March 11 -- Reno River Walk

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Walking south toward the river.  Flowering tree in front of embellished parking structure.

Here's the river.  With mountain in the distance.  I bet you get some nice views from that apartment building in the upper left.

Magnolia.

Lots of birds in the river.  Mallards, and Canada geese, and mergansers, which I do not think I'd ever seen before.

Mr. Merganser.  Duck-shaped, but ... that's a skinny red beak, not a familiar flat duck's bill.

The black and white guys with the skinny red beaks were hanging out with these gray and white birds with the auburn heads.

When I got back to the hotel room, I looked them up and learned they were mergansers (which, the info I found said, are a kind of duck), and that the gray ones are the females.  They have a crest of auburn feathers which they can raise.  I didn't see anything that looked like a crest on the males, but maybe it's there and I didn't see it.........

I crossed the river and went to the food co-op, which is just another block south and part of a block east.  We had trouble finding any fruit to buy, near the hotel, so I was glad to find a selection of apples.  I bought several kinds, including Pinata and Opal, neither of which I'd had before.

The food co-op was the first place I'd stepped into in Reno that was a place I would choose to go in my ordinary life.  It was just like the food co-op here in Ann Arbor.  Very familiar and comfortable.  I got some goat yogurt, and a salad, in addition to my apples.

The Opal apple I bought at the co-op was yellow.  Not as bright as this daffodil, but just as solid yellow.  No green.

This daffodil was in front of the apartment building we saw above that looks over the river.

These are not very good pictures of flowers, but I was so glad to be seeing flowers that I have to show you anyway.  Bradford pear.

All kinds of stuff going on in the centers.............

The food co-op is on Court Street, which runs right by the court building.  If you keep going west on Court Street, you go past a lot of really nice houses.  No squalor.  It seemed like these houses mostly (or entirely?) are offices, rather than dwellings.  Lots of law offices.  Not a surprise, so close to the courthouse.

They were all nicely taken care of, and had interesting details, like square *and* round pillars for the little front porch.

The also clearly had interesting plantings, even though most things were still dormant.  Lots of trees with no leaves, yet, like this next one, which has cool bark. 

Here's another interesting little house -- note the side of the house at the left side of the image below is rounded.  I don't think I've ever seen that before..........  A mostly square house with one round section?   Note also pink flowers at right.  I think it is a plum, but wouldn't swear to it.

After a stroll partway up Court Street, and back down, now we are about to cross the river back toward the casinos.  There was a lot of water in the river, in mid-March.  I imagine that in summer there is a lot less.

Here's someone we know well -- a robin.

There is a bit of park, here and there, along the river.  (Oddly, there are basically no benches.....)  I think they are working to develop this part of town to be more attractive and conducive to walking and enjoying.  There is art -- see the big butterfly?  It rotates........  The railings in the bottom right corner are a footbridge across the river.

Isn't this pretty?  My salad from the co-op.  It's quinoa tabouleh, and it was tasty.  Hooray for healthy food.

I keep a little metal spoon in my fanny pack, in case I might need to eat a yogurt, or a salad.  I bought this one in a dollar store (well, ok, a euro store) in Venice, in Italy, in 2013.  It makes me happy to use it now, remembering buying it in Venice.



Looking north.  Interesting sky behind a casino, a church, telephone poles, and a bunch of other stuff.  Note flowering tree in lower right.....

Looking west up the river.

Appreciating the sky and the mountains.

Looking west again.  Here is the footbridge.

Looking east.  That blue thing, right center, is a band shell in a bit of park. 

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