Mailea was working for a professor doing research on endemic plants at Bodega Bay. To provide controlled areas for the testing, she was building fenced-in plots to keep the deer out. Neil worked with her one Saturday (it happened to be her birthday!) and we joined her for lunch a few other days. One day we hiked the hill over looking the research facility. Had a great view of the whole area, plus spotted some whale spouts!
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Those white stakes are what Neil helped Mailea pound in. Talk about sore arms!
 
And here on the south sid of the facility, Mailea demonstrates how it is done.

Mailea and Greg live about 20 miles from the coast. It may be clear and sunny at their house while being totally fogged in at the coast - and vice versa. One clear day (so we thought) we headed out to Point Reyes... When we arrived it was so foggy we didn't get to see much.

At the visitor's center they said the white cliffs reminded early sailors of Dover. At first we didn't know what they meant, but then the fog lifted a little and suddenly the cliffs loomed along the beach.

Quite a view. Neil wanted to see more, so we went to the gift shop and took an inexpensive aerial tour... 

In other words, we looked at postcards to see what we were missing. :)