Blown Away at Half Moon Bay : California

Friday I drove to explore Monterey and Carmel, which are actually the sites of where my grandparents honeymooned 68 years ago! Monterey is usually booming with tourism in the summer, but in December it is only locals.  My sister's previous roommate Susie lives in Monterey as well, so I wanted to pay her a visit.

I first arrived and parked near the fishing wharf and walked most of the coastline of the city. I explored the fishing wharfs, the cannery, and Lover's point. It was the first clear blue sky day of my trip, but also the coldest. 

Susie, her boyfriend, and I went to lunch at a local brewery and then Susie and I left to do the '17 mile drive,' which is famous for the high concentration of beautiful beaches and vistas along the ocean. We enjoyed stopping anywhere we pleased to enjoy a view or look over a cliff.

Next we rode bikes to get an ice cream and walked around the park some more.

a local coffee cart

The weather shifted and all the birds converged

It was time for me leave before I knew it, and I went to pick up Kate from her work so that we could go camping north in Half Moon Bay. On the way, there was a huge 4+ car collision immediately behind us, we had to call 911 because several of the cars flipped on top of each other...there was no safe place for us to pull over, so we had to keep driving...

At the campsite, we were freezing! We soon learned why there was no one camping around us.....There were wind gusts of almost 30 mph blowing our tent half over and the temperature was ~35 degrees. A man from Arizona, named Dave, came over to us and let us borrow some heavy duty tent stakes to keep everything on the ground. We could hardly get to sleep the wind was so loud!

the moon over the bay and above our tent

In the morning we packed up our frost-covered tent and accompanied Dave to 'the best chai place in the world' as he refers to it. It's called Raman's Coffee and Chai, and it's owned by a very grumpy, but still hilarious man. I made the mistake of asking if he makes a 'dirty chai,' or chai with a shot of espresso, which incited a lecture for Kate, Dave, and myself about the purity of Chai and how my generation just loves to mix everything that could be beautiful on its own together. I should also mention that the entire time this was happening this :

girl was in the corner standing on a sofa and singing/chanting to herself. She was laughing and dancing in a circle with butterfly wings on her head. I should also mention the group of elderly who were having some sort of meeting (discussing flowers, the church...) while this girl was enthusiastically telling me that I 'need to get in touch with my star sign' and that I 'seem like a Sagittarius'.....

We talked to Dave for hours while our toes were defrosting and while this girl stood in the corner (although we had plans to go hiking early). He was so interesting! He has been camping in his van in California for weeks, although his wife went back last week to their home in Arizona. He once sailed with his wife from California to Mexico and back without any technical navigation equipment and spent some time living in Alaska too. His son did a Geology degree and then decided to go back school, a Circus school, in the Northeast.

We said goodbye to our new friends and went to begin our day of exploring. Kate and I did a brief walk on the California coastal trail and then drove down Route 1 playing a game where we impulsively stopped at every last thing or viewpoint on the side of the road that we wanted to see and would hop out of the car and run around the beach, cliff, berry farm, or whatever it was, before hopping back in the car, driving 60mph,  only to stop in another 1/2 mile. We did this for hours.

Our last major stop was at Kate's favorite beach, where you have to climb down from a cliff into a cove to be on the beach. Once you're there, if the tide's low and you can move fast, you can run through an archway into another beach. This beach is technically a nude beach.
We realized that we had a blanket and all of our food we packed for camping, so we had an impromptu beach picnic and laid there enjoying the views for hours.

At the end of the beach, there was at least one male nudist dancing with a white sheet stretched between his arms like a cape behind him. There were also two men sword fighting in medieval dress.

Sunday I went to breakfast with Kate and her boyfriend Jordyn in Santa Cruz. We planned to go to their friend's christmas gift exchange that afternoon, and spent the morning looking for gag gifts on Pacific Avenue.
Santa Cruz has a little bit of a reputation for being "weird," there are even "keep Santa Cruz Weird" bumper stickers on cars. We spotted a man playing music in the street. He used the bow of a violin, but on a saw...and he was sitting in front of a statue of another saw-player.

After our gift exchange, I caught the red-eye flight home to Richmond at 10:30 PM!
I have absolutely loved my time in California, and I would love to live here someday!

Purple Sands and Poison Oak --- California

I arrived  in San Francisco airport and rode the public transport for another hour to get to Allison and Eric's home in east bay, north of Oakland (in effect, I flew from Richmond, Virginia to arrive in Richmond, California). Allison and Eric were just married, on October 16th! So, it was very exciting to be able to see them and to celebrate.
I made friends on the metro with a biker who rides 30+ miles a day to and from work to avoid the living costs within the city. Today, he took his bike on the metro because it was pouring outside. He was excited to hear that I'm going to be a PA, because he was treated by one on his most recent, and third, trip to the emergency room due to being hit by a car. 

Friday morning, Allison And I went to tour the University of California at Berkeley and went up the Bell Tower in the center of Campus. On the way there, we drove along the rolling hills and our car was stopped by wild turkeys in the road.  It was raining, so our view of the surrounding area was limited.
We went to a make-your-own cinnamon roll shop for "breakfast" and had our fill of sweets for the month. They really pile on the toppings...

