Mark's Musings

Tag: sfbay

  • Hiking Destinations

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    The following is a reference I use when selecting the next hiking or backpacking destination with a bias toward Northern California. I make it in 2002 and just now moving it from my old site so it is easier to fix broken links and add new places to try. Each year I say “This year…

  • Wine Country

    You can get commercial information from NapaValley.COM.  For years, I found The Best of the Wine Country to be a useful guidebook to the area, but it’s out of date now. Wine Wine is the first order of business.  There are more than 400 wineries in the Napa valley, and more than 600 if you include Sonoma county.…

  • Yosemite

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    Yosemite is arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have been then tens of times, and never tire of visiting the park. While the Valley floor can be crowded, it’s still worth visiting. For a first time visitor to Yosemite I would recommend staying in the valley if possible. Lodging options range…

  • San Francisco

    San Francisco is a beautiful, world class city. There are numerous museums, places of nature beautiful, great food, and well known tourist spots. You could easily spend several weeks exploring San Francisco and only scratch the surface. The SF City Pass can be a good deal.  The greater SF bay area has more Michelin stars…

  • Monterey Penisula & Big Sur

    Part of my visiting northern California series. I would recommend taking two days to explore the area around Monterey.  If you had a lot of time you could make it a four day leg and continue down Route 1 to Hearst Castle / San Simeon, Morro Bay, San Louis Obispo, and then come back via…

  • Monta Loma Neighborhood and the Mid-Peninsula

    Monta Loma (MLN) is a great neighborhood which has a real community. Long before nextdoor, the community had a website, mailing list and later a wiki. We have block parties, a gardening group, CERT team, etc. There was (and maybe still is) a babysitting coop. MLN is located near many high tech employers like Google,…

  • San Francisco Bay Area

    … with a focus on the mid-peninsula. There are a number of general websites which cover the bay area including Yahoo Bay Area, SFGate (Chronicle & Examiner), San Jose Mercury News, CitySearch SF, Yelp and Craigslist.  This post is mostly about living in the SF bay area. I have a separate post about visiting Northern California as a tourist. Mid Peninsula Neighborhoods:  The…

  • Visiting Northern California

    The following recommendations I have given friends from outside northern California who were planning a vacation here.  Northern California Best Places has a lot of other ideas, though it’s a out of date now. These days you can get a “look” at many places through Google Street View, and if it’s not, maybe the SF virtual tour will…