4/9/2016 – 4/10/2016
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to make the drive up to San Francisco. Megan had a CME conference to attend beginning at 8 am. She was scheduled to spend the morning learning about the lungs and kidneys, while I planned to explore a bit and drink coffee.
When finished with the training, we met up for lunch at Sushirito, a local chain serving up ‘sushi burritos’. This place had been recommended to me and was good, but not deserving of more than two sentences on a blog or something.
We haven’t spent much time up in the city since moving to CA, so Megan had suggested we check out the Ferry Building and Cable Car Museum. The Cable Cars especially were the highlight for me. I was expecting a show museum of stationary old cars, so was surprised to find the motor house driving the cars still in use throughout the city. There were some very interesting signs describing the history of the main inventor, and the changes in the system throughout the city’s history. We had ridden on a cable car when in town for our honeymoon so it was cool to learn more about this unique transportation system.
After an afternoon caffeine boost, we headed North from the city across the Golden Gate. Our plan was to find a place to camp along the Coast, then surf near Bodega Bay on Sunday. Knowing there wouldn’t be easy, established camping in the area, we had planned to travel light and sleep in the Element for the night. This meant no stove or campfire, so we stopped in Point Reyes Station for some deli counter chicken noodle soup before continuing on to find a good ‘campsite’. Just a few minutes North of town we lucked out and found a great spot by Tomales Bay where we ate dinner and ended up spending a peaceful night with good views and lots of bird activity. While relaxing that evening we spent a while discussing how busy and noisy life in San Jose seems to be, and we were both feeling recharged by the good scenery and clean air. Our night in the Element went much better than the first attempt in Tahoe. This time we were sans air mattress and this actually provided more room and meant we weren’t sinking down toward the middle of a deflating airbag all night.
The following morning we hit the road and made it up to Bodega Bay and Salmon Creek around 11 am for some surfing. Up to this point, most of our wave riding career has been spent in the friendly waters of Santa Cruz. The South facing Surf City (aka Santa Cruz) has countless beginner friendly breaks rolling in within the confines of the sheltered Monterey Bay. I’m no ocean expert but I’m guessing this means that much of the turbulence and power of the Pacific is filtered out to some extent and the water has time to warm in the shallow water. Salmon Creek on the other hand faces West, straight out into the Pacific and we felt the difference. The water felt 10 degrees colder, even in our wet suits and the currents were very powerful. Add in a strong breeze and it made for challenging conditions for us. Once, while paddling in, Megan was blindsided by a wave that rose from nowhere and actually broke on her at a full 90 degrees relative to the wave she was trying to catch in toward the beach.
We both were having trouble in the rough conditions so after a while out there we called it and spent some time collecting sand dollars which we spotted being tossed around right under a big shore break wave. We each got a few prime specimens and called it a day.
And here is a cheesy movie we made with Megan’s new iPad