Redwoods in Muir Woods
Because they had a car, MinkeyMo, D and G were determined to use it! So on the Sunday, they headed over the Richmond bridge to Marin County to check out the coastal redwoods in the Muir Woods National Monument.
Of course, this was the day that the rain really showed up. Still, how bad could it be? There were boardwalks and big trees to keep the rain off, surely?
Luckily D and G had bought fetching ponchos the previous day, so they got to model them for MinkeyMo who was curled up happily in a nice warm, dry camera bag.
Here's a river, with redwoods. And rain.
River and redwoods in the rain
Here are some redwoods and D in her snappy poncho:
Redwoods towering over D
It's hard to get an idea of how big these trees were in a photo, especially one as rubbish as the one above, but believe MinkeyMo when he says there were some HUGE trees.
Seeing that the weather was really miserable and wet and cold and raining, D and G decided to walk four miles through the woods. Naturally. MinkeyMo retired to the dry camera bag and did not come out until much later.
D and G had a wonderful walk, stopping by the shop on the way out to buy new socks to replace the utterly waterlogged ones they were wearing. Luckily they had both brought spare shoes in case, so eventually their feet dried out, even if their boots were soaked.
It was lunchtime. MinkeyMo wanted to explore Sausalito and maybe get a bit to eat. He saw many restaurants and places to stop, but one thing he did not find was parking. So over the Golden Gate Bridge they all went into San Francisco to see what there was there. The estimable Lonely Planet recommended "Za" as a great pizza place (and one G could find in the car as it was on Hyde street.)
What the Lonely Planet forgot to mention was that in San Francisco, in order to park anywhere, you need to reserve a spot about a decade in advance. After absolute ages, G decided the familiar environs of Rockridge might be more rewarding for the by now starving and somewhat fragile expedition. So this time it was the Bay Bridge that they drove over to a great lunch at the reasonable hour of 4 in the afternoon.
Despite the rain, MinkeyMo thought it was absolutely awesome to have been able to see the redwoods and is planning a return during a drier weekend.
Elk-spotting in Point Reyes
MinkeyMo decided it was time for D and G to hire a car over the weekend because the weather had been so great that a walk through the scenic and elk-filled Point Reyes National Seashore would be a great way to say hello to Spring.
Spring disagreed. It rained mostly, with a few patches of sunshine. Thankfully not very much rain fell on the walk through the Tule Elk reserve, so there was a chance to see the California wildflowers starting to show themselves.
Looking over flowers to the Pacific
Then after about half an hour of walking, MinkeyMo got to see the Elk doing their elky thing!
Elk lying about
Elk standing about
They weren't the most exciting to watch, but it was the first time MinkeyMo had ever seen them, so that was pretty neat.
There were more wildflowers just starting to peek out, as well as many Turkey Buzzards flitting about. Luckily the flowers don't move as fast as the Buzzards, so G was able to get a photo of the plantlife, at least.
Wild flowers, hardly moving
MinkeyMo decided that having seen Elk, buzzards, flowers and LBBs (little brown birds) everywhere, it was time to head off to the other end of the park to check out some more locals. This time, it was elephant seals who were putting in their usual Spring appearance.
Elephant seals lying around
There were a lot of seals. Lying around. Not doing anything much. But still... Elephant seals! Cool!