 My daughter and I had a fantastic trip to the main campus of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the San Luis NWR Complex in the Central Valley. November is a great season to visit--the fall colors were gorgeous and we saw so many Sandhill cranes. I recommend that you check out the "Seasons of Wildlife" page before you go to get a sense for what kind of wildlife you might see on a given month.
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 The day after going to Coyote Hills with my family, I decided to head back to the marshes for a longer solo hike. I returned to Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge to explore a trail near the Visitor's Center that was new to me: the 5-mile loop along Newark Slough.
 Yesterday, my daughter and I both finished school for the year. Although I have work to do still, I submitted the final grades last night to the registrar for all the classes that I teach, and she had her last Zoom circle for her toddler class of the 2019-2020 year. So we decided to celebrate today by exploring a new park: Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, which offers amazing views of the San Pablo Bay and the mountains to the west in Marin County, such as Mount Tamalpais.
 My daughter and I had so much fun the last time we went to San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge that we decided to make a return visit.
 The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is one of the refuges in the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Of all the refuges, this one has the longest trail, so my daughter and I decided to try this park out first yesterday on a maiden voyage to the complex. We had a blast, and I know that we will be coming back here in the winter to see the great migration of Aleutian cackling geese and Sandhill cranes. I was really excited that we saw several Riparian brush rabbits right near the parking lot.
 This was a return trip for me and my daughter to Caswell Memorial State Park. Last time, my daughter was not in the mood for hiking, so we mostly hung around the lovely picnic area. This time, I brought my toddler backpack carrier, so we were able to complete a longer loop, going along the aptly named Majestic Oaks Trail!
 Hayward Regional Shoreline is much, much nicer than I assumed it would from driving past it on the San Mateo Bridge. I had seen the Hayward Shoreline Interpretative Center, and I assumed that this was the only way to reach the park. The center itself looks nice enough, but the trails would almost certainly be noisy due to the traffic from the freeway. It turns out that there are actually three entrances to the park. I took the one on West Winton Avenue, and it was really beautiful--no traffic noise at all, but just lots of gorgeous marsh grasses and shorebirds in Cogswell Marsh.
 Last winter, I made a couple of lovely trips to Shadow Cliffs Regional Park to walk through the quiet arroyo area of the park. This morning, my daughter and I went swimming in the beach area and walked along the marina.
 The Don Edwards Environmental Education Center in Alviso, CA (a suburb of San Jose) is a beautiful, weird park. I love it there, and I always see tons and tons of birds when I go; however, there is something about that park that seems harsh. I have bad luck when I go there.
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