I've undertaken four trips to the States in recent years and they all begin in San Francisco. It's a fascinating city and a good point from which to travel to see some of the remarkable landscapes of California and Oregon. But my particular reason for arriving there is to catch up with my great friend James who I've known since way back when in Hertfordshire. He has long been settled in the Bay Area so it's nice to catch up with him in that part of the world.
 Every visit we set aside a day to drive out over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County which has some mighty fine landscapes of its own like Mount Tamalpais, Muir Woods and the Point Reyes Peninsula. We drove out to Point Reyes this year, on 18th. July to be precise. Above is a view of a stretch of the shoreline: you can make out one of the coves in the distance and the haze is a Frisco fog lingering on the water.
 This locale is interesting for another reason, besides the local flora and fauna. Here it was that Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind in 1579 to make repairs and put up a brass plaque claiming the territory for England. Actually there's some debate among historians whether he landed further north or south but there is a consensus that Point Reyes was most likely.