Marin County:

RIDGED BY HILLS AND MOUNTAINS, Marin County is bordered on the west by the Pacific and on the east by San Francisco Bay. Its southern tip anchors one of the most famous bridges in the world, the Golden Gate. The county is famed for its views, its money and its style, the good life, the adventuresome life, with a social conscience that sometimes misfires.

Marin runs roughly 31 miles top to bottom along the Highway 101 corridor, 35 miles east to west, and is dominated near the middle by its single mountain, Tamalpais, elevation 2,571 feet, beloved by residents and visitors.

West of Tamalpais, in summer, the winds below, the fogs swirl, the cold nips. East of Tamalpais, with the exception of a few days of bluster and rain, the weather is balmy from January through December. And the air clean, thanks to the winds, the lack of "smoke" industries and to smog restraints on cars.

Marin residents love the west: the Pacific, the waves, the views, the seals, the fish, the flora, the fauna. Aside from a few hardy souls, however, they live east of Mount Tamalpais. Mountain and hilss shelter the east from cold fogs of summer. In land, Marin covers 520 square miles, about 11 times the size of San Francisco, but it's among the smallest counties in the state, third from bottom.

Marin has been turning itself inta media-software center. Lucasfilm (Star Wars, etc.) is based in Marin and the Mill Valley Film Festival is winning international attention. Several movie and television personalitites live in the county. But, short of commercial space and unwilling to give up vistas and open space in exchange for the buck, Marin remains essentially a bedroom county.