Bay Area, 17-Jul
We headed out to the coast of the San Francisco Peninsula for the day, doing a walk along Half Moon Bay and looking at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.
Having gotten up pretty early for several days in a row, it was nice to sleep in a bit. The goal for the morning was to do laundry. There was an app that you use to pay for the machines. It was a bit wonky, as sometimes I needed to retry to get the payment to be received so we could start the machines. We did two loads, but only the last dryer load gave me a notification that it was done. In the end, it worked fine, but next time I would probably pay directly on the machine.
Half Moon Bay
After everything was done, we drove over the foothills to Half Moon Bay. We arrived around lunchtime, so we found a café and had some quiche. As we were finishing up, we started hearing a piano. We hadn't even noticed the piano on the way in. The man played a couple of pieces, and since we would have had to use only one tablet for duet scores, we didn't play after he was done.
We then got back in the car to drive to the coast, and started walking along a coast trail. We saw a lot of wildflowers in addition to the coastal views. We also saw a lot of golfers, since the path went through the Half Moon Bay Golf Links. The last couple of holes were right along the coast, with the tee and green being separated by a cove, so you would have to place the ball pretty well so it didn't end up in the water.
At one point there was a set of stairs going down to the beach, so we did that and walked on the sand for a while. We went back up to the trail, and took it as far south as it went before turning around and returning to the car.
When we were at the café, we happened to park in front of a gelato store, so we returned after our walk and even got the same parking spot. The gelato was great, and the owner was very chatty and good with banter. While serving the group before us, one woman asked for a waffle cone. He explained that the waffle cones were very delicate, so he normally gives the customer the gelato in a cup and then gives the cone separately. The woman started to put the gelato into the cone, but he asked her to do that outside. A couple of minutes later, we heard an, "I did it!" from outside.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse
Having had our gelato, we drove down to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. The actual lighthouse is undergoing renovation, but you could still see most of it. We took a look at the exhibits, then walked around the grounds. Once again, we saw beach access, so we went down. After finishing up, we realized we were supposed to see a shipwreck. We did eventually find it within the construction zone.
On the way back to our room, we stopped by Japantown San Jose for dinner. There was a special of unagi don (grilled eel over rice) with soup, salad, and fried stuffed tofu; it was an easy choice to order.
Having finished dinner, we got back to the room to finish planning for the next day.
