I left the house at around nine a.m. and walked first to Arizmendi, where I filled up my SF Giants travel cup with coffee. Then I set off northward into Golden Gate Park. After a long night of rain, the sky was now mostly blue, with a few fleecy scattered clouds sailing in from the ocean. I walked past the botanical gardens, whose gates were still locked, and onward past its bamboo hedged fence. After a short distance I crossed the road and climbed a short, paved hill leading to the path that circumnavigates Stowe Lake.

I stopped at the edge of the lake for a moment, sitting down upon a cold, flat boulder, and looked out on the rippling, green water. There is an island in the center and I could see people walking around its outer path through the curtain of low brush. The intense morning sunlight had dried most of the rain on the concrete path, but the grass was still very wet, as were most of the benches.

I decided to walk all the way around the lake, which takes about thirty minutes. Though it still felt fairly early, many people were about, doing the same thing. Most of them were properly dressed for exercise, unlike me, wearing jeans and a soon-to-be-sweaty hooded pullover. As I walked, I listened to my footfalls and the cries of a dozen different species of birds, all around me.

Mostly I saw mallard ducks with iridescent green heads. Also, gangs of pigeons standing around a trash can, picking seeds out of the mud. Jet-black grackles, hopping across the path and looking up at me warily. One gigantic gull with a wide wingspan landing in the lake. A bright blue jay, who was standing in the center of the path until I came along. A duck large enough to be a chicken, with white and black feathers, who was sleeping on one foot in the shade under a tree. A white swan, way off in the distance. A crane, flying overhead with long legs trailing limp behind it. Little fat brown birds that I could not name. And finally, once I was finally all the way around the lake, I was rewarded by the sight of a family of geese: a mother and father with long black necks, swimming serenely near the bank with their six tiny goslings, who were all comically adorable in their coats of yellow fuzz.

I also spied a squirrel, many blue forget-me-nots, wild monstera delicioso plants, and a zillion other flowers that I can’t identify by name. I drank my coffee and listened to a podcast. When I finally left the park again, I walked back to Arizmendi and picked up a pecan roll for Brian.