President's Day - Marin Headlands

As students we have really come to love three day weekends. Especially while living in the Bay area. That one extra day without homework, study groups, or classes combined with endless amazing places to visit provided us with lots of fun opportunities to explore the San Francisco area one day at a time. This year on President's Day we decided to visit someplace new that we'd heard a lot about - 

the Marin Headlands. 

The Marin Headlands is the southern most section of Marin County, the peninsula just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Originally the land was used for cattle ranching and dairy farming, although at some point the land was appropriated by the government for military use. San Francisco was considered a major target in both world wars, so the headlands became a base for Bay area troops. This stage of history left the headlands with some cool ruins of battlements, missile sites, etc., but it also protected it from development. It's really amazing that in about 25 minutes you can go from the craziness of San Francisco, to the quiet beauty of these wild hills. Hands down, this was one of my most favorite day trips.

The Marin Headlands are full of beautiful natural sites, hikes, and wildlife, but one of the highlight of our trip was visiting Point Bonita Lighthouse. This is the lighthouse that lights the way into the San Francisco Bay.

 It's been in operation since 1855 and was the last manned lighthouse in the US. The location is incredibly unique and difficult to access - it requires a mile-long hike down the steep hillside, a walk through a 300 ft. hand-carved tunnel, and a crossing over a 100-ft. high suspension bridge. Needless to say, I was a little bit nervous crossing that slightly swaying bridge over the cold Pacific waves with our two sweet girls!

At the entrance to the suspension bridge - I'm faking my smile fairly well, but you can see that both the girls were a little bit nervous! Once we got across the bridge they were totally fine, but the crossing itself was a bit unnerving. The view from the lighthouse out over the ocean on a clear sunny day like today was just stunning. The light was reflecting off of every wave in the ocean, and as strange as it sounds, that there really is something about standing at the edge of the open ocean that just called to me, as though there were some great adventure awaiting just over the horizon...

After our lighthouse adventure we stopped to tour the Marine Mammal Center. This is basically a veterinarian hospital where they treat injured marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, otters, etc. As you can tell, Serelle was in absolute heaven. (note that this post is actually being written on 10.1.2013 and she still talks about being and animal rescuer!) We bought a darling book at the bookstore about the true story of a humpback whale that enters the San Francisco bay then swims up the Sacramento River before finally turning around and returning to the ocean. It's a pretty amazing story and has become one of our favorite books!

 As we got in the car to drive home from our fun day the girls both feel asleep immediately, so Kylan and I decided take the long, scenic route through the headlands. We kept commenting on how stunning this view of the bridge and the city were, so we just had to stop and snap a picture. It was a cold day, but we had a rare, sunny sky and I'm so glad we were able to capture the beauty. 

Such an amazing memory to have now.