Half Moon Bay

I took  a little overnight trip to Half Moon Bay back in late September.  HMB is just about half an hour south of San Francisco, but it feels like another world and is a nice escape.

I spent the day at Pillar Point, relaxing, reading, and walking on the beach.  I had never been there before, and it didn’t disappoint.

The only challenge was it was unexpectedly 90 degrees that day, and I stupidly didn’t bring any sunscreen or a hat (silly San Franciscan unused to the heat!), so I got sunburned, but it was a small price to pay.

I came across this interesting sculpture.  I think people keep adding to it over time??

I was surprised that it wasn’t very crowded on a beautiful day, but there are also lots of nice beaches in the area.

I headed over to Pillar Point Harbor after for a late lunch.  I don’t know why, but I love marinas.

I stayed at the Inn at Mavericks, in Princeton-by-the-Sea, just north of Half Moon Bay proper.  It was adorable and just what I needed.

The view from my room

Sunrise the next day

An egret

Later in the day, I wandered around the cute downtown area.

City Hall

Half Moon Bay Bakery

The Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1872

It was a great quick and easy getaway and I felt so much more relaxed and refreshed when I left.  I need to be better at taking even small vacations!  The job I just left made it difficult to take care of myself, but I think I’ll able to better prioritize it now.

Ano Nuevo State Park

Well hello there.  It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything, but I hope I have a good excuse – I finally finished grad school in December!  The entire fall was a whirlwind of writing and crossing my fingers.  I’m proud to say that after 3 1/2 years, I officially have a Master of Library and Information Science!  I’ve been trying to recover and catch up on normal life ever since.

Since then, my challenge has been figuring out what to do with all of my new free time.  I’ve been saving up so many ideas of what I wanted to do once I was done.  It’s been hard to decide what to do first.

One of the first things I did was plan a trip to San Luis Obispo, which I’ll share soon.  The second was to visit Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals.  Each year, thousands of elephant seals head to the beach there to breed and give birth.

This time of year, you have to take a guided tour, to protect the animals.

I had never seen elephant seals before. It was the bf’s brilliant idea.

They were everywhere, even far up into the dunes.

We even saw a couple of males fighting for territory, off in the distance.

The walk to and from the beach was also lovely.

The guy on the left was staring back at us the whole time.

I guess he was fascinated by us also.

And there was also a lighthouse on a little island nearby, but you can’t visit it.

Those aren’t rocks or logs… they’re elephant seals, as far as the eye could see.

After the wonderful hike, we headed to the Davenport Roadhouse for lunch and Bonny Doon Vineyard for wine tasting, conveniently almost next to each other.

I wanted to do an overnight, so we stayed in Santa Cruz at a little B&B, and enjoyed some relaxation time at Tea House Spa and a scrumptious dinner at Malabar.  If you go to Malabar, you must try the banana blossom salad.

It was a wonderful way to decompress before the holidays!  I highly recommend taking the elephant seal tour.  It was a beautiful, but not too strenuous hike, and they were quite a sight.

 

Kauai Day Two

The other day, I shared some photos of my quick trip to Kauai to visit family.  The rest of my time in Kauai was exploring the east and south sides of the island.

In Kapaa, we visited the Poli’ahu heiau in the Wailua River State Park.  A heiau is a sacred place, and Poli’ahu is one of several heiau in the park.  Collectively, they have been named a US National Historic Landmark District and are on the US National Register of Historic Places.  This is the whole heiau from afar.  Kapu essentially means taboo.

The Wailua River runs through the valley below

We wandered over to Old Koloa Town on the south side. Koloa is Kauai’s oldest plantation town and Old Koloa Town has restored plantation buildings, now filled with tourist shops, but still interesting to see.  As my mom’s side of the family came to Hawaii as plantation workers in the early 1900s, I really like going to old plantations to get a sense of what it was like at the time.

It’s basically a low key shopping center now.  This is inside the restored area.  The area was cute and didn’t feel tacky.

The Yamamoto Building

The Koloa Hotel

It was unbelievably hot and humid, so the highlight was guava and passionfruit shave ice!  I miss shave ice so much.

Just down the road a bit in Poipu was Spouting Horn, a blow hole.

The coast all around it was beautiful

I’m attempting to embed a video I took for Instagram on here.  I hope this works! (Sorry it’s a little shaky. Believe it or not, this was one of the first videos I’ve ever bothered to take on my phone.)

