Point Reyes & Northface

What an amazing weekend. Saturday, Jon and I went to Point Reyes National Seashore. A short hour drive from Berkeley. It's a little north of San Francisco and is absolutely gorgeous. There are miles upon miles of forest and seashore. We drove to the Bear Valley Visitor Center and got out for our hike. We decided on an 8 mile round trip route to Arch Point. The hike was pretty level with a few hills, but nothing too bad. I do have to say that both of us were pretty tired by the end and sore when we woke up this morning, but it was a decent hike. Just long enough to get tired, but not too long to be absolutely sick of it. We walked through forests, past creeks and a few scattered redwoods. It was a really beautiful walk. Slowly we started to smell salt water and all of a sudden could hear the waves. Arch point is this point that juts out into the Pacific Ocean and you can hike out to it. The ocean is probably about 100 feet or more down and the waves just crash into the rocks. There was a little beach, but I don't think we could have gotten down there if we tried. Unless of course we took a huge dive into the water, but that wasn't happening. There was an adjacent ridge that we hiked up to and put out a blanket and had a little picnic and just laid in the sun.

The only negative of the whole hike was this creepy blackbird that decided to swoop around near us. For some unexplained reason, i hate big black birds. It may be due to Malefacence (if that's the right spelling) from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Remember: she turned into a blackbird and was really evil and mean. Anyway, I was catching some rays and heard the flapping of wings above me and it was up there and then landed a few feet away. He was after the tomato that I had carelessly tossed about 10 feet away. Thankfully, I scared him off but he kept close and flew overhead the entire time we were there. Then a seagull landed and tasted the tomato. He even had a little red juice on his beak and in the end the valiant seagull won out and the blackbird went hungry. Just the way I wanted it. Haha, bird!

After just chilling out for a while eating, basking, and listening to the waves crash against the rocks, we headed back. When we got back to the car, we decided to drive out to the lighthouse on another point. It was a really pretty drive through cow fields and rolling hills. At one point we even had to stop so the cows could cross the street. I almost felt like I was in India. When we got out at the parking lot near the lighthouse we took some pictures and then walked the half mile or so to the lighthouse. The wind was crazy, I think about 30-40mph, according to the Park Ranger and it was pretty cold, but the walk out there was totally worth it. We couldn't actually walk down to the lighthouse b/c it was closed, but we could still see it and just being there felt like we were on the edge of the universe. All in all, a really wonderful day.

When we got back to Berkeley, I took Jon to the Pyramid Brewery here in town and we ate dinner. I had eaten there for lunch earlier this week and it's a pretty cool spot overall. Having hiked all day, we didn't do much else for the rest of the night.

Today, we got up and ate lunch at this little pizza restaurant on Shattuck Ave and then headed to the NorthFace outlet because I heard that there was one here in town and that, in fact, it is the only one in the entire country. Well, we never really made it to the actual store outlet part because we were diverted into this back room of the outlet and given a large plastic trash bag by one of the employees. A bit confused, we beheld the sight before us. It was their sample sale that only takes place once or twice a year. I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I think it means that none of these things actually made it into their stores, or were prior variations of what did make it to the stores. In any case, it's all northface gear, but incredibly reduced. It's all the same sizes: men's medium, women's medium, kids medium, but that was just fine. A few things were too big, but most of it fit great. There were about 10 rows of 15 cardboard boxes FULL of coats, shirts, jackets, fleeces, snow pants, etc. There was also a wall with two rods running the length of the room with heavy winter coats. There were also about 6 boxes of bags and backpacks. So, basically, paradise. After about 10 minutes we realized what the plastic bags were for: shopping! My best deals were a $200 coat for $80 (it feels like a sleeping bag!) and a $60 jacket for $15. Amazing. I spent a little over $250, but came out with 5 items that were originally priced at $560. Maybe next weekend I'll actually make it to the outlet store nextdoor to that warehouse of awesome and pick up a sleeping bag or something. Who knew that such a jackpot was only 3 miles away and how lucky were we to happen to stop by on the one day a year that they let their coats go for pittance.

The only downer is that for the past two weeks, I've been a little chilly and wishing I had brought a few more jackets, but now that the weather is in the upper 70s, I don't need them. So bummer. I can't wait til winter. And for those of you in NC right now (and maybe the whole east coast), I'm sure you are all ready for some cooler weather. I have been keeping up and it looks ridiculous over there. I don't really want to rub it in, but California may just have the best weather of anywhere on the planet. Maybe not San Francisco, but they're weird. The rest of us have great weather.

Anyway, after NorthFaceHeaven, Jon and I came back to watch the Prefontaine Classic (a track meet anticipating the Olympics) and then headed back to Mountain View. We watched the first half of the Celtics/Lakers game and then went out to dinner in downtown Mountain View at this delicious Thai restaurant. Overall, it was an absolutely amazing weekend and I wish it wasn't over! Mondays always come too soon. Thankfully, work is going better and next weekend will also be incredible. Maybe some dinner/drinks in the City on Friday, and Saturday, definitely heading to Sonoma Valley to go tour some wineries and do some tastings all afternoon. God, life sucks here. So bad.