Birthday Trip, final part

In some newspaper I read about a new donut place in Redlands, which serves an unusual selection (e.g., orange blossom, miso caramel banana). I was tempted by the carrot cake donut

In the end I had my favorite, an old fashioned, and D. had vanilla.

From there we cycled the same route. It was less drizzly but still hard to get good views. After showering and packing up we drove to campus to walk around. 

We enjoyed walking around, but did wonder if students cycle, walk, or use transit to get to town. Or maybe they just stay on campus?

We did not take a tour of the most famous house in town, 

"time takes all but memories"

but thoroughly explored the grounds.

We drove by a few more houses on the way to lunch. We were too late for the orange season but bought some local avocados.

There was a pop-up bakery serving a hot lunch and there were three little libraries to explore while waiting for our lunch.

I am not sure why I chose this, but it made me smile.

The whole weekend made me smile! I love taking tiny vacations that are not too far from home.

Solstice

According to an internet search summer begins in seventeen minutes.  It seemed like a perfect time to visit the new sundial, although this solstice always makes me sad.  The days are getting shorter and even though I don't feel the sense of impending doom of winter, is it a little melancholy.

Sundial

While waiting for friends I had a chance to examine the sundial at Larkin Park, including the plaque in memory of Dr. Ralph B. Larkin.  Unfortunately it reads the correct time less than half the year because it is set for standard time, but of course you can add an hour during daylights savings time.

Some of these symbols are no surprise (Taurus, Sagittarius, Aquarius), but I had no idea how the other symbols came to be (Virgo's is a sheaf of barley??  Pisces is two fish tied together?).  I guess I have never been good at seeing constellations, either.

You can tell this picture was taken in a different season than the photo above 

because of the location of the (almost) noon shadow).

After the walk I tried to learn more about Dr. Larkin, but was distracted by information about this sundial and lots of information about sundials in general.  I love learning new words like gnomon the thing that casts the shadow) and analemma (the figure-eight shape of the shadow over the course of the year).  Maybe I'll become a gnomonist (amateur sundial enthusiast).