Exploring the surroundings: Half Moon Bay and Buck's of Woodside

Half Moon Bay beach

A wonderful day along the Pacific ocean, going to Half Moon Bay and around. I've heard that name not a long time ago and I really wanted to go just for that, the beauty of those 3 words together.


Walking south from the beach




Surfer's beach, just North of Half Moon Bay beach,
on Hwy One.

Something tells me that we'll be back here soon.


Mavericks (one half mile from shore)

We walked to the point where one can see mythic Mavericks. Very calm right now, this can change radically during the winter.

"Mavericks is located approximately one-half mile (0.8 km) from shore in Pillar Point Harbor just north of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-By-The-Sea. After a strong winter storm in the northern Pacific Ocean, waves can routinely crest at over 25 feet (8m) and top out at over 50 feet (15m). The break is caused by an unusually-shaped underwater rock formation."



At that same spot last February, at Mavericks surf contest, a rogue wave slammed into the jetty and injured spectators.




Salt Marsh Habitat on the trail to Mavericks



We left Half Moon Bay and decided to go to Woodside on our way back, taking hwy 92 and windy hwy 35. The day was super clear so there was no fog in the thick forest and no "mysterious ambiance", but the drive was still beautiful.

In Woodside we stopped at Buck's for a coffee. The place is covered from floor to ceiling with all sorts of heteroclite objects. The owner, Jamis MacNiven (student activist at Berkeley in the 60's, globe trotter, thinker, reader and writer) was there, Hawaiian shirt and yellow/orange panther printed shorts (I did not take a picture!).
"The restaurant is also my canvas and I have created a somewhat wacky environment of things that take my fancy. Some of the stuff I build, like the 11-foot model of the Airship Macon, or I might find something I can't live without like the Russian space suit I picked up in Moscow recently. Sometimes people give me things such as the training module that NASA used to whip the monkeys into shape for their trip into space in the early 60's. I just acquired a collection of 700 Cracker Jack prizes from 1905 to 1930. They represent the total consumption of that estimable product by Gladdis Eammes during those years." Jamis MacNiven










Buck's Of Woodside
3062 Woodside Road
Woodside, CA 94062
(650) 851-8010