This is first time I was visiting Bay Area during summers (September), otherwise most of the times I have visited California in chilling winters. Both seasons offer interesting experiences and this time I was more excited because of the change. Weekdays were pretty hectic, although I could plan some interesting things during the weekends. Thanks to all friends who could take out time and helped me experiencing different things this time. During one of the weekends, Arun drove me to Twin Peaks which offers brilliant views of San Francisco city, Devil’s Slide Bunker, Gray Whale Cove Beach, Pacifica Beach, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company for late lunch and then State Beach. This post shares about this brilliant one day itinerary around Bay area in California. Do check and don't forget to share your inputs through comments below.
We started our drive from Fremont and it was interesting to see good amount of traffic on saturday morning. During the drive we were discussing this traffic and how traffic situation is getting worse in bay area. I was comparing it with Delhi-NCR but scale is certainly different. Lot of folks are coming to these commercial hubs and infra is not upgrading at same pace, which certainly leads to such issues of traffic jams. It seems highway 101 is popular for bad traffic during weekday and especially during morning & the evening time.
After a good drive, we reached Twin Peaks where it's a little difficult to find parking during weekends. And on top of that, it's advised to not keep any valuables inside the car. It seems bad elements keep around this place and they don't hesitate to break glass windows to take out stuff from cars. Views from Twin Peaks were amazing. We didn't climb to both the peaks but view from one peak was enough for us to appreciate the positioning of these hills to offer brilliant views of San Francisco City.
After walking around the twin peaks we started our drive towards Half Moon Bay and there were plenty of places where I wanted Arun to stop the car. Interestingly that's possible on this highway as there are various parking spots on the way. Above photograph is clicked near Tom Lantos Tunnels. There are 2 parking areas near this tunnel and if you go close to the shores, you get brilliant views of the ocean like what you see in above photograph.
Here is one of my photographs from Half Moon Bay drive and it's clicked brilliantly by Arun. This one is again clicked around Tom Lantos Tunnels.
When we stopped here, we could also bee Devil's Slider bunker at a distance. Some of the folks were hiking to the peak where this bunker is located. We were tempted to hike but at the same time, we wanted to continue our drive and explore some of the beaches around this highway. This highway is considered as one of the most beautiful highways in America.
Throughout of the drive, I noticed hundreds of folks fishing around the beaches in Half Moon Bay. Initially I was wondering how they are catching fish in these fast moving waves and at times they are destructive. But interestingly these guys catch good amount of fish and I saw this girl catching a big one. She was putting her catch in a bucket and once this bucket was blew away by these ocean waves. And it seems one of the fish went back into the bay.
After a while we hit Half Moon Bay Airport and there are some fancy restaurants in this area. Arun took me to a place called 'Half Moon Bay Brewing Company'. I loved sea food at this place, beer we tried was average. Do check out more about my experience of this place here.
Half Moon Bay Boat club is just next to the restaurant we visited for lunch. Above photograph was clicked from one of the pier near Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. This place was also full of people doing fishing around the bay. After a quick walk around this place, we headed towards State Beach in Half Moon Bay. Supposedly this is most popular beach on this stretch. One thing to notice is that parking is paid near this beach and it costs you $10. There is enough parking on the main road if you don't space here, which is a common scenario during the weekends. We were not sure about the parking scene, so found a good parking slot on main road and walked towards the beach from there.
We saw lot of folks biking around the coast and some of them were with kids. There is a road parallel to the coast but some of the stretches are rough as well. I assume that these guys were pro and knew well how to take care of thier kids while riding through rough patches.
We walked around the chilled water of Half Moon Bay State Beach. This beach is usually full of families doing barbecue parties and playing games. Very close to the beach, there is a camping ground where you can book some space by paying fees. I am not sure what the fees is. Apart from that there are few tables laid out, along with barbecue stations, but most of the folks bring their own barbecue accessories. Now it was time to head back, buy some beer and do party at home.
On our way back towards Fremont, I noticed that state is already preparing for Halloween. I have heard a lot of Halloween parties but never experienced. Hope I get a chance to attend one of those crazy halloween parties in Bay area. May be next year :).
It was dark when we reached Fremont. Visited BevMo store and picked one bottle of Woodford Reserve.
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It was a day very well spent around Twin Peak and Half Moon Bay. I highly recommend this drive if you have a day in Bay area and a car to drive around. And of-course Arun was best company I had for the day. This would be one of the most memorable day for me during 3 weeks trip to Bay Area.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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