After two - sort of - lazy weeks in Philly it was time to get back into action: Will back to work and me back to the museum. And after so much city life both Will and I were very keen to get out into nature again!
The San Francisco Sea Caves
I had my first shot at nature on Friday the 9th. Bruce and Pat wanted to give Brigadoon cave (the one they discovered under the Cliff House on their trip in November and which we tried to map on our unofficial December Sea Caves trip) another try ...
Since it was only going to be low tide around 16.00 h, Bruce and Pat took Beej and me for some touristing in the afternoon. We visited Fort Winfield Scott, Fort Point and had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the surrounding landscape, all of this spiced up by Bruce's stories (that guy is a walking history book / geological treatise!).No go for Brigadoon cave though ... Winter storms haven't come around yet, so instead of sand being taken away from the beach, it is deposited there and the cave has been filled up by more than 1 m of sand since November. So *sigh* we played around a bit in the sand, admired all the little critters stuck to the rocks, discovered a big fat stranded yellyfish, had a tour of the Sutro Baths and the little caves in that area and I got to play around with Bruce's camera at sunset. Some pics of the day ...
That evening Will and I went for dinner with Shadia (Will's colleague) and Dan in a German restaurant that served delicious food and had a really good time. Long live the nerdy geeks (or geeky nerds) (or forget about the nerdy part, they're not nerdy at all, it just sounds good ...)!
Whale watching at Point Reyes
To satisfy our craving for nature, Will and I had decided to go to Point Reyes National Seashore, a National Park at only about an hour and a half driving from San Francisco. We were invited to stay at Iris' - one of the cavers we had met at the Lava Beds trip who lives close to the Park and also volunteers there - and her daughter Lauren's place. They have a really nice house in Woodacre, a small town surrounded by thickly forested undulating hills, and the cutest dog you ever seen - Maggy (my apologies to all those dog owners whom I might be stepping on their toes right now).
We cycled to the bus station, put our bikes on one of the Golden Gate Transit buses, got off in San Rafael and then took a nice cycle route to Woodacre. Upon arrival, Iris and Lauren filed us in their car and took us to the park where we visited the antique lighthouse, watched whales in the distance and saw elephant seals with their newly delivered young on one of the beaches.
On Sunday, Frank - another caver - and Kris joined us for a trip on the "Elk trail" parallel to Tomales Bay. Frank has been a volunteer for the Park for more than ten years now; he knows an awful lot (a bit like Bruce, a walking encyclopedia) and entertained us the entire day with stories about animals and other ... We visited Pierce Ranch (now out of use), saw some big herds of Elk (Wapiti dear) and enjoyed the sun and the beautiful landscapes and sights. A great weekend!
Check here for some pictures of the weekend.
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