From Belmont, it is but three miles and a quarter to
Redwood City,
The county seat of San Mateo county, on a navigable slough leading into the bay. Its chief industry is the hauling from the hills and shipping from the wharves the redwood lumber, whose abundance has named the town. It has a good hotel—the American House. Four miles south of Redwood City,
Menlo Park,
Terminates our excursion in this direction. The attractions of this place are the fine residences of San Francisco merchants, surrounded by noble oaks, which, scattered and grouped over a square mile or two, hereabout, have furnished half the name of the place. Nature made it a "Park;" man added the "Menlo."
Here we may take the cars again, and after a ride of thirty-two miles, first passing, in reverse order, through the three towns just named, with Millbrae, the elegant home of D. O. Mills, Esq., San Bruno, Twelve Mile Farm, Schoolhouse Station and San Miguel, we complete the southern tour around the bay and along the coast, and again commit ourselves for a time to the whirl and dust and bustle of the metropolis.
Having refreshed ourselves with a dash of city life again for a day or two, we are off for the northern circuit, including San Rafael, Mt. Tamalpais, San Quentin, State Prison, and Saucelito. No. 9: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, the Geysers, and Clear Lake, with Sonoma and its vineyards, we complete No. 10 with Vallejo, Mare Island, the U. S. Navy Yard, Napa, Napa Valley, Oak Knoll and Calistoga. We come back down the valley to Vallejo, whence McCue's stages take us to Benicia, seven and a half miles.
[For particulars of above three trips, see Bancroft's Tourist's Guide—Geysers.]
11. Mt. Diablo Trip.
Across the strait of Carquinez from Benicia, and connected with it by a steam ferry, lies