Annual Get Outdoors Plug---

Sibley's gorgeous right now (well, as soon as the rain lets up). Up Snake, left on Skyline about a mile. Bring the dog and follow other hikers. On a foggy day, it's just like Lord of the Rings.

The Oakland Rose Garden. Bring the computer and the kids to get work done while they nose around or look for frogs. Grand to Jean St. Then stop in at Ace Garden and ask Kevin Numoto (my landscape stager) or Wyatt Alt (my son) for help.

The Point Reyes Peninsula. Stop by the Inverness house on your way out for a nice hike and great views of the Pacific Ocean. We're there most weekends---

See Sibley NOW!

My favorite dog-friendly hike spot is gorgeous right NOW. Sibley Volcanic Preserve, written up a year or two ago in the New York Times by Piedmont's Patty Brown, is in full bloom NOW. Great raptors and bluebirds, wildflowers, rocks (after all, as the material in the shelter points out, this is NOT the latest red hot chili pepper jelly, despite the name), relatively flat, some strollerable. Take Snake Road to the top, left just past Huckleberry Preserve.

My best walk: Up the first hill, left at the fork and through the cattle fence, continue about a mile around to the left (labyrinth if you go right at the second fork), heading for the hilltop with a patch of bay laurel (the knob with what looks like a single tree is a great lookout for kids). Veer right at the bathtub water-trough, check out Mount Diablo (and the snow-topped Sierra a couple of times each winter), and then head up to the stand of trees for a fabulous view of the Golden Gate. See if you can find the six labyrinths in the Park!