The Wise and Bearded One had one objective for our trip: he wanted to see some redwoods. The Muir Woods are only a few miles north of the city across the Golden Gate Bridge. I must admit, my knowledge of California geography prior to moving to the west coast was pretty sketchy. It still is. It wasn't until we were actually in San Francisco and I was looking at the map that I learned that the town of Sausalito was also just across the Golden Gate Bridge.
You may not know this, but I have a MAJOR crush on Heath Ceramics. This little company has been producing beautiful functional ceramics since 1948 in its factory in.....yes, indeed, Sausalito, California. I immediately added another item to our itinerary.
As the sun came out, we head across the Golden Gate Bridge in our rental car. We grabbed brunch at a coffeeshop and then mapped our way to the Heath factory. I'm thankful for the mapping function of the iPhone or I'm not sure we would have found the humble factory tucked in an industrial park.
Although the building wasn't spectacular, the contents were! The factory shop sells a well-curated collection of design books, housewares, and Heath. I admired the clean lines, eggshell glaze, and perfect shapes of Heath's dishware. Since I can't quite justify spending $33 per plate, I only have a few small Heath bud vases that have been given to me as gifts. Lucky for me, the factory shop sells all the "wups" Heath pieces at a significant discount. And even luckier for me, they ship it to you for cheap! I restrained myself to a modest purchase of dinnerware, but I'm already plotting a return trip by car to fill the trunk!
Only the Sprout's restlessness, kept me from whiling away the rest of my day in the Heath shop. Visions of a toddler temper tantrum in the middle of an expensive ceramics shop roused me to move on.
Since she was losing her cool, we drove around the coastal areas for an hour or so to accommodate a "car nap" before we ended up at Muir Woods. My two treehuggers were thrilled to be back in the deep greenery so similar to our Oregon trails. The trees were just a LOT bigger!
And then as the day was winding down we drove back to the Golden Gate Bridge. It really is a stunningly beautiful bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment