8.07.2011

Summer in Mill Valley

Summer is in full force here in San Francisco which means lots and lots of fog every day. We couldn't take it anymore today so we jumped in the car and headed up north to Mill Valley for some sun. Sure enough, as soon as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge we spotted blue skies. Mill Valley is a charming little town, nestled among the redwoods and Mount Tamalpais. It's only fifteen minutes from San Francisco but feels a world away and felt twenty degrees warmer too.



We started at Old Mill park where Zoe ran up and down the creek and tried to skip rocks. There was a french family there with a little girl named Zoe and it was funny to watch them cross paths.


We took a break at Noci, a slow food gelato shop which has amazing locally made ingredients. I had a Strauss Dairy sweet cream gelato with ghiradelli chocolate.
Image courtesy of 365 things to do - Marin
Now that Zoe was stuffed and happy we managed a walk through the neighborhood, something we used to do all the time before she was born. I miss those walks as you always seem to discover something new. Today, we found a staircase path we'd never taken before.


It was lined with homes and at least two of them had chicken coops. We spotted this little wanderer on the staircase.

 

And then Zoe found two blue eggs hiding inside a zen water fountain nearby. I suppose someone found them and laid them in the fountain to keep them cool.


A little girl came up the stairs calling "Zoe!". It was her dog. Another Zoe discovered; strange day indeed. We walked further up the hill and discovered another staircase alongside this amazing building.

 

After touring an incredible $2.8 million dollar house for the fun of it (gawd!), we had a great dinner at Tsukiji Sushi situated in an old house off the plaza. I didn't realize the head chef hails from the locally famous Sushi Ran restaurant. It was an awesome meal. Zoe dug into their house-cured Ikura.

Image courtesy of foodnut.com.
On the way back to the car, I missed going into Maison Reve yet again! I have passed this shop many times and have yet to make it when it's open. I'm itching to go back so I can wander those shelves full of linen. Check out their website here.


For more amazing photos of Mill Valley inside the shops, click here.
 

10 comments:

india flint said...

thanks, i enjoyed that walk
even though
i'd quite happily pootle about in the fog, too

Sophie Truong said...

sounds like a Lovely day!!!

Victoria said...

Looks like such a lovely little town, full of hidden treasures!

kitty kilian said...

I thought eggs were supposed to be kept warm!

anastasia said...

fantastic trip! food, design, fiber, nature; perfect.

kathrynclark said...

@Indiana - thirteen years of fog year round gets old but I can feel your pain of hot summers! Congrats on your new book btw!
@kitty-warm to hatch them, cool to eat them I suppose!

Sonya Philip said...

You want to know a funny thing, I read this on Monday and then went to Facebook, there were Mill Valley photos posted from the French family! My youngest went to preschool with them. The Bay Area is so small sometimes.

kathrynclark said...

@Sonya, no way! That is so wild! And the mom was taking tons of photos, I figured they were tourists. That's one of the things I love about SF, it's so small in some ways.

Jaime Rugh said...

love this post even more reading it the second time around.
wish we could adventure there with you

Enjoy Mill Valley said...

We love this lovely post! Thank you Kathryn. We have posted it on our FB page at http://facebook.com/Enjoymillvalley

Love, Mill Valley

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