Tiburon, CA - Sept 2011

Tiburon

Keith needed to spend a weekend in the Tiburon / Corte Madera area. His company recently bought a property there and he is responsible for putting together the marketing plan. So with a twist of the arm, we went to spend a few days, researching what life is like on the weekend.

Accommodations:
The Lodge at Tiburon - Located in town just a few blocks from Main Street. The hotel looks like a motel that has been renovated. The room was fairly nice but not overly impressive. They have a decent pool with a nice courtyard and outdoor fireplace.

Activities:
We arrived in the evening on Friday night and quickly checked in and then walked to the restaurant for dinner. On our way to dinner, we walked around Main St which was blocked off from traffic. There were tables from the restaurants out on the street, music playing and kids playing games. Apparently they do this every Friday night. 

The Caprice Restaurant

The next morning, we went for a run, admiring the houses and scenery along the way. After this, the "work" part of the trip began. We drove to Corte Madera, stopping along the way to take pictures. In town, we drove by the park and then stopped at the Town Center for lunch which is an upscale outdoor walking mall. We also walked around the The Village at Corte Madera, which is an equally upscale outdoor mall right across the street. We then drove around some of the neighborhoods to get a feel for the area. We ended at the apartments that Aimco purchased. These apartments are quite run down but are in an amazing location and have lots of potential. It will be very interesting to see it again once all of the development is complete. Behind the apartments is a large park, Ring Mountain, with an extensive trail system. We hiked around a bit, taking in the views of the bay and the stunning houses that border the park.

Aimco Apartment - Before Picture

That evening, we joined Rakesh and Simran and four of their friends for dinner on a farm in Pataluma. The farm is owned by a woman who has a bakery in San Fran. Tables were set outside with china and cute flower arrangements as center pieces. There were several appetizers served buffet style, set up at three different stations. Some of the apps included grilled veggies, bread, and various cheeses. After snacking on those, we walked around the farm a bit drinking wine that we had brought. Dinner was served at the tables and included caprese salad, slamming beef ribs that just fell of the bone, yummy (and no where near healthy) blue cheese potato gratin and fruit tart for dessert. We ended up drinking seven bottles of wine amongst the seven of us which somehow fed into us being loud and obnoxious! We shared many laughs and got the pleasure of being inducted as honorary "brown people". I adopted the name 'Lakshmi' and Keith inherited the name 'Hardic' which of course made him giggle all night. We returned to our hotel none too sober, passing down the offer to return to Rak and Sim's house for a night of dancing.

On Sunday morning, we ran again and then went to Angel Island for a hike. The hike was about 4.5 miles round trip, taking us to the top of the mountain. We saw awesome views of Tiburon, Sausalito and San Fran. The hike only took about 2 hours so we took the ferry back to Tiburon and drove to Sausalito where we walked around town. 

View from Angel Island

 After having enough of walking, we drove to Rak and Sim's house in the Presidio where we stayed the evening. For dinner, they prepared an awesome meal of tomatoes, spicy shrimp and mussels. Of course, we also managed to polish off a few bottles of wine as well.

On Monday, I worked from their house while Keith went to visit competitor apartments and then we went to the airport where I flew to Denver (to spend the week and following weekend there) and Keith flew to LA for a couple of days for meetings.

Observations:
We decided that there are way too many people that make way more money than us. The houses in the area are just amazing with many of them selling at over $5 million a pop. We also have not seen so many Mercedes, BMWs and Lexuses in one place!

Restaurants:
The Caprice - This restaurant is located on the water in Tiburon with amazing views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. Formerly a house, it has been operational for 50 years. While the interior was nice and cozy, the food was not exceptional. It wasn't bad - just didn't meet our expectations, especially given the reviews we read.

World Wrapps - Located in the Town Center mall, this wrap place has yummy non-traditional wraps. We went for lunch and shared a cup of tortilla soup and a chicken curry wrap.

Della Fattoria Farm Dinner - Refer to description in the activity section. It was awesome!

For more photos of this trip: