to Oakland 29 October 2021

We awoke to a sunny calm day in our very cool digs in Stinson Beach, The Sandpiper and breakfasted on goodies from the Parkside Cafe's wonderful bakery, then made our way to a meeting on the wharf at Bolinas.

While there, I admired the Curlew working the mud flats.

Meeting done, we drove up the west side of Mount Tamalpais. On the way up, Stinson and Bolinas Lagoon lay themselves out magnificently below. (Mouse over to see names of what you're looking at. Patience: big files!) Still alot of moisture in the air, so not the best for photography.

From this vantage, I was thinking about the San Andreas Fault, just possibly the most famous earthquake fault in the world, and how it's “our local fault.” It starts at the “triple junction” off Cape Mendocino, where the Cascadian Subduction Zone takes over, and zigzags south and east all the way to the Gulf of California. It marks the unsteady boundary between the North American Plate and Pacific plates. When it comes down to earth shaking events in my life, it is literally the primary author, having given me quite a thrill in 1957 – I was 13 – and then, from afar in 1989. We know the “The Big One” is just lurking far below the beautiful surface. In the view above, it runs right down the middle of Olema Valley and out through the Bolinas Lagoon on its way under San Francisco Bay.

No shaking this day. 

We climbed over Tam's shoulder and wound down through Mill Valley and past San Quentin, across the Richmond Bridge – the one that looks like they put it up before it was dry, and so it slumped in the middle – and up to the top of the Oakland Hills and along south to Damiana and Rich's house near the Oakland Zoo.

We climbed over Tam's shoulder and wound down through Mill Valley and past San Quentin, across the Richmond Bridge – the one that looks like they put it up before it was dry, and so it slumped in the middle – and into the belly of the East Bay Beast for a stop at the Berkeley Bowl. Thence up to the top of the Oakland Hills (to avoid the nasty Friday afternoon traffic on the flats) and along Grizzly Peak and Skyline – my old stompin' grounds – south to Damiana and Rich's house near the Oakland Zoo.

It being the last work day before Hallowe'en, Damiana came home in her finery – why look weird when you can look fabulous?!? – and of course her biggest fans, Dashiell and Rich, had to have a photo.