They'll occasionally snare a cat from the backyards of mountain dwellers as well and offer a confrontational call of the wild to their kibble-fed cousins staring out from their Dogloos into the night. An amazingly adaptable animal, the coyote is a scrapper and a survivor. The rest of us, in time, can only hope to do so well. Room With a View Whether looking up into the heavens or down into the valley below, the views from the high point of Lick Observatory can't be beat on a clear day or night. Lick Observatory was built in 1888 by the philanthropist James Lick, a Pennsylvania native who originally came to the valley to start a flour mill.
Scientists still man the observatory's updated, world-class telescopes around the clock.
Drink Up Fresh water in the valley was once abundant. Indeed, for all but the last 200 years of this millennium, much of the place was like a swamp, with creeks and rivers functioning for the valley's early inhabitants the way freeways do today. For those wanting to remember how water is supposed to look and taste, drive north up Interstate 280, hang a left at Highway 92 heading toward Half Moon Bay and pay attention to the right-hand side of the road. Eventually you'll see a bunch of cars parked along a rocky wall and people waiting to fill up bottles. Stop and take a drink of the cool, clear water pouring out of the mountain, where people and animals have been partaking of it, for free, for several thousand years.