Category: Point Reyes

Pt Reyes Birthday Weekend

Happy birthday to me! And my great hair. Yes, I’m only two feet away from my childhood goal of growing my hair long enough that I can sit on it. One, gross. Two, not going to happen but I like it long for now. At some point, I’ll go back to the “lob” but not yet.

For my birthday, I decided I wanted to spend the weekend at Pt Reyes. I think it is one of the prettiest places in the Bay Area, but a day trip can be a bit of a slog with traffic, hikes, and slow speed limits through the park. So, my birthday gift to myself was to book a hotel in the area so SMS and I could just enjoy the area. We left Saturday morning and stayed through Monday morning.

We had such a good time! The first evening, we walked to Abbott’s Lagoon. It was more of a walk than a hike, but Abbott’s Lagoon was beautiful. It’s a birder’s paradise, which I am aspiring to be for my old lady years. We heard a flock of ground birds that sounded exactly like people laughing. I really wish I knew what they were!

Then we went to the Tap Room for dinner. It was pretty chill and we had a wonderful time. The food was delicious. I had the fish and chips Saturday night special. I recommend!

The next day, we went into the Park and hiked to Tomales Point through the Elk Preserve. It was just under 10 miles with some rolling hills. Nothing too strenuous and it was absolutely beautiful. We split a sandwich for an easy picnic and had the best time. After the hike, we looked around the old buildings of Pierce Point Ranch.

After the hike, we went to the Saltwater Oyster Depot for a snack and liked it so much that we made dinner reservations. The food was exceptional and we had a glass of wine from the buzzy winery Jolie Laide, which I’m seeing on a lot of local restaurant wine lists lately.

Also, we stayed at this hotel which was fine. It’s a cute property, but the walls were so thin. They freely admit this so I knew this fact before staying but oh man. There are thin walls and there are THIN walls. It sounded like every car passing on the road outside was in our room. Every time our next door neighbor sneezed, I wanted to duck from the sneeze cloud. Seriously, it was like there were curtain dividers instead of walls. The hotel’s website said that people came for peace and quiet. Which probably caused the flock of birds that laughs like people to really lose it.

The next day, I got my birthday girl way and went on two short walks. The wind was intense and SMS wasn’t haven’t the best time, but he rallied for meeeee! First, we walked to Pt. Reyes. Honestly, it was really windy. But so beautiful.

Then, because we were basically already there, we went to the light house. You have to walk about 1/4 mile from the parking lot to the light house. It was still really windy. I decided I wanted to go down to the lighthouse. SMS, a very good sport, decided that wasn’t his idea of a good time so he stayed at the top, sheltered from the wind. I ran down and back. I timed myself- 8 minutes! Phew!

Then, we were wind’d out. We drove back in the early afternoon to avoid rush hour, which was smart. Rush hour is definitely a thief of joy! We drove towards Stinson Beach and had lunch at Due West, which was good but not as good as Saltwater.

Look at the cool gift my Mom got for me! It makes a truly horrible, but incredibly accurate, sound. She also got me a cover-up, which I can’t wait to wear around our White Lotus apartment pool. My in-laws got me a gift certificate to a restaurant near Parnassus, which I’m excited to try. And finally, SMS got me some earrings that I had wanted so that I can always wear something in my second piercing, even when sleeping.

Highlights: July 2019 (Part 2)

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Aaaand…we’re back!  Second half of July!  On Saturday, I decided to treat ourselves by booking tickets to Hamilton!  I have wanted to see the show for a really long time.  I was excited to take SMS to a show since it isn’t something we have really done together before.  Actually, we had seen Wicked and that was pretty awesome but that was six years ago!

In the spirit of a decadent night out, we went to Rich Table in San Francisco for an early dinner. Jyotsna raved about the place and she was right- it was exceptional!  The menu changes often but there are a few regulars.  We ordered two: the dried porcini doughnuts, raclette and the sardine potato chip with horseradish.  The former was sublime and the latter was interesting but not worth ordering again.  As I type this, I’m getting a case of serious deja vu…wait!  I wrote about this in June!  But we went in July!  Oh, the perils and trials of writing too late.  But this was definitely Rich Table.  June was State Bird Provisions, now that I think about it.  I am writing this correction here because who knows if I’ll get to it in the actual post.  I can’t even blog on time!  Anyway, between the two restaurants, I would go to Rich Table any day but both are gustatory treats!

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Hamilton was awesome.  Wow, such an original opinion and so cutting-edge!  I had listened to the soundtrack prior to the show, but the experience was elevated by the incredible staging.  My favorite aspect was the rotating stage that was particularly effective during a slightly dream-like, time-and-perspective shifting scene during the song “Satisfied.”  I also liked seeing King George III on the sides of different scenes with his snarky expressions and body language even when his songs weren’t featured.

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Guess who Ishann loves the best?  Ok, ok, it’s probably his parents but it’s hard to tell when SMS is around!

The next day, we met up with Jyotsna and Akshay for our long-planned Pt. Reyes picnic and outing.  We went to Tomales Bay Oyster Co for several dozen oysters.  Unfortunately, they no longer have picnic facilities there so we went to Pt. Reyes Station and ate in the small garden/picnic area of Cowgirl Creamery.  There, we supplemented our picnic with cheese, bread, and a few other delicious things like…wine!

After our picnic, we decided to go to Heidrun Meadery, a favorite of A&J.  We had gotten a late-ish start so we didn’t have it in us to head out to the lighthouse, although it is a great place.  It just adds a fair bit of car time to take the backroads to the farthest parts of Point Reyes National Seashore.

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Sitting on the kid’s chair outside the “secret door” to the picnic area underneath the tree canopy.  Pro tip: don’t cut to the right because there is a branch that will try to impale itself into your head.  Trust me.  It doesn’t tickle.

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Ishaan takes half the tree home to plant as a sapling.  Don’t worry- this sapling harvest was supervised and approved by a meadery worker!

After an awesome house-hunting leave (and I did find an apartment on Craigslist for Coronado!), I went back to work.  I really worked until the very end, seeing clinic and even operating on my very last day (31 July) because a patient really wanted me to do her tracheostomy.  She said I “didn’t bullshit her” when talking about medical care so chalk that up to good bedside manner (I think!).

Before that last day, however, I spent the last weekend of July in Belmar, NJ where I got together with my college friends whom I’ve kept in touch with for the last 18 years and known for the last 21!  Ooo, I just noticed those years are very college-age lengths of time.  I drove from Norfolk to NJ via Philadelphia to pick up Gisele and her sons.  My brain was a little fried from PA traffic and the stress of being late, but once we arrived in NJ, things were pret-ty perfect!  The six of us hung out all weekend long and were fairly mellow.  I had the best time and feel so lucky to know these wonderful women.  We were missing one of our “group,” who’s on the West Coast and recently-ish had a baby but six out of seven isn’t bad.  Keeping in touch doesn’t seem to be anyone’s strong suit in the group but we write and get together just enough that I feel we are still in each other’s lives.  Four of the seven live in the NYC area so they’re in more frequent contact (lucky!) but there’s still room for the three of us who aren’t local!

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Argh, I hate being on the end for photos!  But I’m glad we got an adult group shot!

Finally, after a month of highlight upon highlight, it was time to leave Norfolk.  SMS flew in on the 31st in preparation for leaving 1 Aug.  Our trip will be featured in next month’s highlights but a teaser photo is below.

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Time to keep the birds alive in the Summer heat of the Southern Interstate cross-country route!  The little birds did not do their fair share of driving, spoiler alert!