Valentine's Day 2009

Today we settled on a fundamental truth: children are like dogs, they need to be walked at least three times a day. Seriously. This is not meant to disrespect either dogs or children. It's probably true that all of us need to get out in the fresh air and exercise our body at least three times a day, it's just that dogs, who also require this outing for other reasons, get all the luck.

So, with this in mind and faced with a windy, rainy, cold day, we set off to explore new walks. We recently acquired awesome walking maps of all of the local counties and today we broke out the Marin county map. We've spent a lot of time in Marin and have hiked many of the more famous trails, but today we opted for bayside San Rafael, where we had never been before. And we were not disappointed.

Walk #1 McNear's Beach

Our first walk took us to McNear's Beach.  It has an outdoor pool, sandy beach, barbeque pits and a snack bar--all of which (except for the beach) were closed for the season, but we definitely got the sense it is a fantastic place to visit in the summer.  

It's pretty good in winter too.  We had the beach to ourselves, except for one fellow picking up garbage.  Strangely, there were dead jellyfish all over and this fellow told us that he'd heard it had something to do with the jellyfish getting carried by currents to this place where the bay water met the ocean water and they couldn't survive the resulting salinity.  We tried to believe they weren't really dead, but were going to be carried back to life with the high tide.  

It rained quite a bit, but walking along in the windy rain, breathing in the bay air was spectacular.  Eliza, who was hideously cranky in the car on the way over, visibly loosened up as we walked and was positively pleasant by the time we were climbing back into the car.  

Walk# 2: China Camp Village

After McNear's, we drove on to China Camp Village. As its name implies, it was an area that had once been home to a Chinese fishing village.  In the second half of the 1800s, there was a booming shrimp fishing industry located here and many of the buildings remain.  In one of these, a visitor's center documents the village's fascinating history.  

At its peak in 1880, nearly 500 people lived here, catching and preparing shrimp for sale at local restaurants and for export to China.  Soon after, a series of discriminatory laws were passed, beginning with the Exclusion Act of 1882 which forbade new immigrants from China and denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants already in the United States (this Act wasn't appealed for sixty years).  Locally, laws began limiting the fishing season, banning the export of dried shrimp, forbidding traditional Chinese fishing techniques, restricting the size of the catch and generally limiting the ability for Chinese immigrants to continue to exercise their rights to earn a living. 

At the same time, the local environment was being degraded.  Houses were being built on fragile wetlands and the San Francisco and San Pedro Bays were feeling the burden of industrial pollution.  All of this led to diminishing shrimp supplies.  Between the racist policies and environmental degradation, the shrimping community continued to dwindle and eventually died out.  

In 1977, China Camp opened as a State park and a descendent of one of the original fishing villages, Frank Quan, continued to operate the cafe and general store and share stories of the village's vibrant past.  When we were there, the store was closed and it's unclear from dated Internet sites, whether it still operates in the summer (it looks like it does) or whether the Quans are still running it.  In any case, we'll certainly be back to find out.

 

Walk #3: Las Gallinas Ponds and Salt Marsh

We ended up at a salt marsh and ponds that were part of a water treatment plant. Reclaimed water turned bird habitat, it was remarkably lovely and we've since learned that it is a popular spot for bird enthusiasts: the Audubon Society has catalogued 200 species of birds here.  We also learned that an 81-kilowatt solar power system provides environmentally-friendly power to the Las Gallinas pump station. Supposedly, you can see the solar panels north of the ponds, but I guess we were too busy looking at the cows in that direction.  

Lost Tooth and Tennessee Valley

We went on a lovely hike in Tennessee Valley with Auntie Helen and Auntie Laura. Saw deer and horses, breathed in the warm sun, played in the rocky sand... but, most importantly, Eliza lost her first tooth!!

Albany Bulb

On boxing day we headed down to the Albany bulb. We love it here.  It is a former landfill that was used to dump construction waste from building the freeway.  Thus, despite its prime location on the waterfront, with spectacular views of San Francisco and Marin, it was pretty much neglected.  After it stopped being used as a dump in the late eighties, it was covered with dirt, things started to grow on it, and, today, huge slabs of concrete and twisted rebar intermingle with the grasses, trees and dirt.  It's like a fantastic display of mother nature reclaiming what's hers or perhaps it's telling us the persistence of industrial waste.  Either way, there is something endlessly fascinating about the place.  

But, what's even cooler is the way artists, tinkerers and other creative types have taken it as a constantly evolving canvass.  There are huge sculptures made from found objects, natural and otherwise, eclectic mobiles hanging from the trees, painted rocks and mosaics.  Every time we go, it's slightly different because the wind and water transform or erase what the artists create and in this too, this place is a living example of human/nature interactions.  

This time, we saw a giant woman with her arms outstretched, a teeter-totter made from drift wood on concrete that the girls played on with some other kids who were there.  Eliza climbed a tree with multicolored branches draped with shiny objects.  The heart castle we'd played at last time had collapsed in parts and made for a cavernous ruins instead.  In addition to all of the human-made wonders, we walked along the slippery rocks as the tide rolled in, had a sword fight with pampas grass, and all the while took in the world-class view and delicious ocean breeze.  

Hiking in our back yard

On the first day of our winter break we decided to go for a hike on Mt. Tam.  But, as we drove toward the bay, we saw ominous-looking clouds hugging its peak and so turned around and headed up to Tilden park instead.  Tilden park is practically in our back yard, but, being constantly drawn to the ocean as we are, we rarely go there.  So, it was a treat to discover it to be such a wonderful place for hiking and walking, for getting muddy, spotting birds and magnificent views.  We had a great time.  

Afterwards, we took a long and circuitous drive looking for something new and undiscovered on the other side of Tilden park.  Unfortunately, we found nothing but suburbs and got progressively crankier.  Finally, we ventured back into familiar territory and stopped for some ocean air at the Emeryville marina.  

We topped the night off at the amazing Christmas light display at the Tilden park carousel.  We were hoping to see Santa, but he didn't show (or so we told our exhausted and melting down daughters when we realized we had an hour to kill).  

The pictures below appear in reverse order...