Quirky Davis

Davis is bicycle-crazed. Davis is greener than green. But would you believe that here in Davis even the wildlife is quirky? This is old news to my Davis readers, but I imagine the rest of you will find this hard to imagine. So let me start at the beginning…

Davis has what we call an "arboretum" that runs through the UC Davis campus. Our arboretum isn't full of the typical tulips and water lilies, though. It's full of every type of tree, bush, and plant imaginable. We even have giant redwood trees! There's also a walk/run/bike path that borders a creek of sorts, and the creek opens out into small lakes in two spots. (Or maybe large ponds?) Understandably, the Arboretum attracts a LOT of small wildlife, from ducks to geese to turtles to rabbits.

But…even the wildlife in Davis is quirky. This time of year the ducks are nesting. They tend to pair off and then stray from the "pack," each couple seeking out their own little home. Two of these ducks have taken up residence just outside the back of the law school building, in a little water-logged ditch of some sorts. Weird. Sometimes they're floating in the water, sometimes sleeping on a patch of grass next to the water. This morning they had a bunny friend joining them, as if this little mud ditch is some kind of watering hole! Maybe you'd have to see it to fully understand, but let me tell this is quirky enough for me to laugh every morning as I pass on my way into the building.


Leave it to Nature to be resourceful. And leave it to quirky Davis to inspire even the wildlife to strike out on their own path.

Shhh...

Did you hear? Davis has a secret.

It's common knowledge that Davis cares about its carbon footprint. In fact we're so green, that the Davis city council voted not to sell or offer bottled water at any community events. If you're parched and you forgot to pack your own, you're out of luck.

It's also common knowledge that Davis believes in slow growth and buying local. We've resisted major expansion for years. And we've done well.

Nevertheless, Davis has a secret.

Last fall Target moved in. Soon after my hubby was sitting on bleachers watching our toddler's gymnastics class. Our daughter boisterously cried out, "We're going to Target today!" Several moms from her preschool were sitting just in front of my hubby. They nodded knowingly. Then they leaned in very close to each other. One asked, "Have you been to the new Target yet?" Everybody nodded slowly. Then, ever so quietly, the first mom whispered, "Yeah, I love the new Target."

We try not to talk about it openly, but it's true. And it's not just my toddler or a single mom at gymnastics class. Davis residents love the box store that has descended on our little hippy town.

You'll keep our secret, won't you? Please do.

The Disappointed Foodie

I vowed to myself that I would not use my "Local Greats" series to blast the Internet with more negativity. There's already plenty of it out there. I conceived of the "Local Greats" portion of the blog with the proverb "If you don't have something nice to say, say nothing at all" firmly in mind.

But...

I've had a few too many bad experiences recently to be completely silent. I have two principle complaints:

Gripe #1: I'm tired of choosing between good food and good service. Davis is small, so there are very few restaurants to choose from. The nicer establishments seem to cater to an older crowd. If you look even the slightest bit youthful, they don't give you the time of day. Result = snooty service. Or, if it's one of the less nice establishments, the food is generally good and the customers are fairly non-discriminating. Result = bad service because nobody cares anyway. Where, oh where, are the restaurants that boast BOTH great food AND great service?

Gripe #2: Vegetarians always seem to get the short end of the stick. For Valentine's Day my hubby and I went out for a fancy dinner. I checked online several times and never found a special Valentine's menu posted, so I scoped out the vegetarian options on the restaurant's regular menu. (Normally, there are many.) When we showed up for dinner, they presented us with a pricey, meat-laden, multi-course prix fixe menu. I inquired on whether they would be able to accommodate vegetarians for all of the courses since their limited menu wasn't posted in advance. They acted pretty put out, but they presented us with the handful of vegetarian options they were already offering. So we ate. And we enjoyed it (except for the cold soup!).

Then during the meal it became clear that everybody else was served additional courses for their prix fixe meal. So not only did we have no choice in what we ate, not only did we have to pay the price of a meat-laden multi-course meal (which costs the restaurant far more to make than a vegetarian meal), but the restaurant apparently had no problem eliminating an entire course from our menu after I specifically asked whether we would get all of the courses. Classy, right? But we didn't make a scene. We moved on.

Then when my husband received an email asking that he review the restaurant, he did. He was honest about what happened, but very fair. A few days later the restaurant owner emailed him saying that he should apologize for his review. Did you get that? The restaurant asked him to apologize for being honest about their service.

All I can is, WOW! These people really don't get what service is about, do they? And why are vegetarians second-class citizens at nicer restaurants? This is a college town in California where vegetarians are absolutely rampant! Do they really want to eliminate us from their clientele?

In the end, these gripes really disappoint me. I'm starting to feel like from now on I'm going to have to cook every nice meal that I eat. So, very, sad.

Silly Davis

I think it's fair to say that the city where I live is one-of-a-kind. To begin, it's both a college town and a hippie haven. Davis is located in the middle of an agricultural hotbed, in close proximity to expansive farmland and wine country. The university's research includes everything from beer brewing to breeding cows with windows in their stomachs. And Davis is widely known for its green living.

It's an understatement to say that Davis residents like their bikes ~ we love our bikes.


The bicycle is our favored mode of transportation AND our city's logo. We have children on bikes, adults on bikes, old-fashioned bikes, and bike races throughout the year. We even house the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.



I know all of these things, but I was still slightly surprised when I saw this on the street:



What you're looking at is a bicycle with a home-built wagon attached to it. I'm not sure why the wagon is necessary, since it doesn't seem big enough to carry anything beyond the single person on the bike. There's a little note posted on the back, probably with some social action message on it. (Although I was never able to get close enough to read it.) And the guy peddling it thought nothing of riding all around town in it.

You see, this is Davis. And in Davis nothing, particularly nothing related to green transportation, is all that out of the ordinary. Take our double-decker bus that frequents the most popular route for students to travel to campus:



Looks efficient, right?