On Saturday, I went to San Francisco with Marcia and watched her purchase art and furniture. You can read about our day on her blog.

On Sunday, it was unbelievably gorgeous, so Kyle and I decided to take a trip through Marin and check out the town of Bolinas. I had heard a lot about Bolinas–how it is filled with colorful characters, how you have to drive through country roads to get to it, and how the locals hate tourists and remove signposts to keep outsiders from finding their town.

It was indeed hard to find. It took over an hour to get there, although it’s not far from Petaluma. It was a gorgeous drive; we wound through springtime hills, past quaint towns, flowering trees, and cows. Finally, we ended up passing the fork that goes off to Bolinas and went to Stinson Beach instead. The sign to Bolinas was indeed missing.

And when I got to Stinson Beach, I understood why the locals removed the sign. It was full of horrible people! Well, maybe not horrible. But the kind of people who buy $700 bathing suits and work out in gyms and treat every situation as a personal fashion show and meat market. I was surprised to see them out in Marin with their surf boards and their artfully shredded designer beach wear, standing in line in the the overpriced gourmet grocery store with their plastic tubs of tuna-and-olive salads and Naked juice. Needless-to-say, we didn’t stay long in Stinson Beach.

(As I was standing outside waiting for Kyle to use the restroom, I noticed this odd situation. This woman was hugging her … daughter? … while talking on the phone while her son looked on behind them. They stood like this for something like 7 minutes. It was strange because a. they didn’t move and b. the woman on the phone was so disconnected from the hug she was giving. I don’t quite know what to make of it.)

Bolinas, once we found it, was quite charming. It wasn’t what I expected. The town wound down a road and was full of beach houses, book stores, and hotels. It didn’t have a lot more than that. Maybe it was the beautiful day, or all the flowering plants everywhere, but it started to remind me of Santa Cruz with the surfers and hippies walking around. It didn’t feel like Marin at all.

We ended up walking around downtown and then sitting on the beach people watching. I had originally hoped to watch nature in Bolinas, but there were too many people around for that. So I watched the array of surfers, rich people, college students, children, dogs, hippies, and eccentric locals instead. On the way home, we stopped at the Marin Cheese Factory and tasted cheese and watched a child drag a stick in a pond. It was a good day.

Woman and baby

“Vote for Bolinas
Socially Acknowledged
Nature loving Town

Because
To like to drink the
water out of the lakes
to like to eat the blueberries
to like the bears is
Not hatred to hotels
and Motorboats
Dakar
Temporary and Way
to save life skunks
and foxes (airplanes
to go over the ocean)
and to make it
BEAUTIFUL

– Measure G Ballot Initiative
passed Nov. 4, 2003″

??

Couple and their poodles

Kyle and I were agreeing that it is a waste of money to buy a child a wet suit. Then, right as I was snapping this photo, the child in the middle said, “Hey Marie, do you want to go body surfing later?”

My new desktop

Bolinas Lagoon, with the tide almost completely out. Clams were spitting water into the air like tiny geysers.

Can you see the dog?