You may not have seen a giraffe with appropriate PPE, or had breakfast in a redwood grove, or found the elusive Albion rose, but there may just be something that gives your heart a moment of peace. Post or don't but please spend a bit of time today, recalling, searching for the good.  
So, what happened today, other than my gallery of splendid  moments?
Without a plan or intention, I walked a marathon, plus a bit today ( 27 miles).  I gave myself a classy start, I filled my USC travel mug with Earl Grey tea, packed a muffin in my backpack, filled my water bottle, and left home just before 8.
My first couple of miles were among the goofiest yet, sipping my tea, hiking, hopping rocks to cross into the park, sipping and hiking, hiking and sipping.  I will be doing this again, it was an out of context treat for the morning.  
I did want to visit another park, so I left Edgewood, and crossed into Huddart Park. Huddart has many microclimates ( ok, I was a docent there for years, and can recall a bit of what we were taught to teach the field trippers!). and after walking through a riparian zone, then a coastal plain, I found a log in a redwood grove, and had a brunch stop.  I clambered down to Kings Mountain Road, and headed for the bustling metropolis of downtown Woodside.  I had the good luck of seeing a dear friend or two, and in a 6 foot away and masked manner we checked in.  If you have read this far, is anyone else overjoyed when you run into friends these days?  I even plan some of my routes to just walk by the homes of my dearest friends, just to see the doors that have opened and welcomed me, the yards where we have had our iced teas and solved the problems of the world, and laughed til we cried.  And sometimes, cried til we laughed. The history of these friendships, the ways we are managing to stay connected now, fills my heart. So, in a long winded way, there is my gratitude for this day. 
Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and to my sisters, and brothers that stepped in to give me unconditional love, thank you. To Rita and Lisa, who stepped up and made me a part of their loving family, to the moms,friends and neighbors, who helped me learn to be the kind of mom I wanted to be, thank you . To Neal, who was by my side as long as he could be, and always, always put family first, and to Margot, Dylan and Bridget, who make me so proud to be a mom, thank you.

Neighborhood mascot!  
After the enormous success of the Annual Stay at Home Camino Scavenger Hunt, it is time for the Friday Gratitude Game.  There are no wrong answers, and spelling doesn't matter.  Please post one thing, or two things or seven, you are grateful for as a comment.  By this time, I hope I have communicated some of my reasons, now, tables are turned, share what brings joy , peace to you.
Just to get this game started, I will go first! Today was very warm and sunny,( gratitude  item # 1), I was home. ( item # 2) most of the day, and ate lunch in backyard. My friend Janine ( #3) had surprised me a few days ago with a bag of oranges from her garden (#4),  I cut up two of them, and they were my lunch dessert, and they were so dang good!  
Be well, be safe, Buen Camino.

Edgewood Park!  
I am happy to report that I got to hike, legally, in Edgewood Park after work today.  I would like to think that the park was as happy to see me as I was to see it.  There were social distancing, one way trail markers along the route, and families, couples, solo hikers out enjoying the evening.
Of course, someone of a canine nature, did not join in the celebration, August had to stay home, and he is a dog that likes to be where I am, as many hours as there are in a day.
I swear, we had a gorgeous morning hike, and I made him a snack to compensate for the heartbreak, a peanut butter and jerky sandwich ( his kind of treat, not for human consumption TBS), but I will have ground to make up tomorrow!
To answer what I perceive to be your questions: 1 yes, the park was beautiful, the views, the trees, the air, the ground,
2 no, my I didn't get teary eyed because I was so happy to be able to walk the official Serpentine Trail again, my eyes were just a bit leaky, and 3. YES, I will risk breaking Auggie's heart again and will be going back soon!.
When Neal and I were looking for our first home, I was ever so pregnant, and we found Emerald Hills!  While the house was in escrow, we used to "visit" the house, driving down from the city, parking on our future street, and walking around a bit. Then we would head over to Edgewood Park, and take short hikes up the trails.  I was not an elegant pregnant person, I gained more weight than recommended, I was working at a hospital, so I was on my feet quite a bit, and gave up wearing "cute" shoes, and stomped around in sneakers as much as possible. So, in one of my ever so cool maternity smocks, sneakers, off I went, with Neal taking the lead, and unclear on the concept that I was not the same spitfire that used to sprint up 6 floors in high heels, just because the elevator was too slow.  He adjusted his pace, and we made these visits a regular thing while we waited for our baby to come. As a couple, as a family, and now on my own in these past months, spending time at this nature preserve has mattered, has been a place to connect with each other, and remain amazed at the peace of being in nature.
Now, for the magical part of today's hike.  My dear Mary D met me, for a socially distant hike at the park, which may have been part of the reason my eyes leaked a bit.  On one of the turns in the path Mary pointed out her gratitude rocks, a flat space at the convergence of several trails, where she likes to stop. Her tradition is to pick up a smallish rock, place it on top of a larger one, and say one thing she is grateful for.  Part of the Camino tradition is to take a rock from home, and walk with it throughout the Camino, placing it at the Cruz de Ferro, as a symbol of laying your burden down, since I am walking from home to home, I have been debating how would I honor this ritual, which holds such significance for me.  And, not for the first, and not for the last time, Mary helped me find a way.
I put a small pebble in my backpack this evening, and will return it to Edgewood during my last days of this walk, another way of letting go of some of the load I have been carrying, in a place that has been so special to me for so long.

