Bay Area Guidebooks

GUIDEBOOKS NEWS BLOG FREE DOWNLOADS PARK LINKS

April 30, 2011
I worked on Angel Island today, as a docent at the Immigration Station. A special event was taking place that was part of a project by Breakthrough, a human rights organization that works to highlight immigration rights through the use of social media. Actors in period costumes performed a reenactment of two immigration interrogations that took place on Angel Island in 1911 and 1913. The performance was followed by a panel discussion entitled "Angel Island and its Relevance to Current Immigration Issues." The project is called America 2049, which is a Facebook game that has players work to find clues to solve the problems of a futuristic America that has disintegrated into racial breakdown and a population pacified by "happy drugs" in the water supply. The game takes place over 12 weeks in 12 different American cities. San Francisco is the third city and some of the clues for the game were to be found within the reenactment performance. The grounds of the Immigration Station provided a fitting place for the reenactment and the futuristic game. The dark chapter in American immigration history that happened here evokes a chilling time when racial animosity determined government policy toward the Chinese and other Asian immigrants. After all the progress we have made, the dystopian vision of America 2049 is not too far removed from America 2011.

A Reenactment of an Immigration Interrogation
of a Prospective Chinese Immigrant


Toyon	Lupine	Madrone	Sticky Monkey Flower

April 17, 2011
Today was a beautiful day on Mount Tamalpais. I worked as a docent at the Gravity Car Barn, talking to people about the old Mount Tamalpais Railway. The area around the Gravity Car Barn is a great place for California native plants, with many examples to look at. Right next to the barn is a large California laurel tree, whose pungent leaves add a rich aroma to the mountaintop. Next to it is a stunning madrone tree, with silky smooth red bark and delicate white blossoms that look like hundreds of tiny lanterns hanging from the branches. Just beyond that is a small meadow surrounded by manzanita, a beautiful bush with smooth bark like the madrone, but an even darker blood red in color. Toyon trees, with large clusters of red berries, add even more color to the scene. The rocky escarpment above the barn has lots of sticky monkey flower, but the bright orange blossoms aren't in bloom yet. The deep blue stalks of lupine make up for that, lining the Verna Dunshee Trail as it loops around the peak.

April 16, 2011
The distinctive sound of elephant seals is ringing in my ears. It is the height of elephant seal season at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands. It was a beautiful night last night, with clear skies and an almost full moon shining down on us as we took care of our patients. We have 44 elephant seals now, along with six sea lions, and 16 harbor seals. The "ellies" are making the most noise, with their expressive calls that can sound like a monkey, a chicken, a dinosaur, or the Cadbury bunny. Sometimes they make a clicking or knocking noise that sounds like an industrial machine.

More than half of the ellies have now graduated from tube feeding to eating fish, which makes our jobs much easier and faster. Some of them still need to be hand fed the fish, while others have learned to dive and chase after the fish. New ellie pups are still coming in to the Center, but some of the early arrivals will be ready to be released back into the ocean next week. That is the most gratifying part of the job, to see them returned to where they should be.

A Curious Elephant Seal Pup

Inspirational Words at the Angel Island Immigration Station

April 15, 2011
The grounds of the Angel Island Immigration Station rang out with the shouts of schoolchildren yesterday as all three tours were booked with large groups. I led one of the tours, a very rambunctious group of schoolkids from Martinez. I love it when the kids are interested in the stories of history, culture, and nature that make this place so unique. My fellow volunteer docent Ek Mahl and I did our best to keep up with the kids, who had so many questions as we walked through the Detention Barracks and looked at the poetry on the walls. I always try to get the kids excited about the poetry, which I think truly transformed this place from a dark stain on American history into a place of redemption and cultural significance.

The outline of the old Administration Building, which burned down in 1940, is now marked with a low wall inscribed with words that describe the emotions felt by the detainees at Angel Island. Some of these words come from the poems that are chiseled into the walls of the Detention Barracks; others are concepts that are evoked by this enigmatic and contradictory place. The wide-eyed looks of dozens of schoolchildren as they hear the stories of Angel Island are an encouraging sign that we have learned from the past and can now move forward in a more positive way.

