Inverness, CA

We arrived in Inverness, California late yesterday after a lunch of sliced salami, cheese, onion and tomato on baguettes at Viansa Winery in Sonoma, and a stroll through the town. We are staying in a renovated 1911 boathouse on Tomales Bay at Point Reyes, near Sir Francis Drake Bay where Drake dropped anchor for awhile to repair his ship while attempting to circumnavigate the world in the 1500's. From our Adirondacks chairs on the dock, we can watch the swiftly travelling tides and gaze at the rolling, green Marin Hills. A small skiff is tied up at a pier nearby. A dog barks in the distance. We inhaled the strong scent of eucalyptus as we wandered into the Olema Inn for a dinner of Hog Island oysters, shrimp gumbo with crunchy risotto cake and okra, and black cod garnished with locally foraged mushrooms. The chefs here cook with organic ingredients and fish that is freshly accessible. Today we did our own exploring as we hiked the Earthquake Trail as well as the Point Reyes National Seashore. We are on the San Andreas fault, the epicenter of the 1906 earthquake. We learned about the North American and Pacific plates and contemplated the friction that causes gentle as well as disastrous natural events. Our Abbotts Lagoon hike meandered through fields of lupine, buttercups and European beach grass. Winter ducks alighted on the water while raptors swooped, and western snowy plovers nested. Several historic ranches dating to the mid-1800's, share the national park land. The tableau of cattle and horses punctuating the grasslands is stunning.