The Floating Home in Sausalito!

Your mom and I spent the weekend visiting the beautiful home belonging to the mother of one of her London program students. She's obviously very generous and lets people stay at her home when she's away, and it's amazing because the place is truly incredible. It made for a wonderful weekend away!

The community of floating homes is in Sausalito, a mostly ritzy part of the North Bay just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. These homes sit on the water and float, so they oddly go up and down with the tides. You could leave in the morning and come back eight hours later to a house that's nine feet higher then when you left!

She is more and more stunning every time I turn around.

This is the place, cutely appointed and modern, and warm and lively inside.

The community all chips in to keep their shared walkway adorned with plant life, almost all varieties of succulents, which must love the moist air because they were all thriving and lush.

I'd never seen anything quite like this community of floating homes.

I stayed enamored with some of the decorative succulents I'd never seen before.

The view was spectacular across the community. When we first arrived and the sun was getting low, the dusk hours had a wondrous, peaceful glow.

And all the homes were unique in shape and color.

At night you could just see the lights of San Francisco and the lights of the Bay Bridge glowing in the distance.

Sunrise was another spectacle. I'd never enjoyed such an incredible view from a bedroom window!

Saturday was shaping up to be genuinely epic. We rose early and hopped in their kayaks to paddle around the bay for a bit. Your mom knew right where to go to see some wildlife!

It'd been years since we kayaked together, and it was a blast.

A particularly curious and friendly seal popped up nearby to check us out as we headed to where the lot of them were sunning.

This one's contented smile made it my favorite. Relaxing like a pro!

While others were a bit more wary.

Mister Friendly actually came up and took a whiff of your mom's hand. She said as soon as her hand touched his snout, it shot back like it was totally shocked by the smell or something!

After our kayaking adventure we had it in us to go hiking a bit. We drove to nearby Tiburon, another mostly ritzy type town where we could catch a ferry to Angel Island.

It was a really quick ride to the island's pier, but we still got to enjoy some new views of the Bay. The best by far, though, was yet to come.

We've put a few miles on our hiking shoes lately, and we were starting to feel more comfortable with it. This was going to be a 2.5 mile hike up to the top of a 788 foot peak.

The island has had a lot of functions over the years, and some old buildings from previous uses still remain here and there, though now they appear kind of eerie to me.

The island was busy but the trail wasn't crowded at all. It was also decorated with many hints of bizarre life and cool colors arranged in contrasting ways.

I loved this high energy green on top of practically black undergrowth.

And one stretch was covered along the side with hundreds of these webs. I cringed a little as I imagined the hundreds of spiders hidden who were responsible for these constructions.

As the woods cleared, we started getting good views. This is of the North Bay with Tiburon close and Sausalito behind. A group was enjoying a fancy picnic on a big tree stump table.

The trail was wife with photogenic details, so of course I kept snapping away.

Then at the peak we were treated to an incredible, expansive view which covered the entirety of the San Francisco Bay in 360 degrees. It was spellbinding!

Seems like we always get to see some deer on our hikes, and to our luck, this was no exception.

 

We got back appropriately tired and enjoyed a nice dinner while we relaxed and the sun got low again.

The next morning we were treated to a foggy sunrise. We took our time getting ready, as it was hard to leave this majestic place.

Until our next adventure!!