Adventuring: Day-Tripping in Berkeley's Elmwood District

We decided to capitalize on the fact that Daddy took the entire week off as a birthday present to himself by going out and adventuring today.

We started by running Zoe at Tilden Park, where I got some more upcloseandpersonal pictures of her in all her super cuteness. Only this week, it was more cloudy and quite windy, so the colors aren’t as bright as last week.

{My Puppy. <3}

{See? Cloudy.}

 The downside about having a Border Collie in a decently urban area is that leash laws aren’t the greatest… that is to say, hyper dog + nowhere to go off-leash = not good. We thought we’d finally found a spot to run her to her little heart’s content in this wide open, grassy meadow area…

… but no. Today we found out someone’s trying to sue Tilden for not enforcing the leash laws strictly enough, so no more vast green expanses for our fuzzbutt.
Sad day.

Since we were right next to Berkeley, we thought we’d stop by Ici Ice Cream and see what all the fuss is about. Turns out, cold, foggy days mean lots of parking available, so we got a spot right down the street. Last time we tried to get some ice cream, it was sunny and thus, the nearest parking space was four blocks away. Yay for cold dessert on cold days! Who needs sun to eat ice cream anyways?

{Pinterest via Unknown}

{It IS. Especially if it's some form of chocolate}

As we walked towards our destination, we got sidetracked by Treehouse Green Gifts. It’s the cutest store that I honestly think I could spend all day and a ridiculous amount of money in if I were allowed.

Apologies that some of the pictures didn’t turn out as sharp or as bright as I’d like… If and whenever we go back, I’ll try to do better…

I want that middle painting. It’s so colorful and cheery and it has birds. In trees. Who doesn’t love that?

Look! Jellyfish!

 And MOUSTACHE CLIPS. Seriously? That’s pretty awesome.

I couldn’t take pictures of every last thing that made me stop and ogle ‘cause then I would have been in there for ages and ages and ages and my parentals wanted ice cream, darn it! So here’re a few of the various companies & their websites I texted myself {oh yeah, I’m so cool} so that I could look them up later {which is now}.¹

And this ridiculously hilarious notebook was from Elmwood Stationers a few shops farther down. Love it!

I should’ve taken pictures of our ice cream, I know, but one, it was cloudy and outdoor pictures always look so sad when it’s not blazing sunlight and ice cream deserves blazing sunlight to do it justice, and two, it was yummy. And we ate it before I remembered. Oops.

I can personally recommend the Malted Vanilla Gingersnap, though I’m a bit confused over the ‘Malted’ part of that flavor… but that’s probably because I don’t know what ‘Malted’ tastes like. What’re my taste buds supposed to be looking for? *curious look* Hm.

Besides my gingerbread-man-esque ice cream, the cone was like a crispy crepe… and they have chocolate at the bottom so that your ice cream doesn’t leak out, but I was so full by the time I got halfway down the cone, my mom ate mine. Now that it’s late at night, I want it back. *grins* Oh, midnight cravings. How you taunt me.

I love adventuring and the slobbery kisses of a happy dog. What makes your day?

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¹ Oh. I forgot to look these up. Look for a post tomorrow filled with prettiful things! *grins*