May 26 Point Reyes National Seashore

To start with, Dan would have been 70 years old today.  May 26 and 27 are always days of rememberance for us. Dan's birthday on the 26th and his yahrzeit on the 27th. It was especially nice to be spending the day with Janet and Alex today, knowing that we all have Dan as a backdrop of the day. 

On to the beautiful activities of the day......

We met Janet and Alex at a small breakfast place called "Side Street" and it was a block off of the main highway through Point Reyes.  We had a delicious, huge breakfast.  I think pork belly played a role in all of our orders.  I had a Pork Belly sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a delicious bun.  

Fortified, we set off in 2 cars.  Nick driving our car and Alex driving his car with Janet and me as passengers.   Our first stop was an old ship wreck.   It apparently got blown onto high ground and has stayed there for years.  Really falling apart now.  

We drove past the first library in the town which was a small little shed.  The present one is an old house.  The only way we knew this is by going with a local (Janet) who worked in one of the county libraries for years.

Next stop was for the light house.  Janet's knee is really bothering her so she waited while the rest of us walked to the light house and down the stairs that the sign said was equivalent to a 30 story building.  It has the reputation of being the windiest lighthouse in the country.  They close access to it when the winds are 40MPH.  It was open today and really quite calm.  The views of the cliffs, oceans, rocks, flowers.  Alex spotted a sea lion in the water and with his help, I saw its head bob out of the water too.  The stairs down and back up were much easier than the hike up to Columbia point in Yosemite.  I guess that is my new scale of difficulty.  

The erosion of the rocks was interesting.  Some was large swirls, others smaller pitted erosion which I think was newer with smaller rocks washing out from larger boulders.  

It takes a unique person to be the caretaker at a lighthouse.  Much easier now that things are automated.  In the late 1800's a rescue group was formed to try to save people who had been shipwrecked.  Their motto was "You have to go out, but you may not come back."

We drove a short distance to the rock chimney.  We followed the path as far as it went to the elephant seal lookout.  There were probably a couple hundred of them along the beach.  The snorting and hawking was interesting.  We watched one big male ride the waves on to the beach and then the very awkward belly flops forward.  One, two, three four, plop take a rest.  Repeat until you get to the herd and plow your way in.  

I loved all of the wild flowers. Don't know the names of most of them and that's okay.  I just enjoy their beauty.  

Janet and Alex had been talking about how good the Bovine Bakery was in Point Reyes.  Time to check it out.  Yep!  Following Janet's recommendation, I had a cinnamon roll.  Point Reyes has become quite a touristy town with little shops, galleries.  We went into one shop of clothes, and variety of other things.  I pretty much really liked everything in the store.  Oh, $72 for a top.  Even with the store-wide 20% off, that didn't bring it down to my price range.  But, it was fun to look and I did end up getting a new water bottle.  Mine was leaking around the lid.  Of course I get a teal one.

Alex and Janet headed back to their place and Nick and I poked around a little bit.  I had been admiring Janet's purse.  In one of the shops, I found one that was similar.  Small, but still room for my eppie pins and enough different sections that it isn't one big hole to dig in.   It was expensive.  It also was 20% off but I kinda fell in love with it and the Mexican one I've been using as showing lots of wear. 

 Then we poked into a gallery of the photos of Marty Kaplan.  All black and white and amazing.  I started talking to the sales person.  He uses infrared light to get the contrast.  Leaves come out white in the infrared.  I bought several note cards.  Don't have any room on my walls for anything else.  

Back to rest and enjoy the view at our Airbnb.  After naps, we head back out to meet up with Alex for dinner at the Tap Room.  Small little place with a faithful following.  They had Rueben fries.  That's a new one for me and really delicious.  A pile of fries with all of the makings of a reuben slathered over them.  It really was delicious.  

On the drive back to our place we noticed that the tide was in.  What had been a lazy looking stream was now a big, wide expanse of water that nearly came up to the road.   Tides are an amazing phenomenon.