Arrive To: Check in after 4 p.m. and register for the program.

Dinner: Wine/cider social followed by dinner in the hotel meeting room.

Evening: Orientation, get-acquainted meeting.

Lodging: Four Points By Sheraton San Rafael

Meals Included: Dinner

Enjoy the redwood groves as you hike in Muir Woods, continue hiking in Mt. Tamalpais State Park evening lecture by local historian

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel from 7:30AM to 9AM.

Morning: To Muir Woods Visitor's Center, ranger talk. Hike in the redwoods."This is the best tree-lovers monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world," declared conservationist John Muir when describing the majestic coast redwoods of Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument offers a quiet sanctuary in a growing urban setting. Known for its giant old growth stand of coast redwood trees, people from all over the world come to visit this special ecosystem. President Theodore Roosevelt declared Muir Woods the 10th national monument on January 9, 1908. The first one donated by private individuals William and Elizabeth Kent.

Lunch: Picnic lunch on the trail.

Afternoon: Continue hiking in Mt. Tamalpais State Park. Just north of San Francisco's Golden Gate is Mount Tamalpais. It has redwood groves and oak woodlands with a spectacular view from the 2,571-foot peak. Coastal Miwok Indians lived in the area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. In 1770, two explorers named the mountain La Sierra de Nuestro Padre de San Francisco, which was later changed to the Miwok word Tamalpais. With the Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco grew and more people began to use Mount Tamalpais for recreation. Trails were developed and a wagon road was built. Later, a railway was completed and became known as "The Crookedest Railroad in the World." It was abandoned in 1930 after a wildfire damaged the line.

Dinner: Return to hotel for dinner. Overview of Marin County history with local historian. Marin County is one of the original 27 counties of California, created February 18, 1850, following adoption of the Constitution of 1849 and just months before the state was admitted to the Union.The origin of the county's name is not clear. One version is the county was named after Chief Marin, of the Coast Miwok, Licatiut tribe of Native Americans who inhabited that section and waged fierce battle against the early Spanish military explorers. The other version is that the bay between San Pedro Point and San Quentin Point was named Bahía de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera in 1775, and it is quite possible that Marin is simply an abbreviation of this name. The Coast Miwok Indians were hunters and gatherers whose ancestors had occupied the area for thousands of years. About 600 village sites have been identified in the county. The Coast Miwok numbered in the thousands. Today there are few left, and even fewer with any knowledge of their Coast Miwok lineage. Efforts are being made so that they are not forgotten. The English explorer and privateer, Sir Francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hind was thought to have landed on the Marin coast in 1579 claiming the land as Nova Albion. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands, fitting the description in Drake's own account, was discovered in 1933. This so-called Drake's Plate of Brass was later declared a hoax.

Lodging: Four Points By Sheraton San Rafael

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel from 7:30AM to 9AM.

Morning: Prior to our hike we visit the Bear Valley Visitor's Center. The park's primary Visitor Center provides an orientation of the park's roads, trails, and human and natural history. The Bear Valley Visitor Center was designed to blend in with the historically significant ranching culture of this area and is located in the heart of the Olema Valley. The interior exhibit space provides a glimpse of the diverse ecosystems and cultural heritage of the park and includes a seismograph, touch table, auditorium, and book sales area. Hike a spectacular coastal trail at Pt. Reyes National Seashore where you'll view herds of Tule Elk and learn about earthquakes and whales from a local naturalist. From its thunderous ocean breakers crashing against rocky headlands and expansive sand beaches through its open grasslands to its brushy hillsides and forested ridges, visitors can discover over 1000 species of plants and animals. Home to several cultures over thousands of years, Point Reyes preserves a tapestry of stories and interactions of people.

Lunch: Picnic lunch on the trail.

Afternoon: Continue exploration of Point Reyes with a visit to Drake's Beach and view abundant bird life. Point Reyes National Seashore was established to preserve and protect wilderness, natural ecosystems, and cultural resources along the diminishing undeveloped coastline of the western United States. A wide stretch of beach backed by dramatic white sandstone cliffs makes this a very popular place. Drive-up access, a small café and a visitor center add to its appeal. The sands of the Drakes Bay cliffs were deposited in a shallow sea 10–13 million years ago, compacted, then uplifted. Erosion has revealed the striations of this story in the cliff faces.

