Fairfax Heights-Marinda Oaks, Fairfax, CA

Fairfax Heights-Marinda Oaks covers the slopes and knolls on the north side of downtown Fairfax, where Marinda Drive, San Gabriel Drive and Vista Way climb away from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. The upper streets catch views of the hills and Mount Tamalpais, and the boulevard below holds the library, a grocery and a mountain biking museum. Marinda Oaks has a run of early 1960s mid-century houses with big windows aimed at the ridgeline, a style that stands apart from the shingled cottages found elsewhere in town. Streets nearer the boulevard mix older homes with remodels, and a few homes sit on flat knolls above the road. Two civic landmarks sit within the neighborhood. The bicycle museum on the boulevard, with its Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, traces a sport that local riders helped invent in the 1970s. The town library, 2097 Sir Francis Drake, began as the first branch of the Marin County Free Library in 1927 and moved to its present spot in 1978. Good Earth Natural Foods, an all-organic market that opened in 1969, anchors the grocery side. Just outside the boundary on the same boulevard are the places people drive over for. Barefoot Cafe serves seasonal organic breakfasts at 1900 Sir Francis Drake, Way Station sells barbecue from a trailer beside a beer garden with a fire pit, and M&G Burgers is the stop for burgers and shakes. Cafe Lotus does Northern Indian home-style cooking. The Cascade Falls trail begins about a mile from downtown, and Contratti Park is a short way off for a quieter patch of grass. Buses along the boulevard head east toward San Rafael. Marinda Oaks sits uphill, which means the bus, the museum and the groceries are below you and the way back is a climb or a drive. Still, in Fairfax Heights-Marinda Oaks the hills end up in the windows.