Point Reyes National Seashore

On Sunday we had a crystal clear sky, that was so inviting that we decided to go to Point Reyes, finally!
We took the longer road, passing through Muir Beach and Stinson Beach for a lovely lunch break at the Sandollar restaurant that we really like (although the fish taco I took was pretty tasteless).

On the way toward Stinson beach, we had this marvelous view of the ocean, so clear that we could also see the Farallon Islands! We were sure hoping to spot also a humpback whale or two, but we had no luck. Anyway the trip was gorgeous. Right after Stinson beach, in the middle of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, there is the very poetic Bolinas Lagoon, which was almost dry when we passed by it, and so full of life! We saw seals (or sea lions?) and birds like Black Turnstones and Wandering Tattlers. Beautiful.

Soon after Bolinas, we entered the gorgeous and green Olema Valley with all his cows and beautiful old farms.

What we didn't expect, was to spot, in the middle of the grass fields, a magnificent ELK!!! He was there grazing the grass, totally at ease. Simply amazing! We had seen mooses in the Adirondaks, but this was our very first elk. Fantastic!

Of course with all this bird watching and sight seeing we arrived in Point Reyes pretty late, around 3 pm... This isn't so bad, because we saw so many wild animals, but it was too late to start hiking. Therefore we decided to run around the park a little bit with the car. First stop was the Limantour Estero Beach where I took this amazing picture. Can you believe it?!

I am proud of myself and I believe that the spirit of Ansel Adams was by my side when I took it!!

Anyway, we walked a little bit on the beach then moved forward toward north beach, where the Pacific Ocean was showing all his strength, look at this:
Isn't it impressive? After that, we moved back to Olema, looked around a little bit for a nice B&B or hotel where to stay in case we decided to spend one night there next time, and then came back taking Sir Francis Drake Hwy, who brought us back home in only one hour! Cool! What a great week end!

We were planning of coming back to Point Reyes next week end but apparently it will be raining again, so we hope in the week end after this one...

Mavericks

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Mavericks, the biggest waves outside Hawaii...

Surfin' California

Saturday we went south of San Francisco, looking for the legendary waves of maverick, celebrated in the documentary "Riding Giants".

We were hoping to spot some surfers in action, or maybe cross Jeff Clark.

Well, we didn't really find action, but the majesty of the Pacific Ocean was astonishing.

And, most of all, we had a wonderful week-end of sun and clear skies. After all the rain that fell lately, it was regenerating! That's why we decided to hang a little bit around Half Moon Bay, where we had a lovely lunch in a very American diner, a lovely coffee and I also spotted an incredibly rich yarn shop!

After that we headed toward the legendary Maverick...

The "Wet" Weather...

So there it is, what they call "the wet season". Luca and I suspected that it would have meant rain, but we didn't expect THAT much! In the last two month it has been raining every week. Napa and Sonoma Valley ended up under a flood!! Of course all that rain has stopped us from going around that much... Even though last week end we tried a walk in Tilden Park. It was pretty muddy, but the good thing is that the plants are greener that ever and the colors of the woods are really bright.



We hope we will be more lucky this week end. We are planning to rent a car and visit Point Reyes