Last week when the Hub and I were taking our evening constitutional we saw a sight we had yet to see since moving to Benicia. This happy little seal was basking in the evening sun. Just laying there smiling at us as we walked by. I said hello and snapped a pic or two. I would love to have seen him bobbing through the waters of the Benicia Harbor.
Here is a pic of the back of Benicia City Hall. I just love this building. It was designed in 1925 by George Sellon of Sacramento in the Tudor Revival style. It's made of beautiful adobe bricks. The interior is reminiscent of the Mission Style, with many of the offices coming off a center courtyard. It is the most architecturally distinguished public building in Benicia, and was originally the Benicia High School. There is a plan to renovate the parking lot because, man, it's ugly. Rippling blacktop, leaning retaining walls and, hold onto your hats, Quonset huts. I'll shove a pic of the Quonset huts on a later blog. They're actually pretty cool, but detract from the Tudor style just a tad.
As promised in a previous post, above is a better picture of our gorgeous firehouse, built in the Craftsman style.
A couple of days ago, while walking with The Dot, we noticed this freighter going under the Carquinez Bridge. It was moving along very quickly and it was HUGE.
At the end of West F Street, there is a little park with some picnic benches. One evening The Hub and I sat for a bit and enjoyed the breezes. The tide was high and it was refreshing.
This is my favorite house on West E Street. I don't know why. I guess I like the fact that you can't see the front door. I think you have to meander down a walkway to the right and happen upon it almost by accident. I haven't tried it yet.
The Brother-in-Law sailed his boat into the harbor last week for a nice long visit. It was a lovely stay. He offered to take us out on the boat so we could see Benicia from the water. I took a bazillion pictures. Most of them looked just like this one. Mostly I'm a pretty awful sailor. Mostly we were tipped rather precariously. He said we were at 15 degrees but I happen to know it was more like 45. We didn't take on any water, though. And we made it back to shore without getting wet, so I count that as a success.
It was recently the 4th of July here in Benicia. In the true Small Town spirit, Benicia really celebrated! We had a good old fashioned parade on July 3rd, complete with the Armed Forces and the Firefighters. Unfortunately the police were only working, they weren't represented in the parade. I wonder why. Police get a bum rap. They always get the worst facilities and the least praise. Our police department is actually housed in a pretty cool historic building. It's the old Benicia High School, right up the street (pics to follow in a different post), but it's an old building that also houses other city services. As we've seen before, the fire fighters have a new, gorgeous facility built in the Arts and Crafts style. AND they're represented in the parade. :( Poor police.