April 14, 2011
Yesterday I went to my volunteer job at the Presidio Nursery and on the way, I walked across the Parade Ground at Fort Scott. I watched a great blue heron on the vast lawn patiently waiting for a gopher. When the gopher appeared, the heron grabbed it, tossed it up in the air, and then getting a good grip on it in his beak, swallowed it down whole. The gopher wriggled around in the heron's throat as it went down. It is always amazing to witness the sometimes grotesque processes of nature that take place right before our eyes. I tried not to imagine what that gopher was going through at that very moment, preferring to focus on the nutritious snack that was giving sustenance to the patient heron. The Fort Scott lawn is a great place to witness this natural drama, and the ongoing conflict between predator and prey is the subject of the art installation that is just a few feet away. The bright yellow chairs scattered across the lawn are part of the Presidio Habitats exhibition that will be finishing up its yearlong stint next month. This particular installation is entitled Patience, and evokes the habitat of the great blue heron. The chairs present a place for people to sit quietly and imagine the life, and appetite, of this tenacious bird.

A Great Blue Heron Scores a Gopher

Jake's Island at China Camp State Park

April 9, 2011
A beautiful morning - great day for a hike at China Camp State Park. The trail that circles Turtle Back Hill rings out with birdsong in the early morning, a serene place to walk slowly and take in the fresh air. The wetlands along the shore of San Pablo Bay contain some of the best preserved tidal marshes left in the Bay Area and they are looking green and lush after all the rains. The view across the marshlands to Jake's Island shows a solid plain of abundant plant life, concealing the waters underneath that are teeming with insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, and salt marsh harvest mice. These wetlands act as a natural filter for the waters of the Bay and provide a "biological supermarket" for the many forms of life that depend on them. Turtle Back Hill is a great place to take in an overview of the workings of this ecosystem, with a series of interpretive signs along the trail that explain the natural history of the oak woodlands, grasslands, and salt marshes that make up this unique state park. The trail is only three quarters of a mile long, but it seems like it traverses a number of worlds. I completed the circle at a slow and peaceful pace, energized for taking care of all the business of the day.

April 1, 2011 The first heat wave of the year has arrived, a good day for a road trip. I drove down to Monterey yesterday and went for a hike at Garrapata State Park, along the Big Sur coast. Garrapata is very undeveloped and wild, with steep hillsides and rugged canyons filled with redwood groves. It is located on land that was an 1839 Mexican land grant known as the Rancho San José y Sur Chiquito. It later became a sheep and cattle ranch owned by Ezequiel Soberanes, whose family name can be found on geographical place names throughout the area. I started the hike by going up the Soberanes Canyon, where bright green hillsides towered above me. The lower part of the canyon was lush with wildflowers, especially lupine, which dotted the hills with bright blue and purple. There were plenty of other wildflowers as well, including yellow bush lupine, sticky monkey flower, Douglas iris, morning glory, and Indian paintbrush.		Garrapata State Park	Ladybugs Love Lupine
The open coastal scrub soon gave way to redwoods and the morning sun was shrouded by the cool forest. A couple of great horned owls hooted to each other in the highest branches of the trees. Soberanes Creek was running high after all the rains, and I had to wade across it five times as I made my way up the canyon. The trail became steeper and difficult to follow at times as it made its way around perilous bends in the creek. The redwoods appeared to be old growth, with gigantic trunks towering high above the canyon, creating a natural cathedral lit by filtered sunlight. Eventually the trail brought me out of the canyon and I began to climb the brutally steep hill into the warm sunshine. The open country above Soberanes Canyon was blindingly bright, the green hillsides now dotted with massive bouquets of wildflowers. California poppies added bright orange to the palette, along with a rainbow of checker mallow, shooting stars, footsteps of spring, California buttercups, woodland strawberry, blue-eyed grass, and goldfields. With each step upward the view expanded, and the blue Pacific soon came into sight again, along with the soothing sound of the crashing waves. After a seemingly endless ascent, I reached the junction with the Rocky Ridge Trail, where the rains had created a small pond. From here I turned onto the spur trail that led up to Doud Peak, a refreshingly gradual climb that afforded views of Monterey Bay, the Carmel Valley, and the Sierra de Salinas beyond. Named after Francis Doud, who bought the rancho from Soberanes in 1891, Doud Peak is 1,977 feet above sea level and a great place to take a nap in the sun.

