Cat and Laurie’s Fabulous Point Reyes Adventure

My art retreat was over on Sunday, September 23. After saying my goodbyes to Albie and Ricë, I slipped away while the others were in their Sunday workshops, with a bit of envy. But not too much, because I was about to spend the rest of my day with my fabulous friend Cat, who moved out west from North Carolina several years ago. I walked a couple of trails in the marshland park next to the Sheraton Sonoma and Petaluma River. There were pleasure boats passing by and fellas fishing on the banks. It was a quiet place and I sat and wrote in my journal while I waited for Cat to pick me up.

Aahhhh, it was good to spend a few hours with Cat. She always refreshes my soul, a source of glowing energy. We talked and listened, got a little lost, rode around in circles, and enjoyed every minute of it. We stopped at Nicasio Valley Cheese Company and bought some soft cheese for a picnic that never really materialized so I eventually had to toss it out, but I tasted some great cheeses for free and they had other good local organic products too. We wandered through the little town of Point Reyes Station and finally made our way out to Point Reyes Lighthouse, passing a herd of tule elk on the way.

Not quite ALL the way to the lighthouse. It was very foggy and you could barely get a fleeting occasional fuzzy glimpse of the waves beneath the cliffs. Since the steps down to the lighthouse itself was the equivalent of a thirty story climb, we decided to skip it. You know how I love wind and water shaped rock? That was a good place for it, high above the Pacific Ocean.

Isn’t she just gorgeous? I miss her.

Then we went to Point Reyes South Beach, which curiously, was north of the lighthouse, but, hey, everything’s relative, right?

That’s not rope, it’s a kind of seaweed they have on the Pacific coast.

We found a cool little stream with lots of piled up driftwood logs. There were multi-colored succulents and wildflowers everywhere too.

Then we drove back to Petaluma where we met up with Amy, another N. C. girl, and ate dinner at Central Market. I couldn’t leave without drinking some local wine and I already knew how good the oysters are in that area. I had the rainbow trout after the oysters.

Then there was a bit of slapstick when we rushed to the car to get me to the bus station in time for the 8:30 bus and I couldn’t find my purse. It turned up at the restaurant bar where we had first been seated. So I took the 9:30 bus to the San Francisco Airport, and ended up being there in plenty of time for my 11:50 flight.

There must have been a family named Young waiting for stand-by on my flight. Either this was unfortunate or somebody at the computer had a wicked sense of humor. Or maybe I just have a twisted mind. Either way, F. You seemed to be out of luck.