Maybelle

We have littered the front yard at Maybelle with our campers!  Yes, there is a house behind all those things.  This entry is really about the street, the experience of the street and Dee and Marty's experience on the street.

This is the view up the street.  This is known as being one of the steepest (if not the steepest) hill in Oakland!  There is a ritual now too, Dee and Marty have become part of the "morning ritual" where the Chinese women walk up the hill at least two times and often do Tai Chi between walking up and down.  The hill is over 1/4 mile in length so doing the hill twice means a solid one mile walk and if you are a Chinese lady doing it four times you get double the mileage.  The lower part of the hill is "reasonable" but the last half gets steeper very quickly and by the time you reach the top you are panting and your legs know that you have been working out.

The Chinese ladies are wonderful.  They greet Dee and Marty every day and it is such a nice way to start the day as well.

The photo below looks down from about 1/3 of the way up.

This is California and with the weather they get here one easily grows oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit in their yards.  This tree has a sign requesting that people "NOT" pick the lemons!

And being California, everything grows well here.  There are some wonderful front and side yards with flowers of all colors and fragrances too.  It is wonderful to walk by them in the morning!

Another lovely yard!

Below, Emily and Theo's fresh citrus!

One of the most interesting things on the street though is this box.  It is a free library and passers-by may borrow a book, leave a book, take a book.  If the book doesn't fit into the box the residents have requested that you put the book in the box on their porch!  Pretty cool.  We had heard about these "libraries" on public radio some time back and so this was a treat to see one.

House with the library!

So, being on Maybelle has been quite an experience for both the ladies.