Recently,
Maverick’s Invitational, the world’s premier big wave surf contest, took place
south of San Francisco in the town of Half Moon Bay. We didn’t make it to the day of the contest,
but we did drive to Half Moon Bay the day before. However, we ended up turning around because
the traffic jam in town was simply crazy!
We had done
this hike before on a cloudy/foggy day and had totally loved it. The very steep
climb up the mountain is great exercise, and the second half of the hike, going
down, makes for a great time to relax, chat and enjoy the views of the ocean.
Of course, because of the fog, the first time we were not able to see much of
the scenery around us.
As we went
up, we could see the town of Pacifica, Mount Diablo and even the Golden Gate
bridge up in the distance!
While on the
hike we also saw huge ripples on the water. When you are up 1,800 feet, the
huge waves in the ocean looked like ripples, giving the water a very
interesting texture and live. The waves were big but they were only going to
get bigger for the next day’s surf tournament.
The first
time we hiked Montara, flowers were blooming. This time, we only saw very few
flowers, but we saw lots of moss. Moss, with its fun and unique texture, color
and shapes, make up for great photos and for great photo editing as well.
Back down at
the parking lot after a bit over 3 hours and with an exhausted dog, we jumped on
the car and drove south towards Half Moon Bay to look for a place to eat lunch.
When we
arrived to Half Moon Bay, the line of cars was too long and this was when we
decided to head back and look elsewhere for a place to grab some fish tacos to
go. While on the hunt for tacos, we found a Mexican/Peruvian restaurant in
Pacifica called El Toro Loco (http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-toro-loco-pacifica-2).
I couldn’t resist it, so we stopped there for lunch (one things I LOVE about
CA, you can just stumble upon Peruvian restaurants, just like that!).
After lunch,
we headed into the town of Pacifica, where we walked back and forth on the
beach boulevard, watching gigantic waves crash on the pier, the shore and far
in the ocean. I don’t think I have ever seen bigger waves than these.
We watched
the waves for an hour or more. The sun was still shining and we were having a
blast trying to capture the magnitude of these walls of crashing water as they
rolled into Pacifica beach.
After hiking
up the mountain, we were happy to just sit down and relax, enjoying the view,
the sun and the energy of the people around us as well as the uniqueness of every
single wave coming in.
Even though
we didn’t go to the tournament, we got a good preview of what the waves must
have looked like then. Maybe next year we’ll go…
At the end
of our day in Pacifica, I had over 300 photos to choose from for my blog and
for my Etsy store! I love days like that.
This past
Sunday we also went on a daytrip to St. Helena, a cute town in Napa Valley, to
go meet the artist that had made a painting based on my photograph of a door in
Chinatown. I wish I’d had taken more
photos during our daytrip to St. Helena, but I did capture a very magical
moment during our drive back to San Francisco.
And that was
our weekend. Today is another warm day and we are going to head out to enjoy
the sun very soon! I guess I shouldn’t
complain about it being cold here because, after all, we do get days in the 60s
in the middle of wintertime!
I hope you
enjoy this week’s photos. For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola
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