Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Weekend Beauty

Reader, sigh. If $4.50 gas and million dollar starter homes are getting you down, taking in the beauty of the Bay Area always makes it seem worth it.

Sunday Teacher and I went on the most glorious hike to Tomales Point, in the Point Reyes National Seashore.


Tomales Point is where the Pacific Ocean meets Tomales Bay. This is the ocean side. I bet there's lots of sharks down there.

And lots of gorgeous wildflowers up here. The hills were carpeted with these lush yellow lupine, the air full of their sweet fragrance. In between are wild radishes, pretty and deliciously spicy.





Not sure what these are. Sweet pea of some kind? Purty.







A Dr. Seuss-y thistle bush with hot pink flowers.










and tule elk






Also: carpets of California poppies, that happiest of flowers to which I did not do photographic justice, woolly caterpillars, large shiny black beetles, brown bunnies, voles, and right at the end of the hike, velvety purple wild irises. By the time we saw these though, I was nearly staggering with fatigue, my plummeting blood sugar levels howling for large quantities of fried oysters and beer, which were consumed shortly thereafter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, Professional Critic! I am always amazed by the photographs of your surroundings! I truely wish that I lived in such a beautiful and magical place. I can't imagine waking up every morning and trying to decide which wonderful area of the Bay Area to begin exploring that day! Alas, I can only hope that someday I will move to Northern California and experience it all for myself.
Ahlizh
San Francisco, CA

Professional Critic said...

Well, Ahlizh there are indeed some amazing sights in northern California. Some say they even rival what you can see on Access Hollywood ... but that might be overstating it.