On Friday, we went to Kirby Cove, which is one of those places that I see and regret not having known about it before. It is the perfect place to take out-of-towners for stunning views of the Golden Gate, the city, and a taste of the Marin Headlands.

Park at the first lot on the left on Kirby Cove Road, and check out the view from the fort before heading down the track that leads down to the beach. The beach is small, secluded (save for two geese), and has brown-black sand and funny caves all around.
 

And...especially because the walk is short...
be sure to take a picnic to match the view.

Last weekend, we went to Joshua Tree for mind-blowing night skies, desert flowers, bouldering, running, hiking...and eating. Eisha and I are hoping to expand our (somewhat lacking) ability to feed ourselves well while camping, and car-camping in J-Tree was the grand beginning of our culinary quest.

We may have gone overboard in this endeavor. Marinated thin cuts of beef, veggie packets, roasted bananas with marshmallows and chocolate, and (Anson's almost successful experiment) roasted ice cream cones full of marshmallows and chocolate.

Beef Marinade:
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1 garlic clove, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon Asian (toasted) sesame oil
2 pounds Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thickness across bones)

Virginia Woolf said that it's impossible to "think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." All well and good, but one cannot dine well if one has not played well. It was a tall order to get hungry enough to eat all our sensational food -- but we managed. We hiked to an abandoned gold mine closed in the 19th century, our trail sparkling with fools' gold the whole way up; we climbed a brief mile and a half up Mount Ryan to see the world laid out before us, stubby tree after stubby tree. Nick and Eisha and I ran on the road from our campsite (Hidden Valley was a great place to stay), as well as on a few trails. We all scrambled over all the boulders we could muster, including a gleeful sojourn for Eisha in the eye of Skull Rock. 

The flowers we found along the way were lovely -- unexpected, often hidden -- familiar ones like daisies and evening primroses and cactus blooms, but also the truly peculiar -- flamboyant yucca blooms, and a plant with poppable flowers strongly reminiscent of bubble wrap.





Our night skies were stunningly clear....a lovely excuse to stroll and chat after our feasts. The rocks were still warm from the hot day. 

What a lovely way to start our cooking extravaganzas...we have set a high bar for our Yosemite trip in July!