We woke to waves crashing at the shore and
foghorns. It was gray, foggy, and
drizzly but not really raining. When you
are at the beach, you must walk on the beach!
So we packed up camp and headed to the beach. Half Moon Bay beach is a lovely beach to walk
upon. Each beach here is so diverse, it
is amazing. Pacifica is very “rocky” so
you can find rocks or you have to avoid them.
Half Moon is more of a small shell beach. Some beaches have neither!
We encountered something we have never
seen before, ever. We passed a dead sea
lion. It was up pretty high up on the
sand but we were walking at low tide so we are assuming that is when it washed
up. It was sort of reminiscent of the
movie “The Birds” as there were ravens pecking at it. Blah.
But I guess it is the circle of life.
Down the beach another sea lion, this one very much alive, was being
corralled by a “rescue” person (that is what his shirt said) and two life
guards. It was very interesting
watching them as this sea lion was on the edge of the water and would go back
and forth and they apparently really wanted to capture it. They eventually got it netted and put in a
super-large dog crate. The life guard
said that it had been acting up and they didn’t want it to bite their camp they
were holding.
We wondered what was going on as we walked
up the beach as there were a bunch of kids doing exercises and digging sand
castles. There were small boogie boards
and surf boards lined up as well as many wetsuits. In turns out those kiddos were attending a
Junior Lifeguard camp! How exciting to
have that opportunity. We watched them
run into the water and some were swimming to shore from further out and some
were learning to jump up as waves crashed around them and some were going under
the waves.
We walked all the way to the end of the
beach, crossing one area that would not be accessible during high tide as it
was pretty rocky. What a glorious 4 miles! (Two miles there and two miles back—not eight
total!)
We rode into San Mateo to get our oil
changed. It was literally called Oil
Changers. They were great and no
pressure as they don’t work for commissions.
They gave us coffees while we waited and we were soon on our way. They wondered why we were there when our
plates said Indiana so we gave them a quick version of our story. Everyone always reacts the same way when we
say we went all the way to the Arctic Ocean and then slept on the Arctic Circle—mouths
drop open and they comment: No, kidding!
We then made an impromptu stop to Edmodo. We
really lucked out with parking, right in front!
We aren’t used to a big truck let alone one with a 3’ hitch hanging off
the back!! We went in and ask to see
John-Paul Verkamp. The guy at the desk
said he’d never heard of him. We looked
at each other and asked how long he’d been there and he said 1 ½ years. Then he said, “Verkamp, oh JP!” Of course everyone else calls him JP but we
still call him John-Paul. And of course
we knew he wouldn’t be there as he is working remotely in Indiana now, but it
was fun messing with them. We met his
team and left shortly thereafter so they could get back to work. :)
San Francisco is an amazing city. We knew we wanted to bike today so we parked
at the fort we always park at (Fort Point—great views when you stand at the
edge!) and unhooked our bikes and took off.
We rode across the Golden Gate Bridge having to brake and swerve and
avoid walkers and other bikers as the West side that is usually reserved for
bicyclists is closed during the day. We
kept on going and headed DOWN into Sausalito. That is such a pretty
community!
The wind was SO strong today
that it was actually quite a workout biking.
I had to actually pedal really hard to go down a hill!! Yes!!
Really!! It was blowing that hard
against me! We stopped and checked the
ferry schedules and realized we needed to head back sooner than we planned. The
ferry docked us at Fisherman’s Wharf and so took a left; Andrew detoured us
from the Pier road and landed us up at the Trans-Ameria Pyramid. We went in and the gentleman at the desk told
us that what we wanted was around the corner, past the Wells ATM. What he didn’t tell us was that it had closed
at 4!! He had to know this as this was
near 6 by this time! But we did get to
walk around this amazing building, even if we didn’t get to go in and watch the
cams.
Back to the pier areas, and my comfort zone. I am very klutzy so riding a bike can be
challenging. Negotiating traffic and pedestrians and such was just a bit
stressful for me. :/ The bike lanes routing down the piers are no less busy but
they are marked bike lanes so it feels better.
It seemed so less busy than any prior visits. Perhaps it was the gray drizzly day or
perhaps it was because it was late in the day.
I prefer it that way!! I love no
crowd days! We got back to the truck, having to walk a few of those hills, and putting 22.24 miles on our trusty Indiana bikes! YEP!!
What a day. Our new gel seats work great. :)
We were a bit tired but we wanted to go to
Haight-Ashbury yet. Haight-Ashbury is
the birth of the hippy movement, way back in the day. We thought we’d see people walking the
streets, music flowing freely from every building, peace, and love, but we
found most places locked up for the night.
Literally! We did find that
Magnolia’s Pub was open so we had a great snack: cheddar cheese on a board along with pickled
veggies, some fruit compote that was amazing, and some bread, and some sausage
with small bowls of sauerkraut. I know, some of you are probably going WHAT? But
it was really good and they had 31 ales on tap! :)
We didn’t have sleeping arrangements made
for San Fran since we weren’t sure how long we’d be, so we slept in our truck
(It is really comfy so no worries!). We
slept on the streets of San Francisco, along Golden Gate Park! MANY other vehicles were parked there as
well, including a few short RVs, so we know were okay. We knew we needed to get
up really early to make sunrise on the Oakland Bay Bridge so getting a room or pitching
a tent for six hours of sleep seemed silly.
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