By Wednesday, conference meetings were over and we had a free day to do more exploring before returning home. Susan's sister was also in San Francisco and joined us. We rented a car and drove again across the Golden Gate Bridge. Passing Sausalito and Mill Valley, our first destination was Muir Woods National Monument. It's named for John Muir, an early environmentalist, responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park and other natural preserves.  Muir Woods is a preserve for magnificent stands of old growth Coast Redwoods. The trees here are hundreds of yeards old. There are easy paths and trails to walk among the stands and groves and admire the ancient trees. We followed the trail along Redwood Creek as far as Cathedral Grove. "It's so natural" I said out loud. Susan gave me an odd look. It sounded silly and banal, but I was struck by the beauty of the place.

John and I originally planned to visit a park where we could drive through a Redwood tree until we learned that getting there was 5x longer than visiting John Muir in Mill Valley. We'll save the Eureka/driving through a hollowed Redwood tree and tour along the Oregon coast for another weekend.

From Walnut Creek, we took the Richmond Bridge ($4 toll) to cross the bay and to Mill Valley. This was also the same weekend Bay Bridge closed from Friday night through most of Monday (for those who do not live in the bay area, the Bay Bridge is one of the most popular and packed bridges used to get across the water from east-west, vice versa). Total drive time took about an hour since roads were curvy and sometimes narrow once we got closer. Parking was a little bit of a pain, but not too bad since we didn't mind walking farther instead of circling around for a closer spot. The park had walking trails that lead to the entrance which made avoiding cars on the road much easier :)

Entrance per person is $3 although I believe it's based on an honor system. No one checked our tickets and there were a lot of people passing through. I let John do all the trail picking since he did most of the research. There were notices posted by the maps letting visitors know which trails were closed and updates on popular trails where popular sites are not available, ex: limited access to views because of fire safety reasons or no view since all the water dried up. There was even a notice about people being stung by YellowJackets - yikes! We avoided that trail :P

The trail we took was fairly easy and didn't require us to hike up too much. We didn't get an overview of the area but it was a peaceful walk through the forest. As hot as it was outside, the redwood trees kept us pretty cool from the sun. Some of the trees were so big that I could fit inside. John too! We probably hiked for close to 2 hours before we finished our loop and got back to the car.

Next, we decided to visit Stinson beach since it was nearby and we have never gone. Along the way we saw a sign for Muir Beach Overlook and turned in to see what was there. It was lovely! We were high above the coast and were able to view Stinson beach. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was just beaming on us. Surprisingly, it wasn't very cold and even the breeze had a warm feel. We walked down the Overlook trail and hung out for a few minutes, taking pictures here and there and taking in the scenery. There was a couple making out at the viewpoint and another couple hidden away in the rocks (I guess not so hidden, hehe).

Since we were able to see Stinson beach from the overlook, our curiosities were satisfied and we decided to head on home for dinner.