Wow, we actually slept until 7 this morning. Amazing – so now we slowly wake up, get showered, have our breakfast (well, coffee for me, microwaved frozen omelet for Ed) then head out on our little driving tour. Following our Google maps, we wind our way through the hills of Millbrae, which are pretty cool. The streets just keep going up, up over the mountain ridge and we can’t help but look at all these small and large Spanish style houses and wonder how much they are worth. We actually did some searches on homes for sale in Millbrae –there were only 14! 14!! Holy crap, in one zip code in Asheville there are like 144. All the single family homes here are between $1 and $2 million. The condos are just under$1 million. Totally nuts!
After our little neighborhood tour we get on the freeway that takes us south, exiting off on a two lane mountain road that winds up through the hills that will eventually lead to Half Moon Bay, but also to the Purisma Creek Redwoods Preserve, which is our first stop of the day. The drive is beautiful. We start out following what I think is a river, but it turns out to be a large lake or bay with a causeway which we drive over to start up into the hills. The road winds up and over the mountain ridge that separates San Francisco from the coast, and at the apex, we turn off onto a tree line two lane road that leads through the redwood forest to the Preserve. Along the way there are lots of little cabins, houses and even a few restaurants – which we did not expect at all! They all look cozy and ancient old and sort of hippie-ish in their own way, and are probably incredible good and local – but we have our sights set on walking through the forests and then eating down at sea level at the Half Moon Bay Brewery (plus its far too early to think about food right now).
Arriving at the North Ridge Trail, I realize that we wanted to go to the Redwoods trail a few miles further, because it was described as a ¼ mile loop – and it was described as a flat and easy route. But, since we are here, and the trees are gorgeous, we decide to go ahead and hike a bit on the North Ridge Trail. It’s just incredible beautiful and peaceful out here – not another soul in sight, the wind gently moving the trees. This is 2nd growth, after the logging in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and there are stumps left in place that are close to 1000 years old! But, even if these trees are only 100+ years old, they are still incredibly huge and tall
We do an in and out of about 30 minutes, after the elevation started really changing, arriving back at the car to commemorate the Mountain Lion warning with a photo (interestingly enough, you treat a mountain lion encounter the same as a black bear – talk loud, raise you arms, never turn your back, fight back is attacked. We got this!
Moving on down the road, we actually manage to pass the teeny parking lot for the Redwood trail and circle back (after almost 1 mile of winding roads before we can find a turn around spot) to find the parking lot totally mud-swamped. Even though we have this blasted SUV, it’s not 4-wheel drive, so we aren’t chancing getting stuck in there. But, there are other cars parked on the road, so we follow suit, then hop out to take the “Suitable for visitors of all physical abilities” ¼ mile loop. Ha! We don’t know who wrote that explanation or who in their right mind thought it acceptable to say that the path was wheel chair accessible, but let me tell you – they were not exactly accurate! After a switch back trail that is decidedly downhill (their definition of “minimal elevation gains” and ours differs dramatically), we loop onto the actual Redwoods trail, which again leads downhill, through meadows and switchbacks until it meets the Purisma Creek Trail that brings you back up to the first parking lot access trail. Hey, we aren’t complaining – it was a beautiful walk, once again peaceful through the forest with tons of growth, including green moss covering the stumps and any little saplings that didn’t actually survive – not to mention the most interesting fallen tree limb where you could actually see how the branches grow out of the limb – almost like little miniature trees attached to the wood. But, it wasn’t as “flat” as advertised, and while we managed, anyone with mobility issues would be sorely challenged or defeated by this loop.
Exercised enough for now, we reverse course, heading back to Route 92 to go into Half Moon Bay. We have one pit stop on the way though – the Dinosaurs of Spanishtown. We’ve absolutely no idea the origin of these huge scrap metal dinosaurs, but they are a sight to see on the side of the road where there are shops that sell garden statues and supplies. They are easy to spot, these huge prehistoric rusting triceratops and Brontosaurus statues on the side of the road in front of the huge sign that says Spanishtown! It’s an Amazing Race thing we can actually accomplish. Getting out to explore, we actually see that one has fallen over – a dead dinosaur! – so we don’t have the pleasure of taking pictures with him (and he is by far the biggest), but we have a lot of fun with the other statues, and Sunny even gets into the mood.
