Bay Bridge, Exploritorium and Lighthouse

We visited the Bay Bridge this morning.  There was a celebration with government officials this morning celebrating the bridge's 75th birthday.  My camera's battery was dying so didn't get too many pictures.  Beautiful flower bed spelling 75 and a brass trio playing as part of the celebrations. Learned and saw that the cables are made up of 27,000 individual wires that were then spun to make the cables.  Hard to believe that this was done in 1937 during the depression, about the same time as Hoover Dam.  Such monumental accomplishments happening at such a hard time for our country.  Pretty remarkable testiment to the fortitude and strength of our country.

 

We walked a short distance over the bridge.  It was clear and very pictoresque but windy and cold.  Since we were so close to the Exploritorium, we went and visited.  This is an incredible hands on science discovery place.  This is a place that I think would be best to visit an hour or two once a month to fully appreciate it's magnitude.  Mark, Janae and Stefan enjoyed it but I found it a bit overwhelming.  I have a hard time focusing when there is so much. We got to watch a dissection of a cow's eye and Janae and Stefan got to make pictures out of a swinging pendulum.

We left around 2:30 and thought we would be ahead of the Memorial Day traffic.  Turns out, we weren't so we took a back road and drove out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse.  We had missed this the other day and wanted to see it.  It was a beautiful drive amidst pastoral farm land.  The pastures go right up to the coast and is sandy rather than rocky.  However, the lighthouse sits out on a rocky point and is one of the windiest places on the west coast. 
Though beautiful, the wind was whipping at 57 miles per hour and so the steps were closed to the lighthouse.  If winds are under 40 miles per hour, it's open for visitors.  Immediately feeling and hearing the howling of the wind, it is no wonder that many of the keepers lost their mind.  This wind with the isolation and fog would probably  be pretty hard to take day in and day out.

It was a beautiful drive home.  It had rained lightly and then the sun came out and there was the most awesome rainbow we've ever seen.  I didn't get a picture but did get this picture of the glorious lighting.

Muir Beach and Woods

 Thursday May 24th-We had visited Muir Beach 5 years ago but Janae and Stefan didn't remember it very well. The tide pools here at low tide are really special. There are tons of starfish, barnacles, crabs and anemones. When the children were younger, they were taken with the starfish. Today, the anemones were the hit and the phrase most spoken was, "he took it." A teacher of a group of students had shrimp she shared with us. If you break it into little pieces, the anemones will often take in this treat with their tenacles. Janae and Stefan loved feeding them and the crabs. Stefan was very animated and excited when sharing how the crab plundered the shrimp when he gave it to him.

A special moment of sibling conversation

After enjoying the beach, we went to Muir Woods a few miles down the road.  This is the home to a beautiful grove of coastal redwoods. Janae and Stefan were very motivated to do this junior ranger program as they give out badges carved out of redwood.  The booklet was laid out nicely and we answered the questions as we strolled through the grove.  The trees are beautiful and we learned a lot. Did you know that a single standing tree grew from a seed whereas a cluster of trees sprouted from a burl?  Also, 20 % of their water, they need a lot comes from the fog.  Mark and I were taken with the fact that delegates forming the United Nations met here and honored Franklin D Roosevelt.   This place was chosen

This was interesting. The center shows the tree at 990 AD and then 1100 the size of the tree during Indian reign in Mesa Verde, the size of the tree in 1607 when Jamestown was established, etc.

We ended our fabulous day with a trip to Trader Joe's to get Tri-tip and other goodies to make dinner for Nancy and her family.

Bay Farm Island

Wednesday, May 23rd-We drove in the afternoon to Bay Farm Island which is a 6 mile by 1 mile island near Alameda (many commute across bay to San Fran to work and Oakland Raiders train here) to see our new friends the Ryans.  We met them at Carlsbad Caverns.  Aisling and Janae are a day apart and June and I graduated together from BG but it just took 28 years to meet.  June is a high ranking officer in the Coast Guard.

We had a wonderful time visiting, riding bikes around the island, swimming at the pool and being treated to a wonderful Mexican dinner!  Wish we lived closer but I know that we will keep in touch. Thanks for an awesome time!

Point Reyes National Seashore

Tuesday, May 22nd-I woke up at 5:15 to drive into town to do yoga with Nancy at 6:00 a.m..  My body and mind loved it but I mostly enjoyed the fellowship and breakfast with Nancy afterwards.  I cherish our friendship and what a treat to connect with a friend that I've known since I was 14.  Though we don't see or talk with each other much, it's so easy to pick-up where we left off whether it's been a day or five years.  Nancy is an amazing woman and inspiration.

