Good-bye, SF

As I may have said before, the prospect of exploring San Francisco from an RV base with a four-year-old was a bit overwhelming and therefore slightly stressful (at least for me). And the Marin RV Park with its chain link fences, bathroom  drainage problems, and pristine view of San Quentin did not help us along.

San Quentin. Always reminding you: Don't screw up!

So instead of trying to cram too many last-minute delights of the fabled city into our last day, we decided instead to take a leisurely drive along the water through some very nice communities to neighbouring Sausalito, where had lunch and poked around. It's such a pretty place, so many interesting things to look at. A good choice.

Sausalito houseboats

Ron inspecting the fleet at the Sausalito marina. "Look! I see a Valiant!"

Sausalito street

Looking across San Francisco Bay to the city, Oakland-Bay Bridge in the background

We topped the day off with an unbelievably awful dining experience at The Cheesecake Factory in nearby Corte Madera.  When the manager routinely asked us how our dinner was, A very politely described our experience, to which said manager responded by launching into a long explanation about how it had been raining so much that their patio staff had been continually called up but then cancelled day after day after day so that now that it was a beautiful day, they (the restaurant) couldn't find staff because they'd (the wait people) had all found other things to do and so they had no staff scheduled for the patio and  so on and so on. And one immediately understood why the Valley Girls were so sucessful with "Whatever!" I dunno, pal, maybe close the patio? Offer us a free cheesecake? An apology? We, of course, are forever the polite Canadians, but c'mon!

Sometimes, apparently, it feels good to leave San Francisco. (Although it must be said that we did have some fine days here and we are looking forward to returning.)

Saturday, we drove out to Olema on the coast, along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and a lovely drive it was, too, through San Anselmo, Fairfax and a couple of tiny charming towns, almost making you wish you lived there. Ron found the road through Fairfax a little narrow, all the while sloping into the trees a bit too much, but the rest of us oohed and aahed and enjoyed the California-ness of it all. Once out in the wide open spaces he had to deal with dozens and dozens of cyclists, apparently just out for a ride in the sunshine, but it felt a bit like the Tour de San Francisco. Fine for a car, you understand, but a wee bit awkward for a 35' RV. Not an easy drive for R, but very pretty, through rolling ranchland and a beautiful state park, for the rest of us, and even though his knuckles got a bit white, even he enjoyed it.

We're staying at the Olema RV Park, not our first choice, but the only game in town, so our only choice. It's just minutes from Point Reyes National Seashore, the object of our visit. This is a stunningly beautiful recreation area, with miles of rolling hills, historic ranches (so tons of cows), rugged coastline and more picturesque towns around the edges, with lots of beaches and trails up and down and all over the place.

Unfortunately the RV Park is pretty much flooded, so it's really mucky, and since most of the sites don't have sewer hookups, popping over to the restrooms is a major undertaking. We were here once before with the same assessment--loved Point Reyes Seashore, not so much love disbursed on the park. Apparently it's a political thing, all this flooding; according to one guy R spoke to, the feds pretty much do what they want here and they're wanting to drive the RV park out of business, so they can expand the wetlands, so they flooded the creek. True? Not true? Justified? Not justified? Dunno. But it sure is muddy.

Both yesterday and today it has rained most of the day, sometimes hard, sometimes just sprinkling, sometimes with wild winds, sometimes not, but we have persevered and over the two days have driven the park (the "seashore" not the RV park) top to bottom -- up to the north for a hoped-for glimpse of the tule elk herd (not to be) and a walk around an historic ranch established in the 1850s; down to the south end for an unexpected sighting of the elk as well several deer and a coyote, and an anticipated look at elephant seals lolling on the beach. It's the end of the calving season for the elephant seals, so the females have all gone out to sea to feed, leaving the youngsters on shore, along with a few males. Theirs is an amazing story: soon the remaining males will head off to Alaska  for the summer and soon after that the females will head off. The pups (all 300 pounds of them) are left to fend for themselves, to learn how to swim and feed on their own. Which they apparently do without much hullaballoo, thank you very much. We had hoped to see them when we visited the Morro Rock area, so we were happy to have a view of them here.

We also drove out to Point Reyes itself, but unfortunately (thank god!) the wind was too heavy so they closed of the 300 steps down to the lighthouse. Big disappointment there. Not. Fortunately, while we were there, the clouds blew away for an hour or so, and it was beautiful. We looked and looked and couldn't see any whales passing by, but we watched some hawks and ravens doing some amazing gliding manoeuvres -- the wind had to be 15 or 20 knots and they were able to hover in one place for an extraordinary amount of time, barely moving.

And everywhere there are wildflowers starting to bloom -- blues and pinks and yellows and whites. And because of all the rain, greens everywhere else. The trees drip with light green mosses, others are wind sculpted into impossible shapes, and all bend to the constant wind. Without doing much deliberate birding, we have seen mergansers and surf scoters, turkey vultures, hawks, kestrels, robins, herons, finches, gulls and some I've forgotten already. 

This is the kind of place you could come back to again and again and it would be fresh every time. We still have many places to explore here and the weather is always changing (hour to hour), so we expect next time we come back it will be a completely different experience, and we'll be thrilled all over again.

Wifi is inconsistent here. Pictures won't upload now. I will post pix of Pt Reyes later.