Inside the garden shop’s garden (so to speak) are tons more statues – and not just clusters of dinosaurs. There are elephants, giraffes, donkeys, bucking broncos and even a huge bear! Yes! Needless to say, Sunny and I are totally taken with the bear and want to bring him home – but that idea gets vetoed pretty quickly when we see the price and think about the shipping. As we are leaving we stumble upon a Grizzly encounter – oohh – scary!
Continuing on our adventures we make our way to the coast in search of the Coastal Trail, a 7.6 mile trail all along the coast following what used to be the Ocean Shore railroad near Half Moon Bay. Of course we aren’t walking the whole trail, but we want to experience at least some of it, so we are off in search of parking to access the trail. The first 2 spots we visit are state park locations which charge $10 a day for parking. That’s all fine and good if we are staying all day, but we are thinking ½ an hour at the most, so it seems a little overkill to pay that much. Fortunately there is another small lot about 5 miles to the north where we can park for free and walk on the trail, actually using golf cart paths through the Half Moon Bay golf course.
Turns out to be a great spot to park and walk through gorgeously manicured golf course terrain combined with dramatic ocean views. Its all paved, its easy and beautiful, the temperature is perfect, just enough on the chilly side to be comfortable but not cold, and virtually empty – except for the occasional golfer playing through.
Following our hike, we head into the town of Half Moon Bay for the post office so we can mail our Polish POA forms to AirHelp who is managing our flight delay claim against LOT airlines, then make a split second decision to ditch Half Moon Day Brewery for lunch and go to The Flying Fish Café instead. It’s literally 2 minutes from the post office and advertises that it has the 9th best fish and chips in the country. If you can’t have the #1 best, might as well have 9th! The café has ample parking (something we were concerned about since we are in a little popular coastal town), a great menu and great staff. Since we are in the artichoke capital, I splurge on a cup of artichoke soup which is creamy and delicious, while Ed starts with a cup of clam chowder that he says is one of the best he’s ever had (and it did look thick and creamy and chock full of seafood). For our entrees, Ed chose the Fried fish sandwich and I had 2 tacos, one fried fish, one grilled mahi mahi. It was all excellent, but way, way too much food. The sandwich alone could have fed a small family! Ed ended up ditching the bread and just eating the fish, and I sort of did the same, dissecting my tacos to eat with a knife and a fork. Sort of wish we would have saved some hiking for after lunch!
We’ve now come to the circle part of our route, where we head back north on Route 1 with a couple of intermediary stops. The first one is the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve where we can walk out onto the tide pools to see mollusks, crabs, sponges, seaweed, and all types of marine life. Its located at the end of a road in a residential development, with a whole huge ranger station sort of tucked into the back of the neighborhood. There are only 2 other people out there as we pick our way over the reef to see if we can find any sea life. We don’t, unless you count the multitude of gulls far out near the breaking tide. But that doesn’t make this place any less special or beautiful. The water is beautiful as it crashes against the brownish-black reefs, which stand out in stark contrast the blue and white waves. The surrounding cliffs also provide a beautiful view out over the water. There are a series of trails here too, but we eschew those in order to get back on the road to continue our trek back to the hotel.
Our next stop was supposed to be the Grey Whale Cove trail which runs along the coast, providing a good look out for the whales as they migrate south (which they are doing right now). We can’t really find the area to park though, not according to our Google maps, so we push on towards Devil’s Slide Bunker, which is a run down bunker originally used during WWII as an observation station. Abandoned in 1949, it has sat at the top of this crumbling peak, deteriorating ever since. The site is fenced and off limits to visitors, however, creative taggers have managed to sneak their way up there to put their colorful stamp on an otherwise concrete eyesore. As the bunker comes into view we stop at a random parking area to get a look, and it turns out this is the Grey Whale Cove parking lot! Taking a look at the terrain, though, we decide the path is too much for us today – we’ve done a great job of walking and don’t want to push it too far, so we just walk to the overlook on the side of the road, take a couple shots of the beach below (and the bunker – but they didn’t really turn out) and head on our way.
Another half an hour finds us back at the hotel, hanging out for the rest of the afternoon, still stuffed from lunch. We decide to ditch dinner instead heading to Safeway for snacks or something light. Since we watched Grocery Games last night, which was all about fried chicken, we are having a fried chicken craving. And, of course, Safeway has fresh fried chicken all ready to go. We end up with 4 decent pieces that we picnic on at the desk in the hotel room. Perfectly light – and cheap – dinner for our last night here in San Francisco.
Andiamo 