After our lovely pre-storm drive up Highway 1, we spent 4 days in the San Francisco Bay Area, mostly seeing family and friends and trying to stay dry.
We left Monterey around mid-day Thursday, after sneaking in a walk with Rebbe before the rain really started. The drive north was wet and windy and hard going at times for both of us. We were lucky to avoid the flooding seen in some areas around the region, and ok with that.
Most of the highlights of this phase of the trip were during the time we spent with those we were visiting. It was wonderful, but probably of limited interest to those who do not know the people we visited.
We did spend a chunk of Saturday with my friend Marina visiting the lovely (and in her opinion wholly underrated) town of Martinez.
We started the visit by checking out the John Muir National Historic Site.
The house was actually the home of his father-in-law but he ended up living in it after spending time there and meeting his future wife. The house was in major disrepair and was taken over and set up more as it was when Muir lived there. Parts of the original orchards cultivated by his father-in-law and then Muir also remain. It was pretty cool. After grabbing a bite at Luigi’s Deli, we went down to the waterfront. We had some great sightings there, including Great Egrets, some curious looking geese, a hawk that didn’t seem to mind people, and a rodent we haven’t yet identified.

We also thought the moveable bridge was very cool.