Dinner: Dinner at Stationhouse Cafe

Evening: Return to the hotel to relax. Free evening.

Lodging: Four Points By Sheraton San Rafael

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel from 7:30AM to 9AM.

Morning: Learn about the geology, flora and fauna with a naturalist while hiking the Marin Headlands..One of the most unique areas in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Marin Headlands covers various types of histories from the Miwok Indians to the Military, including historic Fort Barry and Fort Cronkhite, the NIKE Missile site and the 150 year-old Point Bonita lighthouse.

Lunch: Lunch on the trail.

Afternoon: Learn about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge on a trail in the Marin Headlands above the Golden Gate Bridge. Visit the Marine Mammal Center. The Golden Gate Bridge is acclaimed as one of the world's most beautiful bridges and with its tremendous towers, sweeping main cables and great span, it is a sensory beauty featuring color, sound, and light. The Bridge can be a very busy place, particularly during the summer months. It is estimated that about nine million people from around the world visit the Bridge each year. Founded in 1975, The Marine Mammal Center is a nonprofit organization that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured, sick and orphaned marine mammals (seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, whales and sea otters) along a 600 mile stretch of California coastline, from Mendocino County through San Luis Obispo County. Before The Center was established, stranded marine mammals were either left to die or were destroyed as threats to public health.The Marine Mammal Center scientists conduct research on marine mammal disease immunology and publish research findings in leading scientific journals. The Center is the largest marine mammal facility of its kind in the world to combine animal rehabilitation with an on-site research lab, and the only one to treat between 500 and 1200 animals a year.

Dinner: Dinner at a restaurant of your choice in Sausalito, money provided. This picturesque waterfront community with its Mediterranean flair offers breathtaking views of the Bay and San Francisco as well as a selection of fine restaurants. In the post-Gold Rush era, Sausalito's unusual location became a key factor in its formation as a community. It was San Francisco's nearest neighbor, less than two miles away at the nearest point and easily seen from city streets, yet transportation factors rendered it effectively isolated. A boat could sail there in under half an hour, but wagons and carriages required an arduous skirting of the entire bay, a journey that could well exceed a hundred miles. As a result, the region was largely dominated by two disparate classes of people, both with ready access to boats: commercial fishermen and wealthy yachting enthusiasts.

Evening: Free evening to relax and visit with new friends..

Lodging: Four Points By Sheraton San Rafael

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel 7:30AM to 9AM.

Morning: Excursion by ferry to Angel Island. Set in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island, once the Ellis Island of the West, offers stunning panoramic views of San Francisco and the East Bay. Hike to the top of 781-foot Mt. Livermore to take advantage of the spectacular views.

Lunch: Picnic lunch in Ayala Cove on Angel Island

Afternoon: Visit the newly renovated United States Immigration Station. Enticed by promises of gold and a better life, Chinese began immigrating to the United States in 1848. Soon after, however, discriminatory legislation prevented the Chinese from mining for gold. In addition, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and essentially froze Chinese immigration. However, this legislation could not keep sons and daughters of U.S. citizens out of the country. People attempting to emigrate from China often bought documentation claiming that they were children of U.S. citizens, and therefore citizens themselves. Proving the validity of these claims was difficult, and an interrogation process was developed. The Department of Immigration needed a place to detain immigrants until the interrogation could be complete. In 1905, construction of the U.S. Immigration Station began. It became a detention facility, where Asian (primarily Chinese) immigrants were detained until they could prove they were joining relatives already in the country.

Dinner: Dinner in the hotel meeting room.

Evening: Relax and enjoy en entertaining video in the meeting room.

Lodging: Four Points By Sheraton San Rafael

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Depart From: Check out by 11 a.m.

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel from 7:30AM to 9AM.

Morning: Farewell breakfast and program wrap-up.

Meals Included: Breakfast