Senior Destination: Marin County, California

Senior travelers will find Marin County /məˈrɪn/  in the North San Francisco Bay Area with a population of just over 252,000. Marin County is well known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, and affluence.

In May 2009, Marin County had the fifth highest income per capita in the United States. Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco and is considered part of Marin County.

According to General Mariano Vallejo, who headed an 1850 committee to name California’s counties, the county was named for “Marin”, great chief of the tribe Licatiut.

Another version suggests that the bay between San Pedro Point and San Quentin Point was named Bahía de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera in 1775, and that Marin is simply an abbreviation of this name. So take your pick, I like the last one myself.

Seniors Enjoy The Environment

The Marin County Convention & Visitors Bureau notes that “It’s different here and not by accident.”  And right next door are the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma. Marin County is closer than you could ever imagine to everything that’s unique in this unique corner of California.

In Marin County, senior visitors find the pinnacle of luxury as well as the home to some of the world’s finest wines. Holistic artists and goat cheese artisans, the birthplace of mountain biking and Obi Wan Kenobi and the natural habitat of those grateful for nature and of the Grateful Dead, all this is just awaiting your arrival in Marin County.

As for me, among the many choices and scenic wonders of Marin county, this senior would head off to the Marin County Civic Center designed by my hero Frank Lloyd Wright.

Of course I must admit my bias as I am a guide at Taliesin West, the Arizona home and school of architecture of the world famous architect.

Thousands of visitors come to Marin County each year to see the futuristic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center. It was Wright’s last major commission and is one of the famed architect’s most distinctive structures. Don’t miss it.

Seniors Enjoy Their Stay In Marin County

TripAdvisor suggests The Muir Woods National Monument. It would be difficult to miss the the Marin Headlands, a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sunrise to sunset, what is it like living in Marin County? Coffee in Mill Valley, hiking in Muir Woods, sailboat watching in Sausalito, dining in Tiburon – Marin is truly a magical place to live and the daily lives of the locals find that this is a special part of California.

“The County is a picturesque enclave of small towns and cities tucked into the seductive beauty of its rolling green hills.” Set your GPS to Marin County and spend some quality time enjoying all that it has to offer. -jeb