In the afternoon, we drove to Point Reyes National Seashore.  We attempted the junior ranger program.  It entailed learning about the Miwot Indians and visiting a model village.  Janae and I found it interesting but the boys weren't quite into it.  A major staple was acorns and they stored them in their own little houses.

acorn house

A bike ride to arch rock was in order.  A beautiful trail but uphill almost the whole 4 miles.  A lot of complaining but the view albeit windy was beautiful.  No complaints on the way down though.
Stopped briefly at Limontaur Beach.  So isolated and beautiful.  Not a sign of human anything, just a lot of wind.  Too cold to linger but we enjoyed seeing it an imagining a more comfortable day.

Petaluma

Monday, May 21st-We finally got checked into Petaluma Coast Guard Base today.  It took awhile.  When we tried on Saturday, it turns out that our insurance and registration had expired so we had to put Miss JimB in storage while we got all our paperwork straightened out.  It still took an hour and 1/2 to get cleared to go on base. 

Our front yard

It's the cutest little base.  Only 6 campsites and it is so scenic looking over the rolling hills.  We love our spot and so do the geese in the fields.    We rested today, got set-up, I took a nap and then we ate at the dining hall.  They train the coast guard chefs here.  Quite a spread for $4.  Enjoyed bowling tonight. We were the only ones.  We liked it so much that we went a few more times.

Alcatraz,cable cars and chinatown

Sunday, September 20th-What a glorious day it was today.  We arrived last night at my dear friend Nancy Taylor’s home last night in San Anselmo.  She and her husband Jerry have a beautiful home and two awesome sons.  They served us the best gourmet meal of grilled salmon and asparagus with baked artichokes and a wonderful rhubarb/strawberry pie with homemade dairy free coconut/almond ice cream.  Yummy!  Janae and Stefan were thrilled to have new playmates and loved being with Gianni and Nicco.

We got up early on Sunday and all eight of us went to Alcatraz.  It was quite a treat and an adventure.  We were blessed with a beautiful but rare clear, calm day in San Fran.  Jerry has a former colleague that is the number one ranger who gave us a behind the scenes private tour.  It was incredible.  Ranger John is the one who is on all the documentaries and he is quite colorful, outgoing and fun.

Alcatraz was once a birding island where Indians would steal the bird eggs.  During the Civil War, the military established a fort on the island to protect the North’s territory and interests.  Many beautiful mansions and gardens were built for the officers.  Alcatraz would eventually become a federal penitentiary for hard core criminals like Al Capone, the birdman and others.  One of the former inmates who is now 85 was visiting and spoke articulately about his time at A. and his choice to change his life around.  In the late sixties, many well-educated native American Indians camped out and held the island for 15 months in rebellion against the government not giving back lands promised in treaties.  There would eventually be a f ire that burned many of the homes and the government removed the Indian occupation.  The upside is that after this event, much land was given back to the Indians.

Ranger John took us in the boiler room where many artists have recorded album covers and videos.  We saw the old wash room and washing machine that Al Capone used.  Mark loved seeing the words on this tunnel.  Notice the direction of the eagle’s head over the door.

The highlights were getting to climb to the top of the lighthouse.  Avery special priviledge.  It was thrilling and a bit precarious feeling the wind blow so strongly while being on top of the world seeing the amazing views.  The Obama girls didn’t get this treat on their visit.  Darryl Hannah did and suffered from a vertigo attack and had to be carried down in her mini-skirt.  Interestingly the Blue Angels visited and inspite of their daredevil stunts refused to ascend to the top of the lighthouse (they said they weren’t comfortable not being in control).

Notice the head of the eagle.

The other highlight was hearing the sound of the cell doors slam shut.  It’s a sound no one can forget.  This is the sound that was recorded in Star Wars for Darth Vader and was in Indiana Jones too.

Overall, this was a very interesting place.  Flowers and birds were plenitful. 

rubble of former homes of guards, great view of San Fran

We parted directions with our friends and we set off for Chinatown via the cable car.  The cable car was a bit frustrating as everyone jammed on and Stefan and Janae didn’t get a good view.  Chinatown was very interesting and amazed that people barely spoke English.  We had a delicious duck dinner.  On the way back, we got on the wrong cable car and ended up at Ghiradelli Square.  Yummy chocolate and a beautiful view.

A surprise to our day was that there was a solar eclipse where the moon travels in front of the sun.  Won’t happen again in our lifetime.  People on the streets invited us to join in the wonder of it all and it was very special.

Spent the night again with our dear friends.