John Muir Day

Spent the whole day learning about and honoring John Muir.  Well, almost!

When we arrived last night Mom realized that her cousin Tim lives in Castro Valley and our campground is also in Castro Valley so she called him and set up a breakfast date for this morning.  We met Tim, who I had met but only a few times, and his girlfriend and we had a very nice breakfast at a local breakfast hot spot JD’s.  After breakfast we brought them back to the campground so Tim could see Mom and Dad’s Motorhome – he has a Volkswagon camper van!

It was around noon when we set out for Martinez, CA where John Muir’s house is.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely very interesting! The house was very grand – it was actually the house of his father-in-law and John inherited it.  There was only one room that that was truly his and that’s only because part of the room was destroyed in an earthquake and he got to rebuild it! The house is entirely surrounded by “urban sprawl”, the view from John Muir’s bedroom now includes a Valero gas station and the back yard now contains a freeway (named after him, but a freeway nonetheless!). 

The house is surrounded by fruit trees reminiscent of the orchards he used to farm! Well, really the orchards that his father-in-law farmed and then he took over!  The plums were ripe and we were allowed to pick a few off the ground and enjoy them! Tasty! 

The inside of the house had all sorts of information about John Muir and his conservation efforts, the Sierra Club, and his studies of nature.  He was the first one to suggest that the Yosemite Valley was created by glaciers – all the geologists of the time disagreed with him until he found glacier dust in one of the creeks on Mt. Merced.  

The house was filled with art, mostly reproductions of original oil paintings that Muir owed – most of the paintings we were able to identify where they were because we’d been there!

By the time we were done with our self guiding tour it was 3:00 and Mom decided it was time for lunch, even though none of us were terribly hungry.  We drove around in circles for about 45 minutes looking for a good place, then attempting to follow the GPS leading us to a place that turned out to be closed and finally settling on Burger King.   We ate our “snack” quickly so we could get to Muir Woods on the other side of the bay.

Muir Woods is a large canyon that has a lovely grove of Coastal Redwoods in it!  It’s a true forest with lush moss, ferns, clover like things, and big huge redwood trees.  It’s usually totally overrun with people, but at 5:00 on a Sunday night it was much calmer – not empty, but the crowd was definitely diminished!  They have a large paved/boardwalk trail that circles the canyon and is mostly flat, we walked about 2 miles around the trees and took a few pictures – it was very low light so pictures were hard. 

On our way out we made an attempt at seeing the ocean and went around by way of Muir Beach but you had to drive down to Muir beach and Mom was getting anxious about getting back to the campground before they closed and locked the gate at 10:00. 

We decided to stop in Mill Valley at High Tech Burrito for a quick dinner.  I had been to High Tech Burrito once before when we came out here in 1992! My aunt used to work at an optical shop: Rims and Goggles that is right next door.  I remember going to High Tech Burrito but my memory had filed it away as being someplace else so when we were driving around the shopping center looking for it and then suddenly there’s Rims and Goggles I was pretty excited!  I wasn’t expecting to see it! I made Dad stop so I could snap a picture to email to Kim!

After dinner we drove back to the campground arriving here before 9:00! Plenty of time before the gates closed! It is very chilly tonight – Dad’s car said it was 56*! Wonder how cold it will get tonight?  It feels amazing.  I’m all snuggled into my 0* sleeping bag with the windows open.  I wish I could take these awesome temps home with me.  I’m not relishing going back to the inferno that seems to have engulfed the east coast in my absence!

Not sure what’s happening tomorrow – I need to pack up and return the RV so that means RV chores – dump, refill with water, and fill up with gas.  My flight isn’t until 10 pm (the redeye – ugh.) tomorrow night so I’m not sure what we’ll do with the rest of the day.  

John Muir Day