Passionate Fruit: Memorial Day weekend: Muir Woods, Stinson Beach and Sausalito

For Memorial Day weekend we decided to drive up north of San Francisco on Saturday and stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Mill Valley, a couple miles from Sausalito.

On Friday night I had a girls' night out in SF with a couple friends since one of them was moving to St. Louis. We got a hotel room for the night, went to dinner at E&O Kitchen and Bar, got cocktails at Local Edition, and then out for dancing at Mr. Smith's, which was shockingly tiny and not crowded. We had our own space on the dance floor in front of a giant fan and managed to enjoy ourselves mostly unmolested by unwelcome dudes. It was a night of a LOT of walking and some of the girls made unfortunate shoe choices. I wore pretty comfortable boots, but even my feet were killing me by the time we made it back to the hotel. It was a fun night but as usual I was reminded that I am over 30 and getting a little old for the club scene, which takes place too late at night for my tired old ass. I need a dance floor that's hopping by 9 pm.

E&O Kitchen and Bar

brunch at MyMy!

The next morning we got brunch at MyMy and sat outside. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the city. Then Rich and Valerie came and picked me up on the way north. They were hungry so we stopped at a McDonald's in the city (yes, with all the dining options in San Francisco, Rich wanted McDonald's. Don't ask me.) and then crossed the Golden Gate up to Mill Valley. We had a chill (and chilly) afternoon at the hotel pool and then got dressed and went to dinner at Gira Polli nearby, where we had delicious pastas.

s'mores at the hotel

Sunday morning we first attempted to go to Muir Woods but it was so crowded we couldn't park anywhere and after much frustration we finally gave up and kept driving up toward Stinson Beach. Along the way we stopped near a random boulder overlooking the ocean and hiked around a bit, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the day. Then we continued on to Stinson Beach, where it was unfortunately uncomfortably cold and windy and again an epic struggle to find parking. We finally parked and walked around the beach, and found an unexpected delightful lunch and milkshakes at the Siren Canteen, a converted lifeguard tower right on the beach. They had an assortment of pickled vegetables and condiments to top their tasty tacos and an excellent meyer lemon milkshake.

boulder climbing

salmon shorts spotted at Stinson Beach

We decided to try to hit Muir Woods again on our way back, and by some miracle we were able to score a parking spot (after waiting for someone to pull out) and get in for a short walk through before they closed. I can't emphasize enough how ridiculous the parking situation is there. It's an extremely popular tourist attraction to see the Redwoods, and with good reason. Of all the redwood parks I've been to, it is the most beautiful. When you walk in there you really feel like you have entered a mystical fairy wonderland; everything is green and almost seems to glow. I'm so glad we got to see it, though I wish we could have had more time. I probably wouldn't attempt to go again, though, because it's that annoying to park. Is it worth it? Hard to say. If you get lucky, then absolutely. If you don't get lucky, you're going to need to overcome your frustration when you finally get inside. I really don't know.

Our Muir Woods experience kind of captures our California experience in general. It is so beautiful and amazing, but you have to overcome SO much frustration with logistics, overcrowding, traffic and parking problems, and exorbitant prices, that the drawbacks really beat down all the greatness. When it's all over, you look back with gladness that it happened, but you don't really want to go through it all again.

Anyway, we dropped the ball on planning dinner our last night up north, so we drove back to Mill Valley hoping to find something near the hotel, and the first place we tried was closed. We thankfully found a pizza and wine bar called Tamalpie that was still open and got food although not before Valerie had a mega tired-and-hungry meltdown and we had to take her out to the parking lot to calm down. I was actually thrilled with this place. The food and my cocktail were outstanding and it was quite pricey but I was happy and once we had food we were all in a better place. We even shared the sundae for dessert, with *all* of the optional toppings. A good end to a long, busy day.

Monday morning we packed up and went into Sausalito to enjoy that little town before we drove back home. It was another beautiful sunny morning, unseasonably warm, and we had a lovely crepe breakfast at a tiny cafe next to a cute park area overlooking the bay with a view of the San Francisco skyline. We hung out in the little park for a while afterwards just enjoying the view and ambience. I just love Sausalito and wish we got to spend more time there. It's unfortunate that to get there we have to battle SF traffic and cross the Golden Gate, which makes this probably our only visit this go-round. Oh California, how we love and hate thee.