San Francisco Part Five

Botanical Garden Part Three

 

A continuation of pictures from the botanical gardens in the Golden Gate Park.  These flowers and plants were so beautiful I could have stayed there all day. Stay tuned for the Japanese Tea Garden next post!

 

San Francisco Part Four

Botanical Garden Part Two

This is a continuation of my previous post from my trip to San Francisco. There were too many pictures to put into one post, so I divided them up into posts that would be easier to load. This is basically a picture dump of flowers and plants. I hope you enjoy my pictures!

 

San Francisco Part Three

Part Three: Nature in the City- Botanical Garden Part One

I think going to the Golden Gate Park was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Here are some of the pictures I too there at the Botanical Garden. This will be a pic heavy post, so it might take a while to load. I can't remember what all the flowers and plants are, but I can tell you the ones I remember and what I thought about them.

My Dad standing next to this humongous tree. I think it was a California Cypress. They were all so huge! 

I loved seeing this bee inside this flower (I think it is a California Poppy, but I might be wrong). It is doing what bees do, pollinating and finding food for itself.

What I loved most about this plant was that the flowers made it look like someone had made a dozen fried eggs and left them lying around in the garden.

This was the flower from a variety of Aloe Vera

Giant Sequoia, also known as Red Wood Trees, were planted here only a century and a half ago and they are already huge. We were unable to go to the Redwood Forest while we were in California, so this was the closest we could get. 

I love how thick the succulents are, and how bright.

A beautiful purple succulent.

This huge plant is an agave plant. You can't tell in the picture, but it is taller than my mom! (It was about 2 inches shorter than me.) This is what my agave nectar is made out of!

This cactus flower was probably one of my favorite pictures that I took. The juxtaposition of soft, colorful, beautiful flowers and sharp, spiny, prickly cactus spines is so beautiful. I love that the most beautiful flowers can be so painful.

I don't know what this plant is, but it is so cool looking. It was in the succulent/cactus area.

100th Post! Update Walk to Mordor and Changes

Walk to Mordor Weeks 37-38

First things first. This is my 100th post on my blog! (Do a little dance!) I am so excited that I have posted this many awesome posts and it all started with my urge to walk to Mordor. As a little parallel to those first few posts, here is the post where I finally arrive in Rivendell! See the charts below to see the day to day walking.

Week 37

Starting Weight	Current Weight	Goal Weight	Projected Goal Date	Week #/ Day
270	272.2	175	2017	37/ 25-27

Date	Activity	Duration Miles	Beginning Mileage	Ending Mileage	Location*
6/8	Walk	2.11	418.78	420.89	March all night. Frodo is on Glorfindel’s horse. Camp next to the road at dawn. Day 26 Camp less than 5 hours. Take road with 2 brief rests.
6/9	Walk	3.88	420.89	424.77
6/10	Walk	1.30	424.77	426.07
6/11	Walk	2.09	426.07	428.16
6/12	Walk	2.49	428.16	430.65	Cross a small stream. Rest stop.
6/13	Walk	2.77	430.65	433.42	Rest stop.
6/14	Walk	6.7	433.42	440.12	Camp where road bends right to run down slope toward the River Bruinen. Day 27 Leave early morning, hobbling along (ca. 7 a.m.).
Totals	This Week:	21.34	Total Miles:	440.12

I spent most of my time this week packing to go to San Francisco and then actually getting to San Francisco. As you can see, Friday the 13th I didn't walk much because I was sitting in planes all day. On the other hand, I walked over 6 miles on Saturday the 14th because we walked all over San Francisco. You can see my posts about the Food I Ate and Pictures of Buildings in the City here. I am still working on my posts for the Botanical Gardens and the Japanese Tea garden. I have hundreds of photos to sift through, so it is taking me quite a while.

Week 38

Starting Weight	Current Weight	Goal Weight	Projected Goal Date	Week #/ Day
270	271.2	175	2017	38/27- New 1

Date	Activity	Duration Miles	Beginning Mileage	Ending Mileage	Location*
6/15	Walk	4.68	440.12	444.8
6/16	Walk	6.49	444.8	451.29	Road plunges through a cutting of red stone with tall pines. Hobbits are halfway across grassy flat when Nazgul burst through behind them. Attack at the Ford (ca. noon). Glorfindel’s horse carries Frodo across Ford. Nazgul drown. Frodo falls.
6/17	Walk	2.88	451.29	454.17	Company meets Elves sent from Rivendell (est. 2 p.m.). They take Frodo ahead. Rest of company follows on foot.
6/18	Walk	3.49	454.17	457.66	Come to the sudden cliff into the valley of Rivendell.
6/19	Walk	.81	457.66	458.47	Frodo reaches Rivendell carried by the Elves (est. 4 p.m.). Others arrive in evening. (RIVENDELL!) *See note Leave at dusk on Dec 25th New Day 1
6/20	Walk	2.02	458.47	460.49	Climb out of the valley and onto the moors.
6/21	Walk	2.94	460.49	463.43
Totals	This Week:	23.31	Total Miles:	463.43	*I finally made it to Rivendell! I am more than excited. It only took me 38 weeks to walk over 400 miles! Because of the way the next chart was set up, it is very confusing to say what day I am on. I will no longer be saying the day counted from the beginning, but the day of this second leg of the trip. I also am planning to change how I post these updates in a hope to make them easier to read and understandable.

This week was pretty full of stuff. We traveled all over San Francisco and San Mateo, flew back home, and celebrated Father's Day and My Birthday (I'm 25... How am I getting older so fast?!). My birthday was pretty fun. My family went out for lunch at Carreta's Mexican Restaurant in Covington, Louisiana and then went home for present opening. I got BOOKS! Lots and Lots of books! I was pretty excited about some of them: Tolkien's Beowulf, the fifth book in the Green Rider Series called Mirrorsight, a book teaching you how to speak in different accents, and some books about cooking. All in all, it was a wonderful day and I was glad that I got to spend time with my Grandmother before we left for North Carolina on the 25th.

Starting with next week's Mordor post, I will be changing the format to make it easier to read. Stay tuned for my next few posts on San Francisco and my posts about being in North Carolina again.