Birthday Report!

So last Saturday I turned 28, and because the conditions up in Tahoe were pretty bad, we decided to stay in town and beach it instead.

Earl got us three-hour surf lessons and we spent the morning surfing at Linda Mar beach.  Both of have surfed a few times before, but neither of us have had any formalized instruction and are only at the point where we can paddle out and stand on the board coming in.  No turning.  So the lesson was hitting all the basics and also informative on learning how to read the waves, where to go, when to go, etc.  I now feel knowledgeable enough to go out on my own and not get killed.

Post surfing, we picked up sandwiches from the outrageously good Colombo’s deli in Pacifica and headed to Grey Whale Cove for a picnic lunch. I had the tomaso’s which is turkey, melted cheddar and swiss, and bacon on sourdough with mayo, lettuce and tomato.  Earl had the club house- ham, turkey, bacon, swiss and american on Dutch Crunch.  I’d never heard of Dutch Crunch bread before, but HOT DAMN was it good!

freaking amazing sandwiches from colombos

tomaso’s special from colombos:

i am addicted to this sandwich

our picnic

picnickers

here is the view from our picnic site

Grey Whale Cove beach

May I pleeeeease have a bite of your sandwich? comeon, just one bite. comeon, a little chomp. just one chomp. look at how cute i am! don’t i deserve a bite?

gimme some of your freaking sandwich. how can you deny this face?

The stairs leading down to Grey Whale Cove. You can see part of Devil’s Slide area over on the right. It’s a very common landslide area as I’m sure you can tell!

stairs leading to the beach

spotted this little guy near the stairs

wasn't even afraid of linus! i think he thought he was camouflaged

Linus is a weirdo. He puts his snout in the sand for who-knows what reason. Then it gets all sandy and I get worried he is getting sand up his nostrils.

sandy nose

We sat and read and hung out on the beach for an hour or so before continuing on down the coast.
Path leaving Grey Whale Cove. Can you spot the surfer who broke his board? It’s apparently a bit of a trouble spot for surfing. Big waves, but rocky and sharks. I thought this comment on a surfing website was amusing:

General Consensus: This spot is good if u dont mind being alone in sharky waters on a heavy powerful wave that can kick your ass.

surfer with broken board

Needless to say, E and I are NOT good enough to surf Grey Whale Cove yet, so we are just there to enjoy the sand!
The rest of my birthday was a leisurely afternoon cruising down the Cabrillo Highway (CA-1) and stopping to check out cute coastal towns and of course take in the beach views. Our final destination was Duarte’s, a “California coastal instition” (per chowhound) in Pescadero, where we had dinner reservations.
Here’s the view of San Gregoria State Beach. Stunning.

Just beautiful

We lingered on this bench sharing kisses for quite a while

peaceful bench

There were some neat plants growing near that bench. They kinda look like cactus, but have no prickers and yield lovely pink flowers:

neat mystery plants

a closeup of the plants and flowers:

anyone know what type of plant?

of course linus joined us on the bench

i am the luckiest girl

We went and toured Pigeon Point lighthouse (we were considering camping on the beach here for the night, although couldn’t really find the right spot).

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

I witnessed my first sunset over the Pacific (wouldn’t this be a beautiful shot if there were no cars or powerlines in the way!)

sunset behind trees

It was kind of neat at Pigeon Point- all of these people had driven over here to watch the sun sink over the ocean. We went and stood by the shore and spread along the waterline were many, many couples hugging and holding hands as they watched it set. Kind of unifying, in an odd way. Don’t go there to watch the sunset if you are single. You’ll feel left out without someone to smooch!

not a bad sunset

Finally, it was to Duarte’s for dinner. Duartes is one of those places where you get the feel that if you were a Pescadero local and ate there ALL they time, they would love you. In fact, we watched on in minor aggravation as ALL the people who knew the bartender repeatedly got served before us. The food was good, however I don’t know if it’s worth the drive alone. If you’re going down that way for the view and the trip, I’d say stop in, but not a stand-alone kinda place. The highlights of the meal were the cream of green chile soup and the WONDERFUL olallieberry pie

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olallieberry pie- superb

Happy birthday to meee