Hiking and imbibing

The last two weekends I’ve had plans to go whale-watching. The trip was cancelled both last weekend, and again this one, because of “heavy winds and rough seas beyond the Golden Gate”. You could have fooled me – we’ve had lovely weather now for a long stretch. I can only conclude that they must try to take you out whale-watching on a rowing boat!

Jon’s been busy working and doing his coursework for the Open University, so I’ve had to entertain myself a bit. Last Sunday, I took myself off on a hike on the coastal path – bussing it as far as Cliff House, then picking up the trail and walking through Seacliff, along Baker Beach, past the Golden Gate Bridge, then through Crissy Field to the Marina. It’s nice to have the option of going to do a great hike on your own, without having to get in the car.

Yesterday, I went out with Cassie. We headed up to the winelands (Sonoma valley) and did a hike in the hills. It was the first really warm day, which made scaling the gradient pretty hot work. After we’d finished the hike, we went to lovely Château St Jean winery, which has delightful grounds. We did a tasting there and I bought a bottle of their Riesling. Back on the road, we didn’t have to go very far until we got to another tasting room: this time one that offered tastings of wines from a variety of very small vineyards. The servings were pretty big, so I was slightly fuzzy-headed on the way back (fortunately, Cassie was driving!).

Last night, we decided to try a restaurant that recently opened on our block, namely the Belgian-themed eatery and beer emporium, La Trappe. We were swept down to their basement, which had a big bar, lots of atmosphere, and more importantly, a menu featuring some 150 or so beers! It was only when I got back and checked my e-mail that I found out the whale-watching trip had been cancelled for the THIRD time!

Today was another gorgeous day, so we decided to head out and do a hike I’ve been wanting to do for a while, starting at Stinson Beach and climbing up Mount Tamalpais. The drive along Highway 1, which hugs the coastline, was stunning as ever. It was a fairly steep climb, but we were rewarded for the effort when we came out on the smooth, grassy shoulder, which afforded fabulous views north to Point Reyes, out west to the Farallon Islands (which we were supposed to visit on the boat trip!) and then south towards the city. We had lunch on top of a knoll and did a bit of sunbathing at the same time, as it was really pleasant. The hike back down followed a creek and went past some big redwood trees. Back in Stinson Beach, we decided to have an ice cream, then head for the beach to catch a few rays. As days go, it was pretty perfect, in spite of the disappointment about the whales!

Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/hiking-adventures (password: moocow)

More Tahoe fun

Made use of the ski pass once again and went up to Lake Tahoe on Friday evening after another rather tough week at work. This time there were four of us: me, Jon, Cassie and Sarah. We stayed at the Highland Inn, which had put us up before in an emergency and was incredibly cheap, in spite of having nicely refurbished rooms, kitted out with enormous flat-screen TVs!

We had a very sunny couple of days. On Saturday we took advantage of the fact that we were mere walking distance from the gondola and headed off up from the motel, doing lots of skiing on the Nevada side, which has some nice long runs. I was a bit slower than everyone else, so I had to push myself a bit to keep up. On the whole, this worked well, but I did take a tumble in the afternoon, which left me with a sore left ankle. A nice après-ski beer at the bottom of the gondola largely sorted it out, though.

That evening we thought we might go and sample the buffet at one of the casinos, but having arrived there (on the 18th floor!), we found there was an hour-long wait. So, we headed to a brew-pub instead – also very busy – and had dinner there. We were pretty tired from the day, and knew we’d lose an hour in the night (the clocks have gone forward), so we went back to the motel afterwards.

This morning, we drove to California Lodge and went up on a different lift. Did some nice skiing in the morning, then headed back down. Jon had brought his laptop with him and had some work to do (poor thing). The girls wanted to have a lesson, so I thought I would have one too, taking advantage of the hefty discount you get with a season lift pass. I got put with Sarah (just the two of us) and an Aussie ski instructor. It was really worth doing, as I haven’t had a lesson in a long time, and knew I’d slipped into a few bad habits. He did a lot of work with us on turns (specifically carving) and took us down our first few black runs! I’d never dared to do anything harder than blue, but the ones we did were fine and I wasn’t scared at all. When we’d finished, Sarah had had enough, so she went down the lift with the ski instructor, but I skied all the way down to the bottom, albeit on some rather slushy snow (it had been a very warm weekend).

We drove back through some lovely mountainous scenery, which we could see for once because of the hour change, stopping for dinner in Fairfield. It was a brilliant weekend – gorgeously sunny (to the extent that I’ve actually got a red neck, as I only applied sunscreen to my face!) and great fun.

Exploring Point Reyes

Last week was another busy one at work – I’m just getting into my new role in the Linguistic QA department. I also had Spanish class on Tuesday (am miffed because didn’t get an A+ in the test, in spite of having a score of 97% ;-)), went out with a friend on Wednesday (ate at a *not very good* garlic-themed restaurant, then had cocktails in a rather better establishment) and went to step class on Thursday. Jon arrived back from his week at the test event in New Hampshire late on Friday night. He’d had lots of snow there, so was happy to return to the Spring-like climes of California.

We didn’t do a lot yesterday: chores, food shopping, a short run. Jon was pretty tired from his week. We did get cracking with planning our Alaska holiday, though, and I’ve sent a reservation request for a camping trip late June/early July (see the details here: http://www.travelalaskaoutdoors.com/tours_classicalaskan_7.htm).

Today, we got up early and headed out on a trip to Point Reyes. This is the large coastal wilderness area a little way up the coast. It’s actually an errant bit of the earth’s crust on the Pacific plate, separated from the mainland by the San Andreas fault, and it's been travelling up the coast from Mexico for the last several million years at an average rate of two inches per year. Although I’ve visited the area a few times, I’d never been up to the far north-west, which is almost 2 hours’ drive from San Francisco. It was forecast to be a beautiful day, so we went up there in the hope of seeing whales, which are beginning their migration north about now.

The drive there in itself is amazing. We took Highway 1, which clings to the rocky coastline, but also offers views of the interior to Mount Tamalpais, before passing through Stinson Beach and by the tidal Bolinas Lagoon. We had to leave our car at the visitor centre at Point Reyes and take a shuttle bus to the two main visitor spots in that area: the lighthouse and Chimney Rock. It was very, very windy, but the views were wonderful, as it was such a beautiful, cloudless day (something to be appreciated in a spot that is often shrouded in mist). It was a tiring hike back up the (300?) steps from the lighthouse. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales (although 5 were observed yesterday), but we did see plenty of other wildlife, including murres (penguin-like birds), several deer (from our picnic spot), elephant seals (babies and big-snouted males), an owl, falcons, scoters and vultures. The views from the path to Chimney Rock especially were fabulous – on the one side was the Pacific Ocean and on the other, Drake’s Bay, so-called because Sir Francis himself landed there when the area was inhabited by Miwok Indians and called it Nova Albion, as the white cliffs reminded him of Dover. Back at the visitor center, we took a little stroll onto the beach, before heading off.

En route (actually, following a small detour), we stopped at our favourite eating place in the area, Coast Café in Bolinas. I am now very stuffed of oysters (from Drake’s Bay!) and chips, having washed it down with a champagne cocktail called an “epicentre” (what else?!). Bolinas is famous for being a hippy hang-out, and indeed someone who looked like “Wurzel Gummidge with war-paint” (I’m quoting Jon here) did drift in. After dinner, we returned to San Francisco, stopping to admire the stars along the way, as there’s no light pollution out there. Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/day-trip-to-point-reyes/ (password: moocow).