And I do hope you will be back !!! Next time I hope a few of us can get together when you come out again!
I am so very glad you had such a rewarding trip out here.
and BTW- I love that shot you did with the bridge peaking over the top That makes my heart melt! Its kind of like, when you leave home for a while, and you see just the beginning of something you recognize on your way back home.
GREAT GREAT shot!

-VillenaDeCorte

Quote Originally Posted by kellybean
VD, thanks.

--WARNING-- The following is a long-winded description of my trip. It's OK to skip it because I'm not saying much.

When I got to the city I was SO tired, as I hadn't slept for about 24 hours. I drove through downtown following 101 and ended up at the Marina, but couldn't find a parking space, so I just shot a couple out my window and moved on. Then I found a really neat little restaurant somewhere off 101 heading towards the GG bridge, maybe on Carpenter street? It's called Pacific Catch, and I loved their blend of seafood and Mexican. Sweet Potato Fries, yum! It was excellent. Then I headed towards Marin but stopped at the GG Bridge *just because* you're supposed to. The fog had rolled in so my shots weren't spectacular. I browsed the gift shop and then I moved on. Got up into Marin, found Mill Valley and my Holiday Inn, unloaded, then got a bite to eat at Frantoios and hit the sack by 7 pm. Slept till 7 am. (I told you I was tired!)

Next day I found Starbucks and went on the internet, had lunch in Sausalito (?--Kitty's Cafe) then went shopping for new jeans and a 1 GB CF card since I'm now shooting RAW. Ran up to Muir Woods, which was fantastic, as was the view of the city and the fog rolling in along the way. Came down and met my friend, who took me to Tiburon to walk her dog along the bay. Snapped a bunch there, including the shadow pic above. Then she and I went for Sushi nearby, and then I came back to the room.

Next day I hit Starbucks again, then headed up to Corte Madera to Book Passage bookstore, where the conference was held. Thursday afternoon through Saturday I was pretty much there 9 am - 10 pm. Then on Sunday after the conference I went back to Tiburon an hour before sunset and got a bunch of shots there, two of which I showed above. I stayed there WAY too late, and ended up "feeling" my way back along the pitch dark path for what felt like a mile back to the parking lot, and I wasn't even sure I was on the right path. It was a bit of an adventure, wondering if someone was going to leap out of the bushes at me before I found my car. Since then I've told my friend about it, (jokingly comparing my "travel adventure" in a SF Park with Allison Wright's adventures in Nepal and Tibet) and my friend said, "The most dangerous thing you'd be likely to come across there is a mosquito, and even those are uncommon!"

Let's see. The next day I ran back to Muir Woods to grab a mug from the gift shop (I had forgotten my money the first time), then went to macy's to pick up another piece of luggage (on deep clearance) to take home all the extra stuff I acquired during the week , went back to Book Passage to have them ship my books back home, then left for the airport and stopped along the way in nearly the same spot as before to eat a slice of pizza. Parking is terrible there! So is traffic.

I got lost three times on my way to drop off my car, but made it with plenty of time to spare. And now I'm home.

--END Long winded story--

I took a bunch of shots of the bay at night to stitch them together into a panoramic shot, and on the plane I *Very Quickly* stitched together the low res. I'll work harder on the high res as I want to create something to frame on my wall, since I love night shots so much. I'll post my low res quickie version here and hope it works that you can see it, although it's quite imperfect. I'm posting it now because I don't think I'll get the high res done for awhile.