Tolay Wildlife Preserve

This recently reclaimed marshland at the top of the San Francisco Bay has always fascinated me but it is difficult to get a picture of the abundant bird life or much of anything else as we tool along the causeway at 60mph. Today we were caught in traffic and barely moving, but the weather wasn't cooperating. I saw a white pelican, and I had the right camera with a long lens, but still not long enough.

We drove down to the Bay Area for grandson Owen's soccer game which required an early start, especially since Tim is the coach. There are 18 kids on the team and they played at the high school which has a full size pitch, so the kids were tired but happy because they won 2-1. Owen scored a goal and Joni and I yelled our heads off causing OilMan to move off down the sidelines. He loved the game but commented that it was frustrating because 'the other team has 22 legs that get in the way...' He knows whereof he speaks since he coached all three of our kids when they were Owen's age.

We went out to lunch and stopped off at the Farmers' Market so that granddaughter Maya could get some pita chips, hummus and veggies. OilMan bought some pears from an old couple who reminded him of his grandparents who had a pear ranch in Redwood Valley. When he mentioned it to them they said they knew of it.

Our plans to go on to Annie's Annuals, a huge propagating nursery in Richmond, were scuttled in favor of going home and checking on Ozzie. He was fine, but we got caught in even worse traffic on the way home, not improved by the discovery that we were almost out of gas...

We had a complete tour of Vallejo, a place we pass all the time, and have for years but have never turned off the freeway. It has a rather interesting hilly bit covered with grand old Victorian houses now not so grand and many converted into guest houses or flats. 

Perhaps the leisurely pace, or the time warp factor of some of the towns near where Tim and Joni live, is what caused me to think about how, despite the fact that I have lived most of my life in California, there are vast portions of it, both towns and country that I have never explored.

There is no doubt that traffic everywhere is getting worse. I don't love driving in it but it doesn't unhinge me as much as it does OilMan. My offers to drive seem to horrify him so we might be reaching an impasse when it comes to 'exploring'.