Every year since 2011 (except for a couple of COVID years) Farm Club members have gathered in San Francisco for a getaway. In January 2026 we gathered for Retreat #13 and we enjoyed it so much we talked about planning another retreat for the summer. So I guess this is Retreat #14 or Summer Retreat#1. There were twelve participants this time and prior to gathering we sorted into carpools groups depending on geography. Four of us in the I-80 corridor group (Sacramento to Fairfield) drove west to enter San Francisco across the Golden Gate. We made a couple of stops on the way. An unplanned spur-of-the-moment stop was at Dharma Trading Company in San Rafael, a wonderful resource for all dyeing projects.

The next stop was The Bay Model, a place I had read about recently and wanted to see. It is just what the sign says, a model of the San Francisco Bay. I think I may have been here a long time ago but had very little memory of it, and there is much more to it now, at least from a visitor point of view. The original function was as a research tool to examine tidal movement before there was computer simulation. After 2000 the focus shifted to education and the facility has developed into a fascinating educational tool, demonstrating the tidal movements of the Bay and Delta.

The background story is amazing (in a horrifying way) to me. There was a proposal in the 1940’s to build two dams where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers enter San Francisco Bay to create freshwater reservoirs and to cover mudflats for industrial development. The idea was taken seriously enough that this model of the Bay from the ocean to Suisun was constructed in 1956-57. The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta portion was added in the late 1960’s. The model is the size of two football fields and is in a three-acre building that was part of a shipbuilding facility during World Was II. The model reproduces the tides of the Bay (about 24 hours) every 15 minutes.

We had less than an hour to visit before the facility closed. In that short time I gained perspective that I had not learned in all the years I’ve lived in northern California. The first was the idea I described above, and the reason this model was constructed.

The second is part of a well-known episode of California history. There is a mural as you enter the exhibit that portrays the destruction caused by the California Gold Rush of 1848-49. From the sign: “Hydraulic mining was both efficient for finding gold and extraordinarily destructive to the watershed…Sediment laden water flowed downstream, choking the beds of rivers and coating the floor of San Francisco Bay with a thick blanket of mud.” We all learn about the Gold Rush in school, and I have seen the still-remaining evidence of this in the foothill landscape but I hadn’t thought of the impact downstream all the way to San Francisco.

I can’t help but relate these events to the current proposals we face in Solano County and on the federal level that are led by greedy, money/power-driven people that will destroy the environment…but now I really digress. This is supposed to be about the Farm club weekend.

One last photo of just one part of the Bay Model. It was close to closing time and the water flow had been turned off. I want to go back and take more time to fully appreciate this incredible exhibit.

Crossing the Golden Gate to enter San Francisco. Learn more about our destination, the NDGW Home, in the link at the beginning of this post.

This is the room I was assigned. It has a California Poppy theme. As usual we spent the evening in the parlor spinning or knitting or working on other fiber crafts.

Our traditional breakfast is pie and there was no shortage this time. Pies include peach, berry, and key lime, and an apple crisp. I included freshly picked tomatoes along with a peach pie.

After breakfast six of us made our way to Alcatraz. The significance of this photo is that there is no one in the driver’s seat. This is Waymo! That’s a new experience.

We took the ferry to the island.

We first took the self-paced audio tour of the Cellhouse and then explored the rest of the island and other exhibits for a few hours. Alcatraz has a history prior to the relatively short era of being a federal maximum security prison. It was probably visited by Native Americans long ago, but in the 1850’s it became a fort and a military prison. It was transferred to the Department of Justice in 1934 and operated as a federal prison until 1963. I could digress again about Things I Should Have Known. There are thought provoking exhibits about the U.S. Rate of Incarceration (the highest in the world, by far), the Termination Policy and the Relocation Act of the 1950’s that removed Native American people from the remaining tribal lands, the Native American 19-month occupation of Alcatraz beginning in 1969-72, and more. We wondered how long these exhibits will be allowed to be in place if anyone in D.C. learns about them. This is California, so are we safe? I have digressed again.

We spent time exploring other accessible parts of the island and caught this view of a container ship heading to Oakland, where we saw it docked on our way home the next day.

After our Alcatraz tour we Waymo’d (is that a verb?) to Haight Street for a shopping experience and then walked back to the Home where we spent the rest of the day. We had moved furniture to expand our circle. Everyone is on their phones in this photo because we were ordering dinner, after figuring out how to make a group order with DoorDash.

Sunday morning some of us walked about a mile to Golden Gate Park to see the dahlia garden. There are enough photos to have another blog post that could be used as color inspiration for weaving projects!

The weekend was over too soon, but the group discussion helped me to pinpoint a potential breeding date, which sets us up for lambing and shearing dates, and for the next retreat in January or February.