Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Pigeon Point, and Santa Cruz, CA

So some of you missed my prose. Thank you... I think

The video recording was so easy I hope to include a little video blog with every blog as long as it is very brief and hopefully funny :P.



OK I realize it is quiet still. I was in a public place kinda embarrassed. I promise next time will be loud and proud.

I realized that my last blog had no pics of Hayward or Isleton, sorry bout that. Guess there is a reason why there weren't any pictures taken there hehe. Though we definitely love Aunt Linda and here hospitality.

Morning walk going towards Mavericks but we never made it there

For those who couldn't hear my blog very well we decided to go to Half Moon Bay instead of Pacifica because Hwy 92 took us right there and we would have had to go north on 1 for a little while to get to Pacifica. We took some long walks and had a very good sandwich there and Crab. We stayed in a Safeway parking lot the first night and were just about to get booted by the cops when we opened the curtain and started up the bus. The guy just kinda chuckled and started walking the other way. The second night we stayed in this other parking lot where we could tell an RV had been camping there for awhile. That spot we had no problems and when we woke up we found like 3 other RVs with their pop outs out so we knew it was a common and good spot for an overnighter.

Old Jail no longer in use

Mean Muggin'

Really interesting house that was on our walk

Sooo rural not even the postman make it there!!

Now residing on my dash

Yea we are so reckless totally taking
unnecessary risks hehe

Forgotten keys that I thought looked particularly interesting

When we went to the visitor center the lady recommended visiting this town called San Gregorio and to check out Pescadero which is a little south of Half Moon. We got the same recommendation from the waitress at the place where we had some bomb crab. So we went... San Gregorio basically only has a general store but it is a very unique one that has a saloon, bookstore, and general store there. We got there right at opening which wasn't ideal to get the full effect of the store so we basically browsed then were on our way. We took this road that led to Pescadero which wasn't Hwy 1 and it turned out to be a pretty crazy road, lots of twists and turns uphills and downhills and super bumpy. Maander threw it down and treated us right and we got to Pescadero alright.



Pescadero started out as a resort town and basically has stayed that way. Just a single street with some nice markets, shops, and bars. Go there if you want a nice lunch or to get a drink. Other than those things Pescadero is basically pointless. We weren't looking to spend money there so we just meandered briefly and were on our way.

Chillin' bike

One of the nice markets in Pescadero

Now next stop was Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This was the stop of the day. We heard it had a youth hostel there and thought that was interesting. It was in a pretty rural area no big towns nearby. We explored the lighthouse exhibit, unfortunately, there were no tours of this lighthouse just signs. We then descended down to the beach where there were a crazy amount of tide pools. I was set on finding some sea urchins and a starfish. I found both! Anna had the camera so I was unable to get a photo of the starfish though. So the exploration was tons of fun and when we were done we had lunch then headed to camp at a KOA a few miles down the road.

Us with the Lighthouse being a total attention whore

Driftwood, house, and Anna

Maander having a grand ol' time chillin'

Tide pool w/ Sea Urchin

Next day, we made our way to Santa Cruz to spend a few days. On entering the city there was a farmers' market so we said lets check it out. Had a slice and checked out the produce. Natural bridges park was right by there so we headed over there. It is right by the University. Turns out that during the winter months Monarch butterflies migrate to the eucalyptus trees of Santa Cruz. They had a butterfly sanctuary there and it was amazing. You can get about one tenth of how amazing it is by the video below. To keep warm they will all gather on a branch together in a huge cluster and when they do that it looks like a bunch of dead leaves hanging. We found a butterfly that was either injured or too cold to fly on the ground. It was pretty sweet holding it in my hand.

Nom Noming

Guess the neighborhood wasn't as nice as it looked

A pond at the sanctuary

Double date with a fifth wheel

Still wondering why they call the park natural bridges

We then headed to downtown and walked the street. Tons of stores and clothing stores with the most interesting clothes I have seen in a long time. No wonder people are so well dressed in Santa Cruz. We then headed to the Beach Boardwalk. The weather was not conducive for beach type activities but we did have tons of fun playing in the arcade. We then found another Safeway to shack up for the night had some soup and rented a movie from one of those kiosks.

In the morning we went to the church which was right next to the Safeway. It was a Presbyterian church that had a lot of choral reading and had a choir and sung hymns. Not what I was used to but still a good service. They also had a woman speak behind the pulpit which I know for some is unusual. They had coffee hour afterwards so we partook and met some of the congregation. We ended up talking at length to a gentleman named Roy, if I remember correctly. He really seemed interested in our journey and gave us some advice and just offered some of his well wishes with us.

Its supposed to get crazy windy here on the coast for the rest of the day and it is raining so we are just hanging out in this coffee house that is part of a church. It is called The Abbey and definitely looks like where all the young people hang out. I guess our future will be people gathered all around each other with each person looking at a computer screen. All together but all isolated.