Fog! Hike! Weird Restaurant!

At Sir and Star

The weather turned foggy yesterday, and the fog persisted all day.  We bundled up went for a hike on the Jepson Trail in Tomales Bay State Park, which was almost deserted, unlike the scene on Memorial Day.  It was the kind of day that makes me wish I were back in Berkeley, where there are more diversions.

Later, my sister arrived from San Jose, and we went out to dinner at Sir and Star restaurant in Olema.  This was an eye-opener, like eating on an Addams Family set or B&B designed by Edgar Allan Poe, see photos below.  Food spotty, service spotty, although when the food was good it was really delicious.

Distant view of Heart's Desire Beach and Tomales Bay

Monkey Flower

View of Heart's Desire Beach

And then to Olema for a weird-restaurant experience:

The building is painted black

Inside

Sheets of brown wrapping paper in lieu of a tablecloth

My sister ondering the options.  That's dried seaweed hanging from the light fixture.

Locally produced sparkling wine: so-so

My favorite part--illuminated panels of canvas in the garden

More That's Artful and Beautiful at Marion's and a Rescue by Take-Out

Mercifully:  Take-out

"No more cooking!" I announced yesterday morning.  "There's got to be better way."  Jerry agreed.  We're burned out. 

Then I packed up a bag of fabric and toted it over to Marion's house  to meet up with my quilt group.  Six out of twelve showed up.  In the meantime, Jerry met up with an Entomology colleague, who came for a day-trip to explore bug habitats in the National Seashore.

In the course of the afternoon, Marion suggested a place to get take-out (Perry's Deli in Inverness Park), and later Jerry and I drove down to pick up two salmon dinners.  Delicious.  We can lug our frozen meat in Elisabeth's freezer back to Berkeley.

Dining table at Marion's, ready for lunch

A raspberry-almond tart for Deanna's birthday

Our stuff dumped at Marion's

Newly-dyed fabric

The yarn closet

Everywhere you look there's something artful and beautiful...

...even over the bathtub

...and the medicine cabinet

Shelf over the bed with Mexican wooden animals

Outdoor sculpture

A walk in the garden, with Tomales Bay in the background (right)

View of the house from the garden

Every room has a skylight (or three)

Nasturtiums with poppy

In Marion's garden studio, where she dyed fabric yesterday

Kiln for jewelry-making

The group helped me decide on a border for this quilt

Dull green with an narrow inner border of blue?  Or the blue as a binding?

Ann's latest quilt under construction

Hand appliqued

Marion holding up a scarf she's knitting

Marion, Ann, Rebecca, Karen, Deanna

Close-up of Karen's scarf, made by Ann

By 6:30, Jerry and I had made a run to Perry's Deli:

An evening walk up the end of the road

Devil!

Revelation: I Can't Ride a Bike Uphill

Yesterday we thought we'd do something we've been meaning to do for ages:  take our bikes to the Bear Valley Trail, the just-about-flat, go-to trail near the park headquarters.

Families do this trail.  People push strollers.  This was going to be easy and fun.

No, it wasn't! It was humbling.  That trail, believe it or not, is all uphill.  And I flagged almost immediately.  Jerry got way ahead of me and then circled back to see if I was okay.  I wasn't.  At one point, I actually sat down on the side of the trail, feeling faint and exhausted (yes, I've had a cardiac work-up).

We made it to the Divide Meadow (1.6 miles), with me pushing my bike much of the way.  Sigh.  We sat on a bench and ate lunch and lamented about how old we are.  Jerry had gotten down to first gear to make it up the final hill, pedalling madly and wobbling.

Riding back on the trail involved hanging on for dear life and WHIZZING along, hoping to God we didn't hit any hikers.  No pedalling necessary for the length of it, until the parking lot was in sight.

After that, exhausted and deflated, we went grocery shopping in Pt. Reyes Station and bought lots of produce, plus four packages of cookies and a tub of ice cream.  Just to get over the trauma of being old and not all that fit.

Chocolate mint ice cream mends much

And that was just about the entire day, except for a long read in the sun, a nap, and Prosecco-with-pizza for dinner.