An incredible book store in Marin

Today I drove over the Richmond Bridge into Marin County--and discovered Book Passage, a wonderful independent book store that anyone reading this could easily spend a full day in!

Every night and every day, they have author conversations: tonight it was Valerie Plame; tomorrow night, it's Andres Dubus III, and both Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert are speaking there in the next week or two.  Next time I come here, I want to check it out ahead of time in order to reserve seats and possibly attend some of their workshops.

I left my Mini at the Marin Mini Center because yesterday the other Mini Center discovered that it had an oil leak and they had to replace a part--under warranty, thank goodness.

At first, the receptionist said they could get to it next week--but when she (an Alabamian) detected a "Southern accent," she not only squeezed me in but had the Marin Mini rent me a car for overnight!
I never knew this Southern accent would come in quite so handy.  As a matter of fact, I didn't even know I still had a Southern accent!

I drove to Sausalito and spent most of the afternoon--after two hours at the book store--wandering around there, hoping the car would be ready at six, but it wasn't--so I joined the millions of people heading back across Richmond Bridge and so enjoyed driving across the bridge and looking at San Francisco in the haze.   To me, there's something thrilling about driving over bridges--and I have now driven over two of the three main bridges!

I was able to park right below the Golden Gate bridge and take pictures today--which I will send as soon as I remember to bring the cameras inside and transfer the pictures to the laptop.  That bridge and the city of Sausalito and the bookstore were definitely highlights of this trip!

Port Reyes, I'd hoped to see--but due to the government shut down, it wasn't open today.  Same with the light house and anything run by the U.S. government.  Remember the U.S. government?

While waiting at the Hertz Rental office for an hour, I met a woman named Ana from Fiji--who has offered to show me around Santa Rosa on Thursday.  Everyone is so friendly!

I'm quite sure that the driver who called me "asshole" yesterday meant it in the best possible way.