My friend, Bev, and I share the same birthday, a few years apart.  We decided to enjoy an afternoon out together and had a delightful lunch at McCormick and Schmicks.  This is a picture of Bev with our appetizer 🙂

We had just returned from a long day running errands.  DH had Worship, so the boys and I had a night of movies ahead of us.  We all looked forward to a relaxing evening.

Then…

A: “Mom!  There’s a dead bat by the garbage!!”

Me: “Don’t touch it; I’m coming…” (I gather gloves and a bag…)

We see this cute, little bat, not moving.  I look at it for a few seconds, and even though it was perfectly still, I did not sense that it was dead.

So, I gently prodded it and it moved!!  But, just a little…I assumed it was a baby that may have fallen from our roof, although we have had no inkling that we had bats.

OK, on to Plan B…

I called animal control to see what I should do.  It was about 6pm, and I was concerned that all I would get was an answering machine, but thankfully they answered.  Animal control gave me the number for the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue.  Once again, I called, expecting to leave a message, but they also answered.  They said they would contact their bat expert and call me back within five minutes.

True to their word, I got a call back from ‘Porky’, a woman who runs Northern California Bats, a non-profit rescue, rehabilitation, and education agency.  She said she’d be happy to take the bat, but that she was in Davis.  We decided to split the difference and meet at a Starbucks in east Sacramento.

I tried to place the bat in a box and it immediately hung onto the lid.  I closed the bat with it hanging completely upside-down.

Porky inspected the bat and told us that is was a full grown female Mexican free-tail bat.  It would not be a baby this time of the year, and she said that the bats were in migration right now.  She was probably exhausted.  Mexican free-tails are found in the western United States, south through Mexico, Central America and into northern South America.

She showed us how the bat was malnourished and showed where there should have been fat pockets, but they are depleted.  She opened the wings to show the boys her wingspan and the poor thing was riddled with mites. No wonder she was exhausted and dehydrated!

We all felt pleased that we were able to help this little being and grateful that appropriate support was available.

On the way home from Filoli, I did not take Bay area rush hour traffic into account.  I missed an exit and ended up in downtown San Francisco, just as a Giants game was about to begin.  Instead of getting back into the mess, we decided to have dinner in San Francisco and get home late.

SO GLAD WE DID!

We ended up going to one of our family faves, The Franciscan.  The water view of Alcatraz, boats, a charming El Salvadoran waiter, seal playing among the gulls, and a roasted crab before me, all made for delightful meal.

We walked Fisherman’s Wharf after dinner to Ghiradelli Square.  While Lola was sharing a story, I noticed a woman dressed in pink Pippi-longstalking attire, riding a bike, up the hill, with bubbles flowing out the back of her bike.  Just as I was processing what I saw, a bunch of bikes followed her…then a bunch more…then…ummm….was that a guy wearing a geeeee-string?….no, they must be flesh colored tights….no, they’re not…more bikes….a police escort….what in the world is this?…more bikes….GAH, there’s a biker wearing absolutely nothing!…more bikes….now, two women topppp-lessss…really?  Well, we are in San Francisco after all.  Lola hollered out to the bikers asking what is going on.  One biker (fully clothed), pulled over and said it was ‘Critical Mass’, a monthly bike ride on the last Friday of the month.  There is no set route or distance.  Bikers just ride together.  This evening, there had to have been at least 200 bikes.

Winchester in the morning, Filoli in the afternoon…

What a wonderful property!  We had the best tour guide!  (Genella Williamson).  She has been providing tours for 30 years, yet still makes it sound like something new for her to discover as well.  She especially expressed delight with new flowers she would find in the garden.  If I were to return by myself, I would probably go with a different guide just to hear different stories, but if I were to bring friends, I would try to get her again.

Filoli was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, prominent San Franciscans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine, a hard-rock gold mine in Grass Valley, California. (we toured Empire Mine with the Cheneys).  Mr. Bourn was also owner and president of the Spring Valley Water Company.

Mr. Bourn arrived at the unusual name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”

Filoli has been in many films, but most famously, it is the mansion seen from the air in the opening credits of the television series Dynasty.

I took a ton of pictures at this property.  It was brutally hard to pare down to what I have posted…

The white wisteria that ran along the front left corner of the house…

We were only able to tour the first floor due to safety limitations of the home.  This is a home protected by a historic home agency and nothing is able to be added to the property that would change it, and that includes fire escapes or elevators.

Practically every room had at least one gorgeous bouquet.  All of the flowers came from the Filoli garden…

This wisteria in the back was stunning!  I love wisteria and my senses were on overload with all the beauty…

This is the same white wisteria that is in the first picture, wrapped around to the side of the house…

Our morning was spent at the incredible Winchester Mystery House.  You see billboards marketing this all over the Bay area.  It is an amazing property with an even more amazing story.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, and the website does not do it justice.  You just need to take the tour to really get a sense of the house.

Sarah Winchester, widowed after 16 years of marriage to the owner of Winchester rifles, and also having lost her baby daughter to disease, grieving and depressed, Sarah sought out a psychic.  The psychic alluded that the spirits that were killed by Winchester rifles were responsible for killing her family and that she might be next.  To appease the spirits, the psychic suggested she move west and build a great house for them.  She was to constantly build on to the house.

Sooooo, Sarah moved to San Jose, and began building.  Bringing 20 million dollars with her (yes, 20 million…), she purchased an eight room house and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 38 years, the house was constantly being built and remodeled.  The eight rooms went on to 160, 110 of which we saw on the tour.  There’s just too much to mention on this blog.  Sarah was crazy yet brilliant.  If you have time, it’s worth visiting their website to learn more.

Here are some exterior and garden shots…

I have a friend who I have known since 1990.  We worked together at the Edgewater Inn Hotel in Seattle.  She now lives in Portland.  She came down for five nights and we filled the days with fun, laughter, nostalgia, and car dancing…

David and some wonderful friends of ours(Crystal and Katie),  watched the boys so Lola and I could go away for the night.

We drove to the San Jose area and had a yummy sushi lunch in Saratoga Village.  I wish we had time to explore this quaint and charming town, but we had a date with the redwoods…

Big Basin Redwood State Park, the oldest state park in California.

After a great afternoon of quaint town, yummy sushi, curvy roads, BIIIGGGG trees, and lovely vistas, we were ready for dinner and bed.  Had a terrific Thai dinner at a little restaurant in San Jose, then crashed for another full day.