USon8wheels – a travel blog

Another Cousin!

April 30-May 2

By: Eliza, slight editing by Matt

Yay! Another cousin. We so loved getting to spend time with our (2nd? 3rd?) cousins! They live in Oakland, California. Initially we were going to stay with them, but their driveway was, unfortunately, too small for our rig and there were some streets in Oakland that were VERY narrow. However, we still had a lot of quality time with them!

We went on a nice hike through some redwoods (the first we’ve seen!). An interesting fact that we learned was that the redwoods make their own rain. They collect fog water and then it drips off their leaves forming drips and drops of rain. While we were on our hike it was foggy and some parts were a little drippy. David (Dad’s 1st cousin, my 2nd) was pointing out all the different kinds of plants. I got to see eucalyptus trees for the first time. Their bark naturally peels off so the tree itself is striped with different colors. Dark gray-green, Beige, Brown, it was pretty. The nuts the eucalyptus trees produce smell good. I think they smell like cinnamon sticks.

On one fine afternoon we explored some gardens in downtown Oakland. There was a bonsai garden, a rose garden, a palm garden, but my favorite garden was the sensory garden. There was Night Blooming Jasmine, which smelled heavenly, and many other plants and flowers that smelled nice, felt nice, looked nice, or even tasted nice! One of these such tasting nice plants was a huge bush with red flowers on it that were very skinny and narrow so it looked like only a humming bird could suck out the nectar, but we did too! We plucked the flowers of their stems and sucked the nectar out. It was sweet and yummy!

We have other such instances, like when David showed us a fennel plant on a neighborhood walk. Fennel leaves (and actually the roots too) taste AMAZING! Another such glad find was a neighbor’s tree which was loaded with yellow loquats. They are in my favorite fruit category now!

I’ve told you all about our adventures outside of David and his family’s home, but his yard was an adventure of its own! We got to try mini coconuts, more loquats, climb a great tree, meet the chickens, share wonderful meals, and learn a lot from a plant nerd! Squished into a teeny tiny lot on a narrow lane in Oakland stands a little yellow house surrounded by a jungle of PLANTS. There were cacti, a blueberry bush, a lemon tree, avocado trees, succulents, and a great number of other tropical plants. It was very well maintained and cherished too, complements to the gardener.