Spring has sprung

After days and days and days of rain, spring finally feels like it's here. Spring never gets half the credit that summer does, but it really has a lot to offer, aside from the raging hormones.

I've lived in the same 40 mile radius for my ENTIRE life. I should really get off my butt and go somewhere else. Despite that, it's important to remember what's so great about the place that you often take for granted. So here it is - my list of great spring things in the San Francisco Bay Area

• Golf
  The rain's over and the days are longer. You can head to the driving range after work, play 18 holes on the weekends. Not that I've been everywhere else, but my favorite driving range is defintely the Stanford range. $6 for 50 balls - $5 if you're a student and it's open till 9pm once spring hits. You're not hitting off grass, but let me just try to describe what it's like to be there after while the sun is setting. The air's cool. It's winter air but with a good dose of summer sun. It's quiet,and everyone is doing their own thing. Today, there was a cat, just hanging out in the middle of the grass about 75 yards out. Over the loudspeaker, they stop everyone from hitting. Two guys run out and chase the cat in circles off the field. Now that's pretty awesome.
  
  
  
• Running the Stanford Dish
  So the dish isn't at all what it was like before - like 7 years before. No more dirt roads - heck, you can't even get to the dish anymore - it's fenced in. But it's a three mile run with amazing views of the foothills and the golf course. The skies are clear and you can see for mile over the entire Silicon Valley. Play some Green Day on your ipod and the ascension and decension might actually go by somewhat quickly.
  
  
  
• Strawberries
  So this isn't a bay area thing, but strawberries are really good right now! So are Muscat grapes from Piazzas. Get the redder ones. They're sweeter.
  
  
  
• Spring clothes
  Skirts and heels and tank tops and NO MORE HEAVY COATS. Colors and cotton. And the hope of shedding the paleness for the first brownings of a tan.
  
  
  
• Hog Island Oyster Company
  So they say you shouldn't eat oysters in the summer. So take advantage of the slightly warmer weather AND oyster season and go up to the Hog Island Oyster Company. They have the restaurant in the ferry building, but there's also the farm up in Tomales Bay. You can buy oysters by the hundred. They give you a tray, a thick rubber glove, and a shucking knife. Yes, it's a shuck-fest.