Vacation at Home – Part 8 

An Open Weekend 

Don’t you love those weekends that are fully yours and you can do exactly what you want?  As much as I love connection and community, I also treasure those open weekends with no planned activity, appointments, errands or home-caring chores - - rare and precious!  

We started on Friday night, ambling on down to Sidebar, enjoying our neighborhood, so grateful that we live in such a vibrant place. To our delight, there were two perfect seats at the bar with our names on them.  I got a Pellegrino limonata; tart, refreshing and delicious and Rob got some frothy drink that was fun to watch the bartender shake - shake - and then shake some more with all her might! And we had yummy artichokes (how do you eat those?) and steak fries and talked about our week. 

Rob had a full Saturday, working way into the evening, so I decided that I would go out to where else? Point Reyes! I got a really late start, because you know that I love to sleep in, read, drink coffee and lay around in the mornings.  I finally started packing up around noon, which was fine by me, I could stay out and play as long as I liked.  

It was a live recording Little Feat kind of day; I listened to interesting, messy renditions of my favorites on Raw Tomatoes, Waiting for Columbus and Live at Neon Park, as I motored top down on Sir Francis Drake, through gorgeous, spring-green Marin County; San Anselmo, Fairfax, Woodacre and Spirit Rock, through the San Geronimo Valley and past the sunny front patio of that sweet café in Lagunitas just before hitting the woods of Samuel P. Taylor state park. Then, after seven miles of winding road, it always thrills me to blast out of the trees into the wide open Golden Gate National Park and Old Folks Boogie perfectly matched my mood. I stopped to hike the Bolinas Ridge Trail, right before Olema to get some energy out and ate my lunch on a rock overlooking a vista of hills, rock and ocean. I continued past the cows to Jewel Trail, down to the stream and power walked down the Cross Marin Trail on a loop back to the car. 

Back on the road with Little Feat, and a little energy thankfully dissipated, I decided to go ahead and barrel through the fog I saw rolling in from Bolinas Ridge. I was headed toward the end of the world to see those wildflowers and Tule elk at Point Tomales. Oh, was it ever cold out there! Miraculously only ten miles from blazing sunshine and blue sky, it was very foggy with a fierce wind. I put on everything I brought; Patagonia fleece, ear warmer, wool scarf and gloves and set out in search of the wildflowers. It was so worth it! Glorious, glorious, glorious blankets of yellow, pink, purple and white, high on a ridge overlooking the ocean on one side and Tomales Bay on the other. There were a few hardy spirits sharing it with me, including an East Indian family who asked me to take their picture. Despite the wind and the cold, I was moved by their enthusiasm and joy; one of the young men kept exclaiming, “Have you smelled the yellow ones? The yellow ones?” “Oh, yes!” I yelled back, “I’m stopping every five minutes to put my nose right in them!”

 

 

After a while the flowers thinned out and I turned around, having had enough of the cold and the wind. I headed back to the car, where I blasted the heat and finished the rest of my lunch.  Then I set out through the fog, dialing it way down with John Hiatt as I drove slowly through the dairy farms, Kehoe Beach, Abbot’s Lagoon, and Heart’s Desire, and then back in to the sunshine by the time I hit Inverness Park.  

I motored back through the gorgeous San Geronimo Valley, golden and green in the late afternoon light and stopped in sweet, hippie Fairfax, took a little walk, watched families eating ice cream and settled into a café with a cup of hot tea and the next book we’re reading for Gloria’s book club, The Language of Flowers. I stayed as long as I liked – I love that free feeling of unfettered time. 

I rambled slowly back to the red Miata about 7:30 with its top still down and got back on the road, marveling at how San Quentin is positioned on some of the most beautiful land in California, overlooking the bay; up and over the majestic San Rafael bridge, (my favorite in the Bay Area), rising up out of the sun and fog, eerily lit like a stairway to the heavens, back to the East Bay, top still down, heat and Little Feat blasting , fog rolling in at a fierce pace.  Feeling a little wild - gotta love it! 

I was so happy to drive into 295 Lenox and see Rob and we shared about our respective days, then off he went to bed (he gets up early, early on Sundays), and I stayed up really late (around 2:00 am), eating chocolate and playing with I-Tunes, listening to bands I’ve heard about in Rolling Stone and reading myself to sleep. 

I arose at the very human hour of 10:00 this morning, took the morning off from church, (obviously!) and climbed on to the hammock on our balcony, settling in underneath a flannel down comforter, stacks of books, my beautiful flowers from the chaplains for Administrative Professionals Day, a full carafe of coffee, my journal and Little Pink to write to you and sweet Pablo, nestled close to me.  

 

Later in the afternoon, during my power walk (and more Little Feat), Lake Merritt was especially buzzing with people, picnics, puppies, colorful African turbans and gorgeous ink on exposed limbs. God, I love it here! 

Thank you for a rejuvenating weekend on Vacation at Home!