Next I headed into downtown San Francisco by myself while Allison went back to her work. 

First,  I went to the metro stop at mission and 24th street and began heading north looking for my favorite thing on earth, street art. I was not disappointed....

I went to a cafe called Tartine for a sandwich and sat at the top of Dolores park to picnic.


I explored more of the Spanish mission district...

and walked a few miles up to the Haight-Ashbury district and found a great little record store.
I made it to the painted ladies..

Eric, Allison, and I ate dinner from their vegetable basket, which is delivered by the local farms each week. They receive a crate of whatever is in season and have to be creative cooking with it.
This night, we had Rutubaga fritters.

cutie!

Saturday,  Allison And I went to Muir Woods in the pouring rain. She was such a good sport about going with me and we made the best of our time there, despite becoming perpetually soaked for the day.
We made it out of the rain to a coffee shop by the ranger station, just after my raincoat's hood had filled up like a pool and overflowed down my back. We tried to towel off with table napkins, which of course only made us feel like we were able to fix the problem.

Muir woods is a magical place. It was gorgeous!

We drove over to to Sausalito and walked around the town. My friend Kate was driving north from Santa Cruz to meet us for lunch. We ate outside under heat lamps by the port and admired the boats.

Allison went to back home to teach a tae kwon do lesson, so Kate And I kept walking around Sausalito and then headed back into San Francisco.
We went to the golden gate park area and saw some gorgeous tiled steps at Moranga street made by about 300 people from the community. they actually glow in the dark at nighttime!

Next, we went to Haight ashbury street and 'shopped' for hours. We toured shops with creepy petrified animals and walked through the hippie culture smoke shops. We went into vintage stores and tried on the most ridiculous clothes we could find.

We met with Eric and Allison for dinner at a place called Upcider, which has hundreds of ciders on tap. There was Santacon going on on the same street, so we had the opportunity to witness hundreds of Santa Claus impersonators walking around drunk at only 6PM.

After dinner, we attempted to find a speakeasy bar to go to and ended up in its sister bar. 

Sunday, we went to Sutro baths (the ruins of a late 1800's saltwater outdoor bathing complex) and hiked along the coast north toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Our hike ended on the famous baker beach.

The Ruins of Sutro Baths

One of the beautiful homes in the area

Baker Beach

We went to get coffee and walked through  a golf course where we saw the SanFran Legion of Honor and  museum. Kate and I said goodbye to Eric and Allison and drove south along Route1 to her home in Santa Cruz. We stopped at cliffs to enjoy the views.

 In Santa Cruz, we walked along west cliff and enjoyed watching dogs play at dog beach. 

There's a rock area called 'toilet bowl,' where water bursts explosively high as the waves crash. 

We watched the surfers and saw sea otters!

walking west cliff

notice the man on his computer on the rocks

Kate and I met with her boyfriend Jordyn and his friends, who were out surfing in their wetsuits.  

We got ice cream at the Penny, which toasts marshmallow on top of your ice cream cone.

I was staying in Kate's place for the week, an adorable 1950s airstream trailer in front of a family's house.

Monday morning I went to a coffee shop to wait for the rental car company to be open. My plan was to explore Big Sur. Often referred to as "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world," these protected lands on the California coast are undeveloped and remote...and beautiful.
There is no cell phone service and there is hardly and signage to navigate Big Sur. 

I drove along route1 over the Brixby bridge, and began to see the type of views I would enjoy for the rest of my time there.

Next, I went to to pfeiffer beach. The roads were flooded but I went through anyways. They were also unmarked, but I knew from my research to look for a "narrow road" sign on the side of highway 1.

The sand on the beach was purple! Apparently the manganese garnet of the surrounding rocks in the area washes down onto the beach and causes the sand to turn purple. 

wrote my initials

Someone had a good day here

The waves were crashing through the archway, and I did a little outdoor bouldering and climbed to the top of the rock formation on the left to sit and have lunch looking at the ocean

Next I drove to Julia Pfeiffer falls. Apparently, the waterfall used to drop straight into the ocean but after a recent rock slide it is several feet away. This was one of my favorite views!

I continued driving on the narrow and winding roads of Cabrillo Rd,  a full 130 miles south from Santa Cruz down to go hike salmon falls.
Driving this road is intimidating, because you're on the edge of cliffs. There are hairpin turns with narrow shoulders and steep dropoffs...

But it was one of the most enjoyable and scenic drives I've ever had. I played my favorite music and enjoyed every view I could take in.

My final stop of the day was on my return home, an unmarked trail down into a cove  off of the side of the road. A local told me to find Partington Cove,  at the 'green gate at a sharp U curve in the road' which was a site of bootlegging in the prohibition era.
Part of the hike includes a ~60 foot tunnel out to the cove.

bright blue water and purple rocks

The sun was setting next to little waterfalls going into the ocean

Birds flying by

Tuesday

I went for a run along Santa Cruz's west cliff and then went to explore natural bridges state park. There, I saw the beautiful beach and the monarch butterfly migration.

the black dots in the sky are the butterflies