Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Half Moon Bay, and back to the City

After my ridiculous experience in San Francisco, I decided to head south to Half Moon Bay; A quiet little coastal town about 30 miles south of San Francisco. The drive down was beautiful, since I was inland. 80 degrees and sunny, until I headed west. The big hills had once again caught all the clouds and kept 'em hanging. It was cold and wet, as I had expected. Crap. My plans of laying on the beach were toast... wet, soggy toast that had been sitting out for quite some time. Oh well, this isn't new for the pacific coast.

Arriving in town with a dead phone and a craving for caffeine, I ended up in Starbucks. Gross, I know.. but it's easy to take advantage of the stores power outlets. Little did I know, but the blonde girl that asked me about my bag would be my tour-guide/entertainment for the entire next day.

She had suggested this little pub that her family was having a party at the next day, so I decided to go there, but not before stopping at the local brewery, listening to some crazy good sax player in a bad band, and having a beer. I show up to this pub, and hear this crazy strong beat coming from the back room. Venturing closer revealed a little tiny bar, lit up with blacklights, and 2 people at the bar. Ugh..another bland night, I thought. The bartender looked to be maybe 18 years old and was oddly bubbly for no one being at the bar (the two people were actually her friends she had invited in to keep her company). She gets me a beer, and I slowly drink it to kill the time. 30 minutes pass, two people show up.. another 5 people roll in within a 30 minute time frame after that. Before long, it's like every young person in the town just fell into Cameron's Pub...and they all knew the bartender. Here I was, the stranger with a backpack amongst a bunch of locals. They loved it. Let's just say, I left that bar nicely drunk without paying for a single thing... as did everyone else. Score. A night's sleep in some tall grass was welcoming.

The next day I perform my normal morning routine, and wonder if Ashley (the blonde girl at starbucks) was going to actually invite me to this family gathering she had mentioned semi-awkwardly the day before. It wasn't long 'til I got the text, and headed over. My first impression: Lots of older folk with balloon hats and children running around. Ugh. What did I get myself into? Instead of being rude and leaving, I decided to stick around for a bit. The churchy band played a few bad covers, with amazing instruments and gear, and I quickly found and destroyed a bunch of food. Delicious hotdogs and beans! Next thing I know, I'm playing horseshoes and baseball with Ashley's nieces and nephews. I was actually having fun. After the little ones scampered off, Ashley and I just wandered around Cameron's Pub, finding games to play and beers to drink. She rocked me with a perfect 32 throw to win a game of darts... I'll admit defeat when it was that amazing. 20-9-3. Ugh. We had a few more drinks throughout the afternoon while buming around the london double decker-turned cigar lounge, and talking to an irish nerdy guy drinking wine. All in all it was a pleasant day. Once again, a night in the tall grass.

The next day wasn't too eventful, but the day after that I had a great conversation with yet another girl in Starbucks (Do all the interesting girls in Half Moon Bay live in Starbucks?!). Her name was Jackie, and at first I had thought she was a total business professional, due to her nice conservative outfit and the stack of papers being scrambled between punching numbers into her netbook. I was wrong, thankfully. (Yes, it was a total superficial first impression, but in a way to contrast my appearance to hers) She turned out to be really interested in what I was doing, since it was something she had thought about many times before. I hope she left that coffee shop understanding that it IS possible to do things some will deem "crazy", as long as you have the willpower.

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