Bay Area: September 2024

A week with Olympus EM1.2

Chicago September 2024: Rivers, Rocks, and Trees