Series: This is Where I Want to Be, Marin County California

I apologize for the delayed post, but I was so busy enjoying Marin County all weekend that I didn’t have the chance.

Marin County is incredibly diverse and majestic. We have gorgeous wild beaches, grand old growth redwood groves, a huge regal mountain, rivers and streams, meadows and marshes, and hiking and biking trails galore, among so many other things.
I feel so lucky to live right here; there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not grateful that I get to live somewhere so beautiful and yet so close to a big city that affords me the luxury to do what I love.

So after feeling under the weather all last week, I had a new found respect for my heath and finally felt inspired to start a new exercise regime. So, at 8:30 am on Saturday morning, I was already showered and walking into a new fitness studio for my first class of The Bar Method, which is a combination of yoga, pilates and ballet. I’ve heard horror stories about the intensity of these classes, but being that I do yoga regularly and feel I’m in pretty good shape, I thought I’d give it a try.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. It was tough, no doubt, and you work completely different muscles than you do with yoga or swimming. What I like the most, is that the movements are so minor, so refined, that the elongated and cut muscles come from precision and repetition.
After the class and still on an adrenaline high, I signed up for a month of unlimited classes (which must be why you pay at the end, coincidence? I think not) and I look forward to some fast results from taking 2 classes a week in addition to my once a week yoga.

After the class, I stopped by one of my favorite café’s for breakfast, The Half Day Café, which is usually insanely crowded, but at 9:30 am is pleasantly sleepy. I read the paper front to back, sipped a soy latte and reveled in my workout glow. Then I went into one of my favorite little family owned bookshops next door, First Street Books and bought “The Audacity of Hope.”
On the way home, I decided to stop into REI to get a new swim cap and ended up walking out with a new mountain bike that I’d been eyeing online for a few weeks.

Still high from the class, I got home and took my new bike for a spin (for 3 hours) up into Ross. It was the most gorgeous day. Mount Tam never looked more beautiful, evergreen and lush; the town of Larkspur smelled like wildflowers and clover. I rode as hard as I could up into the mountains and then found a patch of grass in the shade to collapse onto. I laid there on my back, breathing hard with my eyes closed. The smell of freshly cut and damp grass was intoxicating, humid and sweet. I listened hard for a moment, to the sound of a buzzing bee somewhere near my head, the distant shouts of kids in the park, of an occasional car in the distance, a gust of wind here and there, and the pounding of my heart and I felt very much at home. --Eve