yvensong

July 24, 2025

Flashback -Day 3; Or It’s a Long and Winding Way Home

This is continuation of the Flashback Friday post that was posted on Friday, July 18, 2025. The following was posted on another site, July 2007. I’m reposting here so as to not lose this little bit of my history.

Friday we woke to a foggy, groggy morning. We both fought sleep the last night there. I didn’t want to see the trip end. The surf called me. The winding roads called me. The fog knew my name. The longer I could stay awake, the longer my vacation would seem.

As D showered, I stepped out and stared at the low tide for awhile. I walked to the end of the pier and watched the fog roll back out to sea, taking the early morning with it. I wanted to follow it out, float upon the chilly waters, until land disappeared.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

All our bags are packed, we’re ready to go; a muffin downed, we are out the door; neither one of us wants to say goodbye; but the drive home beckons, the key’s turned in; our stomachs’ growling, Drake’s Beach has a cafe; Already we miss the place so much we cry.

“We want to stay another day…”

So, off to Drake’s Beach for breakfast. But, aha — they don’t serve breakfast! Go figure. No one else in the area does…why should they break the mode? Their sandwiches are simple, yet filling and hot cocoa was a blessing against the furious cold winds that blew across the beach.

D and I ventured out onto the sand and stuck feet into frigid water. After watching our toes turn blue (was that just the color of the water, or were our feet that cold?), we rushed back to the car.

It’s still early…well, not really, but I just couldn’t bear leaving, yet. We vote to find the beach that is supposed to be the kinder, gentler beach. We find it. It cost money. We forgo the romantic walk along a sandy shoreline for a meditative walk through Spirit Matters, defined as “A divine destination full of oddities” and cookies from the Busy Bee Bakery.

The drive out of the Point took longer it seemed — oh, yeah, I was driving much slower! 🙂 We stopped to take in the smell of redwoods and the various life forms that congregate around them.

The mood is a bit more quieter and sullen for our drive back. D and I are both sad that we have to leave this idyllic place and land back in Reno; though we do stop at the Ikea in Sac. (One more distraction and a way to delay our arrival home.) I haven’t been to an Ikea in over 12 years and D had never been to one. We explored the jungle of displays, then sat down to a late lunch/early dinner.

It’s funny; the drive from Point Reyes to Reno is about four to four and one-half hours. We left the Golden Hinde Inn around 10AM. I did not arrive home until 11PM. We must have entered some kind of time travel trap loop or something.

July 18, 2025

Flashback Friday –

For Fandango’s Flashback Friday, I am going to cheat a little and post what I meant to post last Friday. I wrote about Day 1 of this trip and Day 2 on the same day, a half hour apart in 2007 on another site.

The Start of a Freedom Loving Week – A Prelude and Day 1

I hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe 4th of July weekend.

Even though I usually don’t go traveling or such for the 4th, this year I broke out of the mode. I started by visiting friends in Carson City last weekend. These people have my heart wrapped in warmth and love; and I truly treasure every visit with them. This does not mean that everything is rosy and perfection when we are together; but even through the occasional tense moments, there is a sense of family that permeates.

On Wednesday, the 4th, D and I drove out to Point Reyes National Seashore  http://www.nps.gov/pore/ for a 2 night/3 day stay at the Golden Hinde Inn in Inverness. The motel room was a few feet from the eastern shoreline of the Point with a very small, private beach. Inexpensive room, simple, clean, rather old (with peeling paint), and near-perfect for our needs.

After we settled into our room, we drove out to the Point where the Point Reyes Lighthouse sits. http://www.ptreyeslight.com/lthouse.html The walk was a slightly strenuous uphill climb, made more strenuous by fierce winds blowing across the point. The Lighthouse was closed (closed Wednesdays and possibly because of the winds), which was okay with us when we saw the stairs that lead to the small lighthouse. According to the sign, the narrow staircase is similar to climbing 30 stories. Hmmm…we weren’t feeling quite confident in our staircase climbing skills at the moment.

Freedom Calls – Day 2

We had a late start, discovered that no one in the town of Inverness serves breakfast (huh?), so enjoyed our Continental breakfast consisting of a bran muffin and a can of orange juice, then drove off in search of adventure, libraries (for internet access) and touristy things to do.

Even though the sign for the library in Inverness was very clear when we came in on Wednesday, we couldn’t find it on Thursday. We drove onto Olema and still found no library. We returned to Point Reyes Seashore and located the Bear Valley Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was pretty upscale with exhibits of several of the animals indigenous to the area and a short film, then lunched on peanut butter sandwiches at one of the many provided picnic tables. Many of the hikes start at the Visitor Center and we walked out to the Kule Loklo village, a recreation of a Miwok village.

Sadly, gas became a bit of an issue. Not knowing there were no gas stations anywhere along the peninsula, we were directed to head out to Point Reyes Station, a town along Route One. This turned out to be a good distraction for the day. We found a bookstore to browse through, (and, well, buy something from). The restaurant we were told to go eat at was closed due to a plumbing problem. We found the Taqueria LaQuinta and were quite pleased. The food was very tasty (you must try out the garlic Parmesan cheese fries!) and there were lots!

With full stomachs and full gas tank, back to the Point we journeyed. We weren’t ready to go back to the room and decided to find Drake’s Beach. On the way, we stoppped to take pictures of a group of Tule Elk. What magnificent animals! Much smaller than the elk I’d find in Oregon, yet they have the same grace and elegance.

The beach was very windy and cold — we explored the area mostly from the car, as we watched the sun set behind us (very discombobulating to have a western beach actually be facing east). The Tule elk were still in the field at the fork in the road and entertained this time with shows of Elk Machismo.

Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Pexels.com

Blog at WordPress.com.