Nice weather + day off = time for a little road trip.
We don't have a goal in mind, but we decide to go north.
Have you seen The Bridge?
It's really interesting. Except for all the depressing stuff about suicide. I would have enjoyed it so much more without the suicide, and the people constantly talking about suicide. Geez!
This is what it looks like on the other side.
And there's San Francisco.
For whatever reason, the north bay (like the east bay) does not gel in my mind. So, no matter how many times I visit or travel through, it always feels a little bit like the first time. I could get to downtown Sonoma or Guerneville without a map, and I know where to have brunch in San Rafael. Point Bonita is nice. The houseboats in Sausalito are groovy (and I should show them to you sometime). I visit CalFlora in Fulton now and then (an especially good nursery because they sell an uncommonly large number of plants in 4" pots). But other than that, I feel like a virgin every time I go north of San Francisco. (Or east.) Outside the City, I'm more of a Peninsula slash South Bay slash Silicon Valley slash Santa Cruz kinda fella. And I've lived in the Bay Area all my life (except for two years when I went to graduate school in Atlanta). So it's kind of weird.
This is Marin County, looking east from Highway 101.
But now we're heading north and west on Highway 1.
It's pretty, but the road is treacherous, and I got a little queasy today.
I was 8 years old the last time that happened, so it took me a while to figure out what was going on.
By this point, I was downright nauseated but didn't want to say anything.
The Pacific is on the left, so the marine influence is strong here.
Traffic is surprisingly light considering that it's Sunday, and nice out. Is everyone at home watching the football game? (How depressing. But it's nice to have an open road. Even though I'm seriously about to throw up.)
The plant palette is ninety percent artemesia, baccharis, and lupine.
By Stinson Beach I break down and tell Guy I need to stop or I'm going to blow chunks in his car.
Surely, this is among the most geographically isolated town within a short distance of San Francisco. What are some other contenders?
My stomach settles down, and we get back on the road. We find a place in Point Reyes to park and take a little walk.
Those blue posts mark the San Andreas Fault. This is an educational trail near the visitor center.
This fenceline used to be continuous. On April 18, 1906 the part on the left broke away and moved 20 feet north from the part up on the right.
After this, we had lunch in Olema and took Sir Frances Drake through San Rafael to come home.
15 comments:
Would this post have been more fun without all the talk about me nearly vomiting?
Actually, the pictures and your conversation were making my stomach feel a little funny. When we go for drives in the mountains, not on the interstate, especially in western North Carolina, it nearly always gets to me. Very suggestible, is that the correct spelling? That was how good your descriptions were!
Howdy Chuck,
This is my old familiar backyard.
Pretty much I knew exactly where you were when you took each of your photos.
I love this part of N. Cal.
Guess that makes me a North Bay Goil.
I feel at home in Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Mendocino more so than the South Bay or the East Bay or Silicone Valley or the Peninsula .
Glad you had a chance to enjoy the North Bay today, the weather was beautiful, but it was too bad you had to endure a queezy upset stomach.
- Not fun no matter where you are traveling -.
Nice bridge photos by the way !
Have a good week,
Michelle in Marin.
If I had moved to the area the North Bay is where I would have gone. When I left the city and crossed the bridge getting into Marin was like a huge sigh of relief. It was so beautiful.
Stinson Beach is where this Florida boy first set foot in the Pacific Ocean and screamed from the cold of the water and ran back to the sand in bewilderment. I had sat there and just watched people actually get in that water.
Well, I find your commentary hilarious, although don't get me wrong, I'm sorry you were not feeling well. I love seeing your trips - its like I'm right there.
Ah, yes, the shock of the cold Pacific. It has to do with the Earth's rotation. And how very deep the Pacific is compared to the Atlantic.
You see, the Earth rotates east, and the rotation is fastest at the equator. So water at the equator flows west. The equatorial current bifurcates north and south when it hits Asia. Then it goes up to the Arctic Circle and gets very cold before circling back down to California.
A cold ocean offshore is a key player in a Mediterranean climate. Mediterranean climates only occur on the west coasts of continents.
California has warm beach water south of Point Conception (Santa Barbara).
"Al's Alleged Antiques" LOL! Your trip brought back memories of when DH & I went to SF for his business trip. On the weekend, we rented a car & drove north. I had to lean out the window, but I got a great shot of the bridge. It was so lovely in Marin County. We spent a couple hours drinking Margaritas at Jimmy Buffet's restaurant on the water. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your trip as much.
I had the good fortune to visit SF, Napa and Sonoma in '06 and '05 with the Equipment Manager. We came back in '06 because we loved it and it is so different from New England. I found the bridge so much more impressive than any picture shows! Thanks for your little tour and I hope you are feeling better!
I enjoyed your trip--the bridge railing shot is absolutely beautiful!--but I'm also sorry that you didn't feel so hot. (And like Mr. McG's Daughter, I am still grinning at Al's "Alleged" Antiques!)
You have my sympathy, Chuck - I've traveled for half-a-century in that unhappy condition - if it weren't for Dramamine I couldn't fly.
Unlike your other commenters all the places you take us are new to me, and like the other commenters I'm crazy about the way you deluge us with great photos and commentary that makes us feel like we're there with you.
Imagining you plunked down in Atlanta for 2 years is beyond my powers, however!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Ha, my friends went to Stinson on Sunday too and saw DiFi there.
I was home watching football. It was AWESOME.
Next time you go on a curvy road trip chew a couple of Meclizine tablets an hour or so before you leave. For me it works MUCH better than Dramamine (sp?)My big test was sitting in the back seat while friends tootled all over the spagetti roads of Nevada City. Worked like a charm!
ps; I found it at a Walgreens. Loved your travel log, as usual.
Is the Point Reyes Ceanothus from Point Reyes?
My PRCs are doing well between the rocks in the rock wall in the backyard. Don't know how they'll do in the long term. Maybe it was a bad idea.
I still want a hedge maze. Or a topiary.
OMG, i would totally plant a maze on that land you've got. Gawd, that would be fabulous.
Point Reyes is a big, nebulously defined region. I'm sure that Ceanothus is from there somewhere, but who knows where. Not me.
Love the trip! I want to know what the red-blooming plant is outside Al's...really pretty. My sister used to claim she got car sick riding in the back seat, but I figured it for a ploy to sit in front. Sounds like the seat isn't necessarily the thing. I saw "The Bridge"...yes, depressing for sure. We have a scary bridge in Green Bay that people jump off regularly...I just don't get it.
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