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Plumeria outside the hotel. Gorgeous colors!

And last but not least, I discovered a new dessert!  This is butter mochi, brought to my aunt’s house by her friend.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I found a recipe.  Please let me know how it turns out if you make it!

I do miss Hawaii and I can’t believe I let 15 years go by between visits.  I really want to go back and visit my cousins and aunt on Kauai, and lots of other family on Oahu, soon.

Kauai trip

I took a very quick trip to Kauai to visit family a couple of weeks ago.  I hadn’t been since I was a little kid and it was really nice to visit again, even with the crazy intense heat and humidity from the hurricanes.  Kauai is small but beautiful.

One day we drove to Hanalei, over on the north shore.  On the way, we saw the Kilauea Lighthouse, which was unfortunately closed but we could still see it.

And we were treated with seeing actual nene, the Hawaiian goose, which almost went extinct.  I’ve been to Hawaii many times and don’t remember ever seeing one before.

As you go down into the Hanalei Valley, there are beautiful lookout areas

This is the famed Hanalei Valley Lookout, but I actually thought the one above, which was right across the street, had prettier views

There was a mama and baby chicken wandering around

I think the mountain in the middle that’s under the clouds is Mount Waialeale (why-ah-lay-ah-lay), one of the rainiest places on earth, but don’t quote me on that

Right before you get to Hanalei, you cross a one lane bridge, but everyone is polite and takes their turn

It may not seem very Hawaiian, but this is the beautiful Wai’oli Hui’ia church, built in 1834 in the American Gothic style.  It offers services in English and Hawaiian.

It was raining in Hanalei so I didn’t get many other pictures there.

Back in Kapaa on the east side of the island, we saw the Opaeka’a Falls.  My family has to pass by these waterfalls all the time.  What a hard life, right?!

I forgot how many chickens there are wandering all over Hawaii.  They were everywhere! This is the beach near our hotelMore pictures coming soon!

Marin Headlands

Last weekend, I escaped overcast San Francisco and headed to the Marin Headlands for some sun and gorgeous views.  The Marin Headlands are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just over the Golden Gate Bridge and a great place for a scenic drive or hiking.

From Hawk HillLooking toward Rodeo BeachA little picnic on lovely Black Sands BeachEven though it was a beautiful, warm day the beach was almost empty Perhaps because it is a ridiculously steep climb to the beach – this is just the start of the trek back up the hill!  It’s less than half a mile, but it feels a lot longer.  We lingered on the beach for a long time to avoid the walk back.  But it was worth it.

The Point Bonita Lighthouse was unfortunately already closed by the time we drove past, but I did get to see it in the distance from a viewpoint

And more views

Looking toward Rodeo Lagoon and the Headlands Institute Because of its military history, especially during WWII, there are batteries and forts scattered all over.  They don’t really fit in with the beauty of the headlands, but they’re still interesting to see. An obligatory picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from the car. There was bumper to bumper traffic on the way back out so there was plenty of time to take pictures. I had never noticed that one of the trailhead signs included MexicoAfter, we went to Presidio Social Club for dinner, which is in a former barracks building in the Presidio, an old Army base and now a national park.  I had been wanting to try it for a long time and I wasn’t disappointed.  The food was good and it had a nice atmosphere.

I hadn’t been to the Marin Headlands in a really long time and had never been through the part we visited.  Despite the huge summer crowds, it was a fantastic day and great reason to get out of the city.

Lodi wine tasting

The other week I visited Lodi, located in the Central Valley.  You may have heard of it thanks to the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Lodi”.  But believe it or not, Lodi is a cute little town filled with wineries and is a great place to get stuck and spend the day wine tasting.  It’s also way more affordable than Napa or Sonoma.

I like the little arch welcoming you into the downtown area (yes, that is the downtown!).  Built in 1907, the arch is a California Historical Landmark and on the US National Register of Historic Places.

It was a little foggy at one point

One of the wineries we visited was Ripken, which makes many types of wine

And has this fun sculpture of a flying pig

The trees and flowers were blooming and gorgeous

A little kitty said hi to us

We also visited Michael David Winery, which makes a couple of wines that I like – 7 Deadly Zins and a symphony, which is sweeter.  Their tasting room is cute because it also has a cafe, fruit stand, and bakery with yummy pies.

