Parisa's Blog

My Aunt just reminded me that I'm missing the cicadas this summer in IL. I guess 17 years have passed since their last arrival, though I distinctly remember them covering all of the trees in our yard and also remember dreading when they would come back. To a 7 year old girl, the song of the cicadas is not what you want your summer soundtrack to be. Actually, this holds for the 24 year old girl too.

I, however, will be smiling for the rest of the day, not only because it's the Friday before a long Memorial day weekend, but because I'm in California all summer... far, far away from any signs of cicadas. And for those that have no idea what these benign, yet disgusting and loud bugs are, enjoy!

To save a bit of money, I decided to lease out my extra bedroom for a few months this summer. I now co-reside with Adam Black, an east coast Physicist that has come back to the Bay area to start a job at some crazy laser making startup. It's nice having a roommate again. Now I don't have to talk to the walls all the time. Hopefully he doesn't try to steal my identity and erase my whole class schedule. It would be a pain to have to go through all of that again.

Anyways, yesterday we went on a hike through Muir Woods and Mount Tamalpais (or Mount Tam) to Stinson beach and back. It was 11 miles of gorgeous hiking across rolling meadows and thick Redwood forests. I did the whole thing in flip flops, though I don't necessarily recommend that for others; few mortals can cover the terrain or withstand the climates that I can in just your average flip flops. Also, I was kind of wishing I had some real shoes when we passed a rattlesnake on one of the fire roads early in the hike.

For anyone interested in repeating the hike, we started at the park headquarters and took the Dipsea trail towards Pantoll ranger station. We then took the Old Mine trail to the Matt Davis trail, which led us to Stinson beach. Stinson is a small beach town with a few restaurants, shops, and ice cream stands near the beach. We brought food and ate in the sand, but you could easily find something to buy. On the way back, we started on the Dipsea trail which led us to the Steep Ravine trail. This trail was my favorite as you walk along Webb Creek and see lots of tiny waterfalls and boulders completely blanketed in soft moss and ferns. We got back to Pantoll, and took the Ben Johnson trail back to Muir Woods. Admission to Muir woods is $3 and parking can get tight, but how often do you get to see really, really, really tall trees that have been around since 900 A.D.?