Woodward Park, Fresno, CA

Some weekends you just want to relax, stay in or just go out locally. Since I came to Fresno, I have been hearing a lot about Woodward Park, but have never had the chance to visit it. Today was the day. The temperature was forecast to be only 87 degrees Farenheit, so I was eager to get up early to feel the chills of a Sunday morning.

I arrived at Woodward Park at 8.30 AM and parked by Fresno Heart Hospital which is right across from the entrance to the park. The entry fee for a vehicle is $5, but since I just walked in, I had to pay nothing.

The views were really nice! I was glad to see some sort of water in a desert climate.

The abundance of gorgeous geese is undeniable! Some people were feeding them and I captured a really cool gathering.

There were some small creatures living in the ground, looked like squirrels:

Among amazing creatures there was this beautiful peacock:

I never realized that peacocks can fly!

Another cool find was Shinzen Japanese Garden. There is a separate entry fee of $5, but it was my favorite part of the park. It reminded me of Chicago Botanic Gardens I visited during my road trip a month ago.

Bonsai trees are located in another secluded area of the park, it is free to enter. It is amazing how some of the trees were over 250 years old!

Ordering with Alexa (Amazon.com)

I have to say I really liked the idea of ordering stuff with Alexa...

Unfortunately, this was not as easy as it seemed to be. I decided to place my initial order with Alexa because Amazon offered a $10 discount. I wanted to order compostable garbage bags, but Alexa would not recognize what I was saying and kept adding them to my shopping list. It's funny, but by the end of the ordering session after half an hour I had at least 25 compostable garbage bags to be purchased on my shopping list. The issue with Alexa is that she does not understand exactly what I want to order. Yes, it might be the accent, but my accent is not that strong. In fact, I never have an issue with Siri or Google when I use voice commands or even writing with my voice.

In any case, I also tried ordering paper towels, chocolate, storage supplies, but again Alexa would not place an order. She would not find the item I located on Amazon.com website when if I pronounced it exactly like the title stated. 

I was giving up and decided to order paper towels. Alexa would not find the right brand or size of the paper towels. Finally, I decided to go on the website and order it from there. I found out that my discount was already there. I placed an order on the website. In the future I don't think I'm going to be using Alexa at all for placing orders on Amazon. I use Alexa for playing music, listening to the flash briefing in the morning and adding items to my shopping list, but the list ends there. Hopefully, in the future Amazon further develops the device so that ordering is easier.

One day trip to Monterey, CA

Fresno, CA is a hot place to live in, so being relatively close to the coast, and Monterey, CA specifically, is a nice perk. Before leaving 100 degree Fahrenheit weather in Fresno, I check the forecast for Monterey. A whooping 62 degrees! That is 38 degrees lower! I wore pants for the first time since I came to California.

Since I wanted to make it a day trip, I headed out early at 7.30 AM. My first stop was Fort Ord Dunes State Park. The GPS brought me some weird way there, or so I thought, through a whole village of abandoned houses. Later I found out that used to be a US army post and was closed in 1994. It is now called Fort Ord National Monument preserving the abandoned buildings.

The park itself is a few minutes down the road. There is a small parking lot fitting maybe 45-50 cars, but on a cloudy day like this it was not that crowded. A few signs describe the park and the national monument:

There is a trail right by the parking lot leading to the beach. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the shoreline.

There are not many tourists or locals there, so it is a very peaceful place.

My next stop was at Lover's Point, which is a small park/viewing area right in the heart of Monterey, the area called Pacific Grove. It is filled with people, but for a reason, since the views are quite nice. There is also a walking trail along the shore.

And some people just don't pack lightly...

The next destination point was Garrapata State Park, but since it was rather difficult for my GPS to find it, I just stopped at the point saying "Garrapata State Park" along Route 1.

This was supposed to be my final destination for the day, but on the was back I saw multiple cars parked along the side of the road right by the entrance to Point Lobos State National Reserve. I was so glad I stopped there. The very first trail, the easiest and the shortest one, gave some unbelievable views:

Yes, this is why I came to California...

Apcal in Madera, CA

Everybody was talking about Apcal... So to find out what it is, I purchased a Groupon to one of the events there.

Apcal is outdoor venue / winery in Madera, CA. They generally have free events on Fridays, and other days the tickets are not more than $20, very affordable. You have to bring your own lawn chair, which was very strange to me. They serve different varieties of beer, wine and hard carbonated beverages. A bottle of wine cost me $22, very usual for a winery. Overall, it is a nice place, very low key. The only thing that I disliked is that allow smoking wherever you sit. Not cool in the 21st century...