I surprised my wife with a short getaway at Point Reyes Station to celebrate my 40th birthday this year. While my in-laws watched Westley, we headed out early Sunday morning to begin our West Marin food tour at Cowgirl Creamery. We began with lessons about the region’s history, sustainable agriculture, and MALT over baked treats from Bovine Bakery. After cooing at fuzzy Red Hawk cheese in their incubator like babies in a nursery, we consumed chai at Bovine and sourdough at Brickmaiden, taking a behind-the-scenes tour of the latter and whiff of their 16-year-old starter. Next, we shared avocado toast, salad, and grass-fed beef burgers at Due West while our crunchy tour guide proselytized on the importance of eating local and organic. At Heidrun Meadery, the only sparkling mead factory in the world, we sampled their bubblies, but left with some buckwheat and wildflower honey. We got a preview of our next day’s activity at Hog Island Oyster, where we shared raw and grilled oysters as we learned how the company grows and harvests their bivalves. We returned to Cowgirl to buy some cheese before checking into our AirBnB cabin. In the evening, we suited up for our bioluminescent night kayaking, which was only possible in January due to global warming. As we paddled across Tomales Bay, picking up sawgrass and spotting seals, we started streaming magical blue-green light in the wake of our kayak and swish of our oars. We refueled at Nick’s Cove, but unfortunately spent the night up with food poisoning. Nevertheless, we were determined to make our picnic table reservation at Hog Island on Monday. After a quick trip to Palace Market to pick up foil, butter, garlic, parsley, deli sides, cheese, sourdough, and water buffalo gelato, we got a shucking lesson at the Hog Island counter along with trays of oysters. We had to ask our neighbors how to start the grill with a chimney, but we successfully took down two dozen raw Kumamoto oysters, a dozen grilled Pacific oysters, and a pound of steamed mussels for a very satisfying lunch. We kept dinner light at Stellina to make room for more water buffalo gelato before returning for Scrabble game night. Having been told that my car tires were about to pop from wear, we investigated tire options as we stopped for lunch at Wild Goat Bistro in Petaluma. We managed to get a new set of run-flats installed before picking up Westley for my birthday dinner at Yue Huang. We stuffed ourselves on fish maw soup, abalone, conch, fish hot pot, and pea stems before returning home in time for cake, song, bath, and bed for Westley. Despite the short respite, I felt refreshed and ready to take on middle-age.