Well, we drove up Highway 1 last weekend with the intention of doing the Bodega Bay Head Trail, but in my mind, I got my "B's" confused and navigated ourselves to Bolinas instead of Bodega. So, we decided that fate forced us a little detour from plans.
Bolinas is a quaint, very small, hyper-liberal town set on the corner where the Pacific Ocean meets a small bay dedicated as a bird sanctuary. The benefits are obvious with pelicans flying by the flock and small shore birds by the thousands. The houses, mostly old Victorians, are all in excellent pristine condition and are obviously the pride of their owners. Paul and I assumed then that this must not be a rental town even though the people seemed more transient than root-setting type. I fantasized that this is where all the hippie code-creating dot-comers came to retire once they sold off their share after going public. Houses here are not cheap - the local real estate office shows they average about $1.2M!!
Bolinas was celebrating the Labor Day weekend with a *big* bar-b-que downtown and were shutting off the main street to traffic so that the Reggae band could set up and locals could dance in the street. The *big* event only brought down a hundred people or so, which is probably most of the town. That didn't dampen, however, the opportunity for locals to display and sell their tie-dye t-shirts and jars of local honey.
We wondered the main street down toward the bay and along Wharf St. where houses were built on stilts to accommodate the ebb and flow of the tide which comes right up under their houses, many of which have docks off their back decks for small powerboats and kayaks. As we made out way west toward the beach, we came across many kayakers going out to ride the surf from the incoming tide. Many fisherpeople studded the beaches while Ava and Tina walked along picking up interesting rocks worn clean through the middle making a hole ideal for crude jewelry. If the girls were older, 5-years or more, this could have made a great moment for arts and crafts.
After making it to the ocean side of the beach at Brighton St., we wandered up the beach access road and back toward town, stopping at numerous blackberry bushes so that the girls could gorge. This whetted our appetite and we decided to sit down to eat at the Coast Cafe, naturally serve wholly organic meals, where they were still serving both breakfast and lunch. They have a nice patio out back and had more than one highchair (believe it or not, this is a usual problem) and we really enjoyed our time there.
After eating, we decided to drive north toward Point Reyes Station and out Sir Francis Drake Blvd back to Highway 101. Driving through Point Reyes is always a treat and going through towns like Olema and Fairfax just reminds us of how unique and picturesque our area is. We are blessed to be so close to it and should adventure out more often!