In more typical times, I both work as a clinical social worker, and teach several yoga classes a week. Not so much yoga in the past weeks, however, I have embraced technology ( not really) and have been ( with socially distance assistance) been teaching chair yoga classes, that are recorded, and put on YouTube for my sorely missed chair yoga students from the Redwood City Adaptive Physical Education Center. We shoot them on Wednesdays, and today, with careful planning and attention to logistics ( well, I left on time and knew the way), I walked the 2.7 miles down to the center, taught the class, and then ran, actually walked, an errand, and walked home.  Somehow that turned into 9 miles, and I "discovered" a new neighborhood that I have been driving through for years and had never really seen.
I believe this area is called Oak Park, it has sidewalks and houses and streetlights, and awesome sidewalk art. The photo above is from my travels today, I wish I had taken more photos of the chalk art. Chalk paintings remind me both of the original Mary Poppins movie, when chalk art takes the Banks children on magical adventures, and the mandalas created by Buddhist monks, who work diligently to create beauty with colored sand, knowing full well that their hours, days of effort make temporary displays, the wind, or time, or even their own broom sweep away. These artists accept the idea of inpermanence, of letting go of the outcome of their efforts, and now here we all are.   All of us are in the midst of letting go, letting go of plans, jobs, school days, graduations, weddings, 
travel, and none of us are sure if and when "normal" life will return, And my neighbors make art, in the midst of this uncertainty, I am here to say, it help, it heals, and thank you.

We got the traditional Cinco De Mayo early start for our hike this morning. And guess who was waiting for us?  Mr. Wile E. Coyote!  From a distance, he looked just like any other canine, gamboling through a field of grass and flowers, the difference between him and August who sleeps with his head on a pillow and has his own easy chair seeming slight.
Until he started hunting, and that, my friends, was when he clearly a wild animal.  August has an ample supply of food available at all times, and is never in a hurry to find a snack.
Wile E was stealthy, focused and easy to lose sight of in the hills.  Full disclosure, August didn't even show a sign of seeing, smelling, hearing his distant cousin, where Wile E had us scoped out before I turned the corner and found him.
We marched on, and were pretty much the only domesticated beings on the road for the first hour of the hike. 
Several days ago, I got us lost, yes, within a semi-easy walk from my home, and it took some creativity and off roading to find our way.  I was a bit rattled by that experience, and have been avoiding the particular corner of 94062 since. Well, today, again, big girl boots on, and make a decision to get over myself. On purpose, with intent, I got us back to the dark and stormy streets where my personal navigation skills failed me. Mind you, it was a gorgeous, sunny morning in a lightly forested area in California in the spring, so maybe not so dark, and definitely replace stormy with bright and springlike, off we went, circumnavigating Southdale, Mid Glen, Glen Crag, up to West California, and over the river and through the woods. If accuracy actually matters, we circled the area, and this is the fearful woods we were lost in, seemingly for hours, you judge for yourselves!

