Lincoln center reserved parking

By Ned MacKay | East Bay Regional Park DistrictPUBLISHED: October 14, 2019 at 5:00 am | UPDATED: October 14, 2019 at 5:12 am All things Western will be celebrated in style Oct. 19 at the Cowboy Hootenanny in southern Alameda County’s Sunol Regional Wilderness. Activities at the event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. will include live folk and bluegrass music, hands-on ranching activities and general celebration of the park’s homesteading history. Food will be available for purchase at the event that’s free, but there is a parking fee of $5 per vehicle. Besides the Cowboy Hootenanny, Sunol Wilderness offers Wild Wonders from 2 to 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 27. Each session is a way to discover the natural world through games, activities and explorations — great for families. Sunol Regional Wilderness is at the end of Geary Road off Calaveras Road about 5 miles south of Interstate 680 and the town of Sunol. For information, call 510-544-3249. Near … [Read more...] about Park It: Kick up your heels at Sunol’s Cowboy Hootenanny

An absolutely stunning strolling garden, Otaguro Park is a Tokyo gem almost unknown to the rest of the city. Once the home of former music critic Motoo Otaguro, the estate was given over to Suginami City after his passing in the late seventies and turned into the garden it is today. It's almost unfortunate to have separate the highlights here; there are so many of them and they all begin at the entrance gate. Walking in, the pathway from the gate is lined with a series of gingko trees whose gorgeous golden shadings in autumn really are a sight to behold. Further on, the garden opens up to feature some beautifully established and maintained traditional Japanese garden elements - viewing platforms which choice views, a pond filled with koi carp, a stone bridge, an obligatory waterfall and seasonal colours of the garden's flora. The stone paved walkway winds its way through the garden with Motoo Otaguro's home - a Western-styled architectural structure rare for its time - now a … [Read more...] about Otaguro Park

By Ned MacKay | East Bay Regional Park DistrictPUBLISHED: October 7, 2019 at 5:00 am | UPDATED: October 7, 2019 at 5:01 am Harold French was one of the leaders whose years of effort led to establishment of the East Bay Regional Park District. An avid hiker, French founded the Contra Costa Hills Club in 1920. His vision was to have a group similar to the Sierra Club, but with a more specific East Bay focus. From that time on, he worked tirelessly to protect the East Bay’s open spaces and promote establishment of public parklands. He wrote letters, served on committees and authored articles in local newspapers. French, Sibley and many other community activists worked for years to achieve their goal. Their efforts were rewarded when the East Bay Regional Park District became a reality in 1934. French died in 1962, and the French Trail in Redwood Regional Park is named in his honor. In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the Contra Costa Hills Club has funded construction of a … [Read more...] about Park It: Contra Costa Hills Club founder honored at Sibley

Private lake views and a show are a good enough reason to visit the Hamilton Lakes Basin. Author: Emily Pennington Publish date: Oct 8, 2019 The hike in was great—like, massive-gorges, snowcapped-peaks, knock-your-socks-off great. But it’s nothing—nothing—compared to the Hamilton Lakes basin. We crest the final set of switchbacks, and suddenly we stand before a blue jewel of a lake surrounded by thousand-foot-tall granite walls. This is Yosemite on steroids, a glacial cirque cut deep in the Great Western Divide. Each tick of the clock improves our already-awesome situation, as sunset turns the rock coral, then starlight begins to fleck the sky and, before I know it, I’ve got a front-row seat to the best dinner show in the Sierra. I don’t know how tomorrow could possibly be better, but I suspect it might be.  Turn-by-turn from the Crescent Meadow trailhead 1) Take the High Sierra Trail 10.6 miles east, threading together … [Read more...] about See a Perfect Sunset in Sequoia National Park, California

Updated 5:36 am CDT, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 LIEVIN, France (AP) — The Louvre has opened a new art conservation center some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Paris to protect the museum's priceless artworks from its flood-prone reserves. The Louvre Conservation Center was inaugurated Tuesday in Lievin in northern France, near another outpost of the museum, the Louvre-Lens. Protecting the museum's works from the nearby Seine River has taken on additional urgency in recent years, as severe floods in 2016 and 2018 forced the Louvre to evacuate artworks and close exhibits. Officials hope to store some 250,000 artworks at the new center in five years' time. About half of the newly-constructed building's sprawling space will house art from the famed Paris museum, the world's biggest. Conservation workrooms, study halls and a photo studio in the new center will be used for research. … [Read more...] about Louvre opens center to protect art from flooding