Working on That Bucket List

My 30th birthday is just a couple of weeks away and as many of you faithful blog readers know, I created a "30 before 30" bucket list of adventures to complete before entering a new decade in my life.  Time is winding down, but I've put a pretty big dent in my list and this weekend, I checked off one more item.  Before we get to that, let me back up a bit...

Lately Mike has been wanting a camper shell for the bed of his truck.  Well, he found a good deal on one and agreed to drive to Fremont, CA to pick it up.  He asked if I would join him for the drive and we decided to make a whole weekend out of it.  Saturday morning I woke up early and took the dog for a run before dropping him off with friends in North Lake.  Then, we hit the highway for Fremont.  After picking up the new addition, we headed for the coast... Santa Cruz to be exact.

THE TRUCK BEFORE (WITH LOTS OF RACKS)

LAST WEEK (MINUS THE RACKS WHICH WERE SOLD)

THE TRUCK NOW

We've been to Santa Cruz once before... we ate dinner on the pier right along all the action of the boardwalk.  So we decided to skip all that touristy stuff on this visit. Instead, we opted to drive North on the Cabrillo Highway (aka US 1) along the coast up to San Francisco.  We stopped at a lot of the beaches along the way.  

Looking toward the boardwalk in Santa Cruz...

LOTS OF SURFERS

Beautiful wildflowers grow in the salty air...

 And there are always lots of sea lions around.

SANTA CRUZ SURFING MUSEUM

 We made a quick stop at Natural Bridges State Park:

 Then headed up the coast where we ALMOST missed this super little spot.  It's around the area of Bonny Doon Beach and it was almost impossible to see from the road.  We both happened to catch a glimpse of it with enough time to pull the truck over into the little unmarked parking area.  We ended up spending a lot of time here because it was just so beautiful.  

DEFINITELY A HIDDEN GEM

 You could hike down to the beach but we opted just to walk around the cliffs (bluffs?).  The views were spectacular. 

 It was cloudy and overcast for most of the day but that kept the temperature down.  

PIGEON POINT LIGHTHOUSE

We stopped in Half Moon Bay for dinner.  We deliberated (for way too long) between Barbara's Fishtrap Restaurant and Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. but opted for the Brewing Company which had live music and an equally good view of the water.  We split a steamy bowl of New England clam chowder in a San Francisco sourdough bread bowl... and the crispy cod fish tacos.  Both were delicious!  The fish tacos came with the biggest piece of fish I've ever seen.  You couldn't even wrap the tortilla around it!  Of course, being at a brewery, we sampled a few of their beverages as well.  

Once we were sufficiently stuffed with comforting seafood, we headed out to Pillar Point, better known as the location of Mavericks.  

LOOKING BACK ON HALF MOON BAY.
HALF MOON BAY BREWERY IS NEAR THOSE SAILBOAT MASTS.

THE TRAIL TO PILLAR POINT HAS LOTS OF WILDFLOWERS
AND BUNNIES. 

 Have you heard of Mavericks?  There are lots of surfing competitions there when the waves are breaking, which is usually in the winter.  The ocean floor changes from hundreds of feet deep to only about 20 feet deep due to a large reef.  When storms blow in from the northwest, it sets up a series of HUGE waves.  I mean, HUGE!!!  

Here are some pics of Mavericks... 

PICTURE IS BORROWED FROM http://www.justinbuzzard.net/2010/02/12/
mavericks-surf-contest-green-light-for-tomorrow/

PICTURE BORROWED FROM DAILYSTOKE.COM.

This is what Mavericks looked like while we were there: 

 It was a beautiful area, but definitely no big waves.  We have already talked about going back for a visit during the winter to try and witness the mighty power of the ocean.  It's amazing and baffling that people are able to surf something so powerful.  

Shortly after our stop at Mavericks, the sun disappeared and it was time to find a place to stay for the night.  Thanks to the Hotel Tonight app (which has helped us out more than once in San Francisco), we found a decently cheap hotel near the airport.  Despite being directly beside a highway... and an airport... our room was extremely quiet and the black out curtains and king sized bed allowed us a pretty good night's sleep.  

Sunday morning, we turned to our trusty smart phones to help us find the "best breakfast in San Francisco."  Apparently, that is Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  There was a line out the door and around the corner.  Naturally, we jumped in our place at the end of the line and waited almost an hour before we were seated.  

The wait is actually not too bad because, well, it's San Francisco and (how do I put this nicely?), it's full of crazies!  Our wait was kind of entertaining.  A girl in line ahead of us (clearly still drunk from the night before), puked.  A random guy came up to the couple in front of us YELLING something about genocide in Romania in Y2KX????  I mean, it was all pretty entertaining and it definitely helped pass the time.  

The actual restaurant is adorable.  Old wood floors, thick granite countertops with seating, rustic little bistro tables, high vaulted ceilings and lots of OLD trinkets around.  Happily, I can report that we both felt the food was totally worth the wait!  

Mike got a biscuit with fried egg, avocado, prosciutto, and provolone, which comes with homefries and fruit.  I got a whiskey fennel sausage scramble with spinach and mushrooms which comes with a side of homefries and jalapeno cornbread with jalapeno jelly.  Wow.   

I should also mention... the portions are HUGE!  And I ate all of it except approximately 7-8 bites which I simply couldn't fit inside my body.

I don't often take pictures of my food, but I made an exception this time.  

MIKE'S BREAKFAST... THAT IS A LEGIT BISCUIT (and I can judge a biscuit). 

I LOVE JALAPENO JELLY ON JALAPENO CORNBREAD... WHO KNEW?

While waiting on our food we read reviews of Dottie's and one of the most reviewed and recommended items is their coffee cake... so....

...obviously we HAD to get a piece to go!  Can you believe that coffee cake?  Covered in cinnamon streusel and icing.  That is my idea of heaven for sure.  

We waddled out of Dottie's and headed to Fisherman's Wharf.  Our favorite part of San Fran.  But this time, since we didn't have the dog, we were able to hop on a historic cable car so I could cross that item OFF the bucket list!!!!  Woohoo!  

 The cable car dropped us off in Union Square and rather than ride back to Fisherman's Wharf, we decided to walk the ~3 miles back to the truck (we did have a LOT of extra calories to burn off).  

I HEART SAN FRANCISCO!!!

 It was another great trip to San Fran.  I love that we can just drive a few hours to the coast AND we can enjoy such an awesome BIG city.  But I love, love, LOVE, coming back to the clean air of Tahoe.  We took the scenic route home via Donner summit.  We stopped at a little spot overlooking Donner lake and we devoured the coffee cake and fruit.  Every single bite was delicious of course, and the view made it taste even better.  

DONNER LAKE

 Finally, we picked up the dog and headed for home.  He enjoyed being able to ride in the back of the truck with lots of space to roam around, and we didn't have to worry about him.  We are already putting this camper shell to good use! 

Next weekend I will hopefully be able to cross off at least 1 more item on the bucket list.  And the weekend after that (my birthday weekend), I'm HOPING to knock off one more item!  It's crunch time though.  Only 14 more days until the "1st anniversary of my 29th birthday!!!"