Buen Camino!

The gates opened up this morning, just in time for me to walk by and shake my head, for I had my trusty August with, and he and his canine friends can not go into any county park.
We got an early, by Stay at Home Camino standards, start, and today may have been the most superior walking weather in the history of the world. 
One side note, I/we have been scooting up some rather big hills, and will often have days with thousand foot elevation changes, and guess what?  Those climbs are not markedly easier, I/we are not stopping on the way up, just taking shorter steps, and doing some fancy synchronized breathing that a certain Neal Richard taught me for just such instances.
I have a notion in my head that one day I/we will just sprint up the beast of Sylvan Way hardly noticing as we go, but, so far?I am noticing!
Back to the weather, cool, sunny, with a hint of the warmer day ahead, I remember when it was the old folks who waxed rhapsodic about temperature,winds, humidity, and If I cared to connect the dots, I would have to come to a certain conclusion, so, just, no.
The opening of county parks is one of the re-opening phases that Governor Newsom has been planning in these past weeks.  My sense of ambivalence about any steps to re-open or shut down our communities and businesses continues. Have we "flattened the curve"? Or just this curve? All I am certain of is we just don't know, and are taking best guesses constantly as citizens, leaders, health care providers. 
Back to the weather!  DIfferent wild flowers are blooming as spring goes on, and I pass many fragrant cultivated gardens on my own tour of 94062.  Among the unexpected joys of this walk is going through these beautiful places created, sometimes by nature, sometimes by human, best of all is when these combine!  Woodside has its own type of rose, the Albion, which must have been planted by a human person decades ago, and as it spread and grew, it now drapes across streets, yards in town, and as pretty as it is in its light pink glory, the smell is the most sure sign that spring is here, and summer is coming on strong.  
​Buen Camino, and good night.

Having given up, temporarily, the dream of hiking through a park for the weekend, I decided to cross town lines, and tour San Carlos today.  August and I took the shortest route, and headed up Crestview with a loose plan to go one way, then another.  Lo and behold, as we turned East  and shuffled down Brittan, a woman with a large dog emerged from the woods.  A few yards further down the hill, I saw ( August was too short to see it) a sign for a hiking trail, and away we went.
A few weeks ago, a fellow dog walker had mentioned an urban trail called Four Bridges, and there it was!
This ridge trail was just wide enough for one human, and a canine companion, was relatively poison oak free, and every few minutes we were able to stop and look across the SF bay. The much, much cleaner air allows for views many miles beyond what is typical, which I know I mention about every third day, and I will keep mentioning  because I am a fan of 
1: Clean Air; 2: Seeing stuff far away.
We didn't get lost, YAY!  The trail was well marked, and we found the trail head closer to our neighborhood, and headed for home.

Later in the day, I took an August free walk, walking another ridge road, from one end to the other.  I am getting closer to the end of this walk, one advantage to walking across Spain, but in San Mateo County, is that I don't have the pressure of a plane to catch on a certain date, or hotel reservations to make, or even friends to meet up with in Southern France at the end of May ( we will one day Erika and John!), so I amble along with no end date for this adventure.  On this afternoon's walk, I crossed paths with several dear neighbors. On the first big turn, I glimpsed, speeding by in a run up one of our many hills, Jeremy.  He and his family are "new neighbors",( 5ish  years on the hill)  and from the time they moved in, they have been the finest of friends. Jeremy and I had a few moments to catch up today, and, as is always the case with him or his wife, every time I talk with them, I just like them better and better. Both are smart people, their special gift is how closely they listen, and quietly offer support to each other, and our group of friends.
On the home stretch, I stopped for a chat with Stacy, who along with her husband,  Ken is building a new home, while living on the property.  Stacy's patience and sense of well being is infectious, and having a few minutes to check in, brought so much joy to my day.  
Again, someday I will walk "the other" Camino, I just hope it as rewarding as this one.
Buen Camino.

