Today was mainly a travel day and my last real vacation day. I only had to return to Terry’s and Kimberly’s house in time to watch the Texas vs. Texas Tech game. Although Point Reyes isn’t far from Pinole as the crow flies, it could very well be in a different world. Speaking of which, I decided to visit Muir Woods on the way back to Pinole.
Today was the first day the fog didn’t lift around 9, so it was a bit of a cloudy, cool day all throughout the area. Apparently someone’s having a wedding in Olema and the Lodge is full of white people. Oy! I haven’t seen so much LL Bean, comb overs, and cotton sweaters in one place since I stayed at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas (and saw Burt Bacharach in the elevator). Aunts, cousins, nephews, and frat buddies. It reeked of Elaine Robinson’s wedding to Carl Smith, makeout king of his fraternity, in The Graduate.
After packing and checking out, I first visited the Point Reyes Farmer’s Market, held weekly at Toby’s. This was, to put it mildly, a freak show. Guys playing bongos and tambourines, women dancing with scarves, the local NPR station broadcasting live. What is going on here? On the other hand, the various sellers were interesting. There were five or six excellent purveyors of outstanding looking produce. Also representing were companies or farmers selling oysters, honey, milk, eggs, cheese, tea, other kinds of shellfish, and yarn. One of the chefs at a local restaurant was giving a lesson on shellfish cooking, though when I walked by he was meticulously making toast. As I walked over to the little Point Reyes Community Garden, a hippyish, yet attractive, young mother gently spoke to her daughter, who was at that moment pounding a little boy mercilessly with her fists, saying “gentle, Clementine, gentle.” Right. Madam, you, quite frankly, don’t have a clue. I thought at that moment that Miss Birdie would absolutely have handled her business in that situation. The pounding would quickly have stopped. No “cajoling” or “persuasion” would have occurred.
After leaving, I leisurely headed south past Point Reyes to Muir Woods. Basically, you take Route 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) further south, then take Muir Woods Road just after the PCH turns east right after Muir Beach. This stretch of road was even windier and twistier than the sections I encountered last Tuesday. To make it worse, fog was battling to take over the sky the entire drive. Sometimes it would push far inland and envelope the entire area. Keep driving another 10 minutes, however, and you leave all trace of fog behind and its clear blue sky. Fog kept coming and going all day long. You could even see it moving across the sky, like some cloud-like creature bent on destruction in Star Trek. On top of that, hordes of suited up bicyclists insisted on riding in the outside lane, which has no bicycle lane (as do many other Northern California streets). If you didn’t pass them, you’d have to go incredibly slow, particularly on uphill segments. If you did, you had to worry about oncoming cars and trucks at turns. These factors made an already drive much more treacherous.
As I approach Muir Woods, I can tell from a couple of miles away its packed. Cars were parked far outside of the entrance gates, with families of all shapes and sizes walking to and away from the park. This has me dumbfounded. I’d have thought that San Franciscans have incredibly interesting things to do during the day other than drive out to Marin County and hug trees. You know, a busy San Francisco life, filled with animal sacrifices, watching snuff films, sniffing paint fumes, badmouthing America, and leading that week’s Gay Pride parade. On the other hand, at least these parents aren’t taking their kids to Chuck E. Cheese or the mall, so I can’t be too upset about it.
When I arrived, it was still kind of gloomy, clammy weather, which is perfect for visiting Muir Woods. But throughout the couple of hours I was there, it cleared up, got cloudy again, cleared up, got foggy, then cleared up. Pretty typical. Muir Woods essentially is a small (295 acres) old-growth redwoods forest valley on the side of Mount Tamalpais, a really scenic point in Marin County, with other trails and attractions. Its original owners purchased it initially to preserve it from logging, and when a local water utility was prepared to condemn it to build a dam, the owners convinced the federal government to accept the land as a gift to protect it from further threats. It’s a really special place. Something about the light and the air give it a time stands still sort of feeling. I’ve been there before when salmon have been swimming in Redwood Creek, which runs through the middle of the park. Being at the park in person really makes you understand why Hitchcock filmed some of the Carlotta Valdes scenes for Vertigo here. Muir Woods, with its two thousand year old redwoods, perfectly complemented someone who supposedly had come back from the dead. The place has long been a favorite, but I have to admit that after having spent so much time in a much larger old-growth redwood forest up the coast, Muir Woods has lost a little of its oomph. Don’t get me wrong, its still maple syrup wrapped in chocolate and covered in hugs, but maybe now it doesn’t have candy sprinkles like before. Muir Woods is a little tidier, a little more orderly, and a little more accessible to the tourist hordes than the redwood forests to the north. But it still retained much of its wonder, particularly when the clouds rolled back and sunlight streamed through these magnificent trees.
After finishing at Muir Woods, I tried to head to Pinole via the city so that I could pull off at the Marin Headlands and get a great photo of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. First I went through Mill Valley, perhaps the whitest of the white liberal, hot tubber areas of Marin County. But they were having their Fall Arts Festival and the town was absolutely packed. So I decided to head on to the city. Very oddly, however, fog had completely socked in the entire city even though Mill Valley, just a few miles up the road, was very clear. One could not even see the bridge from just a few hundred feet away on the 101. Yet, right up to that point, it was still a clear, bright shining day in Marin County. So I decided to head into Sausalito and look around for a bit. Sausalito is sort of a weekend getaway destination for Bay Area residents. It has numerous shops and restaurants right along the main street facing the Bay. Today, however, it was so completely packed I didn’t even try to park, but just drove straight on through to loop around the city and hit the 101 headed back to the north, where I’d take the 580 East through Richmond, garden spot of the universe, and loop into Pinole where Terry and Taffy were waiting on me right as kickoff began.
Next-coming home and vacation highlights.
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