Lodi is a couple of hours or so away from San Francisco and I recommend checking out some of their 40-ish wineries!

Mosaic stairway in San Francisco

San Francisco has many famed stairways, like the Filbert Street steps, which is probably to be expected in a city this hilly.  In the Golden Gate Heights neighborhood on the west side of the city, there’s a beautiful mosaic stairway created as a community art project.  Located on 16th Avenue, the staircase has over 160 steps.

From the ocean to the sky…

Detail of a step

The sun and the moon sections at the top are my favorite parts.

As a reward for climbing up, at the top are beautiful views of the city.  On a clear day, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge to the north.

The big strip of trees in this photo is Golden Gate Park.

And you can see straight down to the ocean.  There are islands out there, believe it or not.  You just can’t see them very often.

Grand View Park is at the top and also offers amazing views of the city.

The stairway is in a residential area and along with the park, is a fun way to spend a couple of hours and watch the sunset.

Santa Cruz day trip

I went down to Santa Cruz with a friend for a very long, but fun day.  I hadn’t been to Santa Cruz in many years and it was great to get back.

First, we hit Natural Bridges State Beach.  Gorgeous!!

I saw this bird walking around the tide pools

  I thought this stone (sandstone?) was pretty Then we headed down West Cliff Drive         At the end was Lighthouse Field State Beach, with a charming lighthouse, of course

The lighthouse now holds the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum

After lunch, we relaxed at the Tea House Spa.  It was lovely to just sit in a hot tub for an hour, although I admit it was way hotter than I expected it to be!  The room looked out over a little backyard area.

After all of this relaxation, we needed some caffeine!  Luckily, there was a great cafe across the street.  Then we shopped around downtown, including the fantastic Bookshop Santa Cruz.  I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of books.  After, we had dinner at 515 Kitchen & Cocktails, which was really cute.  It felt like being in someone’s house because there were couches and cozy chairs everywhere.

It was such a beautiful and restful day.  I hope I get the chance to visit there again soon because there was so much more I wanted to see!

Berkeley field trip

My friend and I both love Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck buildings, two local architects whose work basically spans the late 1880s to the 1930s.  Morgan is famous for Hearst Castle and Maybeck is famous for the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

We went over to Berkeley to go to a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try and while we were there, we checked out some Morgan and Maybeck houses in the area.  Both architects designed many houses in Berkeley.  The first set of photos were all taken on Derby Street, and there were even more on just that street alone (11 total)!

This is the only Bernard Maybeck house on Derby

The other side- I love that roof and the deck

His signature quatrefoil

And all of these are by Julia Morgan.

I think this house is really pretty

I don’t love all of the wires coming out of this house, but the upper window is interesting

We also went over to what is considered Bernard Maybeck’s masterpiece, the First Church of Christ, Scientist.  It’s been designated a National Historic Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

They were having a service while we were there, but were kind enough to let us in to take a quick look. We didn’t wander around too much because we didn’t want to disturb anyone.
The main hall is so beautiful.  This cell phone picture definitely doesn’t do it justice.  But, it was sort of sad to see it so empty.

They have proper tours the first Sunday of each month, and I want to go back to see more of it.  And of course, take more pictures!

Napa after the earthquake

You may remember that the lovely and famous Napa suffered from a large 6.0 earthquake on August 24, 2014.  Felt all over the Bay Area, it was the largest quake we’d had around here since Loma Prieta in 1989, and Napa was the hardest hit.  I can assure you, it was quite a shock to feel it at 3:30 am.

I visited Napa in December and maybe this isn’t the timeliest post (grad school has made me very late on a lot of things…), but I wanted to share some photos of Napa’s quaint downtown, which was seriously damaged.  Many of the buildings were historic, and several were red tagged.

A closeup of the cracks in the building above

A poignant message nailed to where a door used to be

It’s hard to see, but the newspaper remains the same as the day of the quake

But, amid all of this, there were still pretty spots that survived.  This block, with a building from 1879, was thriving

And the leaves were changing colors, a rarity around here

Even though these pictures were taken a couple of months after the quake, it’s a reminder that the damage remains for a long time.  I know they are hard at work at cleaning everything up and completing the recovery.  Buildings that were shut down are slowly starting to open.  Hopefully by the end of spring, nearly everything will be back to its former self!