My drone is heartbroken. San Mateo County is going to open some of its parks, wisely on Monday, so my hopes for a weekend hike at Edgewood Park have been dashed. 
I dried my tears, put on my big girl hiking boots, and defiantly, walked alongside this forbidden valhalla for the first mile of today's trek.  The sassy deer grazing in the park turned to look at me as I went by, their side eye game was strong and I am pretty sure I heard them laughing amongst themselves at my plight.  
Nevertheless, I persisted, and ignored the casual cruelty of the Bambi gang.  The deer up in this area have real atitudes, 
it may come from having few natural enemies, human neighbors who plant delicious floral meals in accessible yards, and the the halo effect of that old chestnut of a movie, Bambi.  In my early days living up here, I was thrilled whenever I would see a deer, and couldn't understand why most of my neighbors disliked them. After years of decimated front yards, near misses when driving at night when these beasts flagrantly disregard traffic laws, and TRUE STORY, the day a mama deer chased my Springer Spaniel Archie, and pushed him down a hill, I have developed a more balanced enthusiasm for the second most populous species in the neighborhood. 
Buen Camino to you!

It's official, we will keep doing what we are doing for a few more weeks.  My five mile radius for recreation hasn't changed, but BIG news, the county park near my home is opening this weekend.  I have walked alongside Edgewood Park throughout this adventure, and tomorrow I will be able to legally enter.
We had a long stroll today, I have a new neighborhood mountain to climb, straight up Farm Hill Road. Tried it for the second time today, hoping to recreate the elevation changes of the other Camino Santiago. At this point, I am so delighted with my Emerald Hills version, I wish I had thought of it sooner!
I have a dear friend, Edie, who walked a California trek, the Camino Real, going from mission to mission, her first trek began in San Diego, and ended in Sonoma, I was able to walk one day with her as she passed through my county. There was a magic to our day together, she had been on the road for weeks, and was able to communicate the joy she found seeing this state from one end to another She hiked to celebrate her recovery from years of treatment for a particularly nasty form of cancer. And walking with her was just that, a celebration of strength. life, history, her story. She is well and strong to this day, and even walked through Mexico on a Camino Real, seeking missions there, and facing many different challenges along the way, and has written a book about her experience "The Mission Walker". Spoiler alert, she befriends, rides, leads,  a donkey or two!
I have not found a donkey to ride on my adventure, so clearly I have more adventures ahead.  August is just not going to let me pin a tail on him, so that possibility of easy access to one of the cutest critters around is off the table.  I do know of a matched set of miniature donkeys, Willie and Wonka, who reside along one of my favorite trails, perhaps I will stop in on them, to add a certain gravitas to my voyage.  And a great photo to add to this story. 
 

EH ceramic dog showing how to wear a mask appropriately.

Yes, I have been rather coy about the actual mileage of my trek thus far. Today, being the last day of the first month of this Emerald Hills Camino, it feels like the right time to share now far I have gone. I am halfway home to finding my way home.  When the pilgrims traverse across Europe on various versions of the walk, there is a definite destination, Santiago De Compostela.  This pilgrim is seeking another destination entirely, and while I know the way geographically, it is more and more clear, my journey is all about finding a new way home, a place of peace.
My home for decades was Neal, my children. Wherever we lived, home was at first the two of us, then 3, then 4.  Neal and I knew the kids would grow up and find their own ways eventually, and we had schemes brewing about how we would move closer to them if they left this area or my plan which was to expand the house, build a cottage in the back, and all live within a shout of each other forever (much like the plan in which both of my kids would be vegetarians who never watched TV).  Neal kept gently reminding me that they might not want to live next door to the chickens as adults, I still disagree! When Dylan and Bridget got together, and it was quite clear to all of us that this special person was joining the family for keeps, my family commune dream expanded. And then, so much changed.  What has not changed is how important home is to me, how much I want my kids to always know that we have a homebase, a place of peace and belonging for all of us. 
As I walk and walk and walk, and return home again and again and again, this same/different life feels more possible.
Ram Das wrote a book, "Be Here Now", about being present in your life, using spirituality, yoga, and meditation as ways to be engaged in the moment, not the past, nor the future as a means to live in peace. I am here to say, this stuff works! 
My walks are simple, I breathe, step, breathe, step and somewhere, peace finds me up here in the hills.