Nearly 300 non-inmates, made the daring swim from Alcatraz Island back to the East Beach finish line at the Presidio in San Francisco on May 22.

There's something about babies. You know that feeling, when you see a new infant and can't help but gush, "How cute and tiny!" It's universal to be drawn to new life. That applies to other babies in the animal kingdom, too. Last Tuesday morning, I was delighted when I saw two tiny fawns in my driveway with their mother.

When I drive to the top of Bear Creek Road, looking down to Loch Lomond Reservoir and across the bay to the Ventana Wilderness, I imagine what our land would have looked like before the European invasion. What grew here? Ate here? Roamed here? What mark would American Indians have made?