Biking at Point Reyes and Harry Potter

A one-time change in my work schedule gave me Thursday off work, so I decided to hit up Point Reyes for some mountain biking. If you don't already know, Point Reyes is a huge shoulder of land sticking out into the Pacific Ocean about an hour away from where I live. Since it sticks out past the San Andreas fault, the geology changes like crazy from the Redwood-friendly stuff on the side I live on. Point Reyes is hilly grassland with long, deep inlets of water from the ocean called Esteros. They are like miniature fjords in Norway. The only difference is the cliffs are a lot smaller and the water doesn't come inland as far, but it is still extremely pretty. The bridge in the picture crosses one of those esteros at a narrow point. My ride was about five miles each way and was mostly up-and-down, but not strenuous. It ended at this amazing point between two esteros atop a cliff called Drake's Point. I think it overlooks the beach that Sir Francis Drake stopped on to make ship repairs a few hundred years ago. The beach is on a spit that sticks out several miles into the ocean, very impressive. The lagoon inside the beach is apparently teeming with life during certain times of the year, particularly stingrays! That would be neat to see.

The sun was shining on the way it, but a few minutes after I started back a thick fog rolled in. When I got back to the bridge in the first picture, the estero was steaming.

It was a really fun, pretty ride. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

On to Harry Potter!

We went and saw the Half Blood Prince last night, and for the first time I was fully satisfied with a Harry Potter movie. The acting was better than all of the previous movies and the story was a lot more complete. The script was good. My impression of all the Harry Potter movies before was that they were scripted by a bunch of guys sitting around a table thinking "how do we condense this book into two hours?". Half Blood Prince actually seems like they were thinking "how do we make this a good movie", and they did it! I mean, its no Oscar winner, but you can tell a lot of thought and effort went into making it, while not much thought or effort seemed to go into the previous ones. The book was my favorite in the series, so I had high hopes for the movie. It was the most dramatic and intense of all the books to me, but it also had its lighter moments and those were translated well into the movie. The comedy was a little stiff at times, but several highlights, like when Harry drinks the lucky potion and Ron accidentally eats Harry's cookies laced with a love potion are absolutely hilarious. Jim Broadbent, the actor who plays Horace Slughorn, does a particularly good job playing his role. He seemed to make every scene he was in better. I loved his quirky eyebrows. Its too bad he wasn't in more of the Harry Potter movies, but we can look forward to him being in the last two movies (Deathly Hallows will be split into two movies). Finally, of course, was the ending. If you have read the book you know how crucial the ending is. I listened to it on my iPod while commuting and the last few chapters had me so glued I couldn't move! I was late for work that day because I couldn't stop listening. No disappointment in the translation to screen! I laughed and I cried. And it set up great for the final story. I hope they make it good. I was far from satisfied with the final book. I thought J.K. Rowling got lazy and screwed a few crucial things up, but I won't get into that now. If I get a bunch of people asking me why I didn't like the last book very much in my comments box I will maybe answer in another post. Otherwise we can talk about it sometime if you care. Great movie though!