At one time, the whole Marin County in San Francisco was a vast lumber town. The lumber from hills was shipped across the San Francisco Bay to the city of San Francisco. Remnants of the old lumber city still dot the new city, even of the trains that carried lumber to the waterside. The building of the Golden Gate Bridge took Marin County into civilization and it is today, perhaps, the most beautiful county in this part of the United States. Mill Valley, where we are located is like a hill station back home in Pakistan, rolling hills and vales with neat small homes on wooded slopes with higher peaks peeking from behind. The small Twin City Market is at a walking distance as is the bus stop in Corte Madeira Square. The Town Centre boasts of a huge bookshop with an excellent variety of reading material, aisles and aisles of bookshelves full of 'fiction & literature', mostly of new authors, but also of the old. Then there is the equally big Container Store housing hundreds of very attractive items in cut glass and clear plastic. Also visited The Village on a detour past the Town Centre. Going further south took us to San Rafael and on to North Gate shopping centre with numerous cinema theaters. Going north we visited the small town named Larkspur. One can't go any where in Marin County without touching the shimmering waters of San Francisco Bay that is bounded by low hills that have white clouds playing hide and seek with hills and the vales. Then there is the mandatory visit to the famous Muir Redwood Forest. The place is awe-inspiring. 2000 year old Redwood trees soaring up to 379 feet high. The weather keeps changing from hot sunny to windblown cool. The autumn leaves are starting to make an appearance. -KHURSHID ANWER, San Francisco, November 3.