I have over a century of family history in the Bay, which is good for two things: knowing the fastest route to everything, and day trip recommendations. When I take people around Northern California, it’s important to me that we end the day feeling love for each other, this place and its history. So in my pantheon of day trip criteria, food and ecology are where it’s at. My go-to is sea urchin foraging, which never ceases to fill people with profound wonder. But when sea urchin roe is scarce in the heat of summer, there’s still plenty to eat and marvel over.
Please be advised: You will need access to a car, rental or otherwise, for most of these trips.
Artichoke bread and 5,000-pound seals
This is pretty much as good as it gets: You’re eating steamy artichokes kneaded into fresh bread from Arcangeli Grocery Co. in Pescadero, and you’re on route to see some of the most wondrous creatures on earth. Just 20 minutes down the coast from Arcangeli is Año Nuevo State Park. In the summer, you can take self-guided walks from the visitor center to the beach, where elephant seals of all shapes and sizes — but mostly large and rotund — are sunbathing, brawling and giving you massive side eye.
Now alive and well in the hundreds of thousands, these seals were once on the brink of extinction after being hunted relentlessly for their blubber. For eight years in the late 1800s, not one northern elephant seal was seen anywhere in the world. So their comeback is huge. And as you look out over a horizon of squabbling marine sausages that could crush you with one roll, you may even shed a tear over the harrowing journey these creatures have been on. For folks who need mobile assistance, the park offers Equal Access tours.
Blackberry picking and buffalo milk gelato
In the summer, my dad and I like to can blackberry jam, which burnishes our morning toast and engulfs our vanilla ice cream for the rest of the year. Blackberries are everywhere in the Bay in July, but Point Reyes is especially teeming with jammy berries, so much so that you’ll fill a small basket in 20 minutes. Be sure to refuel post-picking at Palace Market with a swirly dollop of buffalo milk soft serve from the buffalos at Double 8 Dairy in Petaluma. These buffalos make a mean serve that’s denser and creamier than the cow stuff. This day trip itinerary comes with an obligatory reading of Seamus Heaney’s poem “Blackberry Picking” about the transience of blackberries, summer and life, too.
Thousands of teeny, tiny bats
Something magical happens on a stretch of Interstate 80 just a little over an hour northeast of San Francisco. Lil bats, so lil they could fit in your palm, roost at Yolo Causeway in the hundreds of thousands — because there’s strength in numbers when you’re the size of a tangerine. Mexican free-tailed bats, which are the kind of bat we’re talking about, are cute the way your great-aunt’s ancient pug is cute — which is to say they’re cute, but puggish. At dusk, visitors can see the bats take to the sky, swirling around in huge numbers like aerial calligraphy. The Yolo Basin Foundation offers a bat talk and tour that’s $15 for adults, $5 for youth and free for kids.
A chapel and a crab roll
Tucked into the hillside at Sea Ranch, there’s a little structure like a giant acorn cap or the hat of a forest witch — the cool, D.I.Y. kind of witch, not the scary kind. This non-denominational chapel and architectural marvel was created by artist James Hubbell in 1985. The inside of the Sea Ranch Chapel is otherworldly like a seashell, carefully inlaid with husks of sea creatures. Whenever I’ve brought folks here, a hush falls over the group as we take in the slant of light and the smooth wood.
