Greetings from Tennessee Valley in Marin County, just north of San Francisco!

I went for a walk around the hills of Marin County with my friends Pankaj, Marcin (pr. Mar-chin) and Guido and thought I'd put the pictures online. 

Enjoy!

Pankaj, Marcin and Guido at Paradise Bay where we ate lunch at a marina on San Francisco Bay before heading up to the hills.

Guido at the lunch table with the marina in the background

Pankaj about to throw a punch at Marcin?!

I'm not so sure Marcin believes a word Pankaj is saying!  ;-}

Me sporting a beard this week, Marcin and Guido

Me and my beard.  Unexpectedly, people seem to really be into it and they tell me not to shave it off.  Some weeks I have a beard, other weeks I trim it back and yet other weeks I shave it all off.  It grows fast tho if I shave and then want it to come back, it'll grow in within 7 to 9 days.  Also, it's calico in color so when the sun shines on it it ranges from black to brown to red to blond. . . and these days even a couple of my whiskers are white.  AAACK!!!  ;-}

Pankaj, Guido and Marcin walking toward Tennessee Valley

Marcin about to take a picture of Tennessee Valley

Tennessee Valley.  Scroll to the right --->>>

Interesting little pond there next to the ocean

Me, Marcin and the valley

California Poppies

As for the rest of the flowers, I have no clue what they are since I'm terrible at botany.  My mother loves flowers though so I always like taking pictures for her.  I thought about texting her all these pictures yesterday but I was afraid I'd crash her phone.  ;-}

If any of you know what these flowers are, feel free to let me know.  And maybe I'll finally learn what's freaking out my allergies this month!!!

Me and a big fat tree

We thought about walking up to Oregon, but then figured we couldn't walk there and walk back before sundown.

A flying friend floating next to us along our walk

Pankaj staring into the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean to the left

The Sunset District of western San Francisco as seen from Marin County.  Also of note, the San Andreas fault line enters the Pacific Ocean at the far right portion of the picture at the inner base of the mountains.  The epicenter of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 apparently was just offshore here.

The beautiful California coastline

Guido have a good time in Marin

Me and my rugged man beard with San Francisco off in the distance

Me about to fall off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean

Guido and the Pacific, thousands of miles away from his native Mediterranean

Russia, Japan, Korea, China, The Philippines and Australia on the other side!

I love San Francisco because you have the excitement and benefits of living in a (small'ish) big city but just a couple miles north across the bay you have all this spectacular nature.  We are soooooooooo fortunate today that the citizens and politicians of this area in the 19th and 20th Centuries were so anti-development.  Their desire for conservation and environmental preservation before such concepts were even popular national topics left us with with a truly magnificent gift in the 21st Century.

Pretty little purple flowers

A groundhog poking his nose up above ground and checking things out.

I have no clue what kind of plants these are, but they look really cool.  Like dinosaur-era plants.

Pankaj walking down a little set of steps right before I got separated from the group and basically got lost for like half an hour!

Ice plant?  I like how it just pops out in little starbursts.

I like the colors!

I read an article in Scientific American magazine recently that talked about the eyes of insects, birds and other creatures and how many of their eyes can see infrared and ultraviolet light, which humans can't see, and they mentioned that flowers are also colored in infrared and ultraviolet.  Which means that if our human eyes were move evolved, these flowers that we see as simply white or yellow or purple or red would also appear in whole new patterns and crazy shades of color.  How amazing these plants must appear to birds and insects!

Tiny little flowers that grew out between the cracks in rocks.

OUCH!

Brilliant! 

I truly do love nature - and I really hope we humans can figure out a way to quit polluting and destroying it all.

The California coastline

Must be rough living in this tranquil little piece of paradise!

Apparently I don't walk nearly as fast as everyone else!

San Francisco with the TransAmerica Pyramid popping up through the hills of Marin County.  It reminds me of the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.

The spectacular view driving south out of Marin County back toward San Francisco and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge pop up over the hills.  Traffic was insane though, most likely because we had THE BEST WEATHER this weekend of the entire yearand I think everyone and their grandmother was outside enjoying it. . . because in San Francisco good weather never lasts for very long.  The fog is always waiting to invade and take over the city after a maximum of three or four days of good weather.

A guy driving through San Francisco in his big ol' Oldsmobile convertible.  Must have been a spectacular drive all the way from Kansas!

While waiting at a traffic light in the city, I noticed cute little cat up in its window just looking down at the traffic and goings-on at street level. 

Ah. . . the simple life of a kitty cat!

The view out my bedroom window at sunset on one of the most beautiful days this year in San Francisco.  Yes, life is truly spectacular!

So is the apparently binary star system descending behind the local mountains.  Gotta love light artifacts in pictures!

I hope you had a great weekend, too!

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