The Cooper-Molera House at Monterey State Historic Park	The Custom House at Monterey State Historic Park	After the hike, I stopped in Monterey to explore the historical center of the city, the old Spanish and Mexican capital of California. Adobe buildings from the early 19th century are scattered around downtown Monterey, with a cluster of them around the Custom House Plaza on the waterfront, and another cluster inland around the Cooper-Molera Adobe. These two areas are linked by Alvarado Street, the main commercial street of downtown, and the Calle Principal, the historical Main Street. Most of these buildings are part of the Monterey State Historic Park, and unfortunately most of them are closed. Of all the state parks I've visited recently, this park most vividly reflects the ongoing budgetary crisis that has hit the state park system so hard. It seems so odd that the value of these places is not recognized. Aside from their historical significance, they are also of tremendous cultural, architectural, and educational value, forming a cohesive learning experience that could have so much more impact than a classroom. I felt a growing feeling of frustration as I approached each building and saw another sign reading "Closed due to budget cutbacks."
Most of the historic buildings of Monterey State Historic Park may be closed, but the secret gardens within their adobe walls are still open to the public. These quiet hideaways are usually accessed through a small passageway, which opens up onto elaborate gardens of ornamental plants and trees. The largest and most lavish of these can be found at the Cooper-Molera Adobe, which is a few blocks inland from the waterfront. John Rogers Cooper was an American sea captain who arrived in California in 1823 and married Encarnación Vallejo, the sister of Mariano Vallejo. Their grandson was Andrew Molera, who became the namesake for Andrew Molera State Park. The Cooper-Molera Adobe once housed a general store, which is now a gift shop next to the passageway that leads back to the garden. An outdoor kitchen, complete with an horno (beehive-shaped oven), metate (grinding stone), and stone well, is alongside the flower beds, vegetable gardens, and orchard that create a lush atmosphere behind the house. I visited several more of the secret gardens of Monterey, including the Stevenson house, where writer Robert Louis Stevenson stayed for several months in 1879-1880. I then went back to the waterfront, to rest, cool down, and read a book. Sitting in the Pacific House Memory Garden, I felt protected from the heat of the day and the noise of the city by the thick adobe walls. A good place to contemplate the explorations of the day, walking in the footsteps of Mariano Vallejo, Antonio Osio, John C. Frémont, Juan Alvarado, Thomas Larkin, Andrew Molera, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Shade trees kept me cool, a fountain gurgled soothingly at the center of the garden. The only noise that made it over the walls was the barking of sea lions, which could be heard throughout the city.

I stayed at the Pacific House Memory Garden until closing time, then wandered back out into the streets of Monterey. Rush hour was just getting underway, so I didn't want to drive back to the Bay Area just yet. I decided to go for a late afternoon walk and headed out to Asilomar State Beach. Asilomar is mainly known as a conference center, but the beach there is quite spectacular. 26 acres of white sand dunes form the backdrop of the beach, protected by a winding boardwalk that looks out across the waves. The delicate flower clusters of yellow sand verbena and beach sand verbena add color to the dunes, while deer wander gently through the landscape. As the sun approached the western horizon, I took advantage of the unique light that occurs toward the end of the day. I wandered around the grounds of the conference center and took pictures of the charming buildings designed by Julia Morgan. The Arts and Crafts style of architecture fits in so well with the rolling sand dunes and crashing waves of the beach. A nice way to end a long and satisfying day.

The Pacific House at Monterey State Historic Park

Asilomar Conference Center