2008 July 26 - Princeton-by-the-Sea

2008 July 26 - Princeton-by-the-Sea
{Click on any picture to view it full sized.}

Today's Ride was not really scheduled. I bought a set of Givi E21 bags from Uwe and decided to ride to the Coast to pick them up. At the same time to ride down to near Half Moon Bay for a bowl of Clam Chowder.

Anyway Uwe lives in Pacifica just up the street from the fanciest Taco Bell in the country.
The Taco Bell restaurant at Pacifica State Beach is rated No. 9 on the Travel Channel's World's Best Fast Food Stops.

Front {Taco Bell photos by Uwe}

Back
Back

Uwe, his wife Rad and I head south from Pacifica on Hwy 1 heading for Princeton-by-the-Sea.
This short 12 mile trip goes over the infamous Devil's Slide:

"Immediately north of Devil's Slide is a stretch of California's State Route 1, famous for closures and landslides, which also is referred to as 'Devil's Slide'. Construction of the road began in 1935 and was completed in 1937, replacing the steep, narrow, and winding Pedro Mountain Road. It is known for the landslides and erosion that often occur during winter storms, sometimes making the road impassable. The first major landslide destroyed much of the road in 1940, and a cycle of building and destruction has prevailed since."

{Wikipedia photo}

We are to meet Red Beard and K. C. at the Princeton Seafood Company. Red Beard is waiting and has a parking spot saved. Just as I arrive the car next to that space leaves. So I park there and now we have two parking spaces. Uwe and Rad arrive and park. Then while we are saving a place for K. C. a rude Harley rider and his ruder pal on a Moto Guzzi from Marin County plow into our parking spots.

The Take-Out window of the restaurant.

The old salt guarding the entrance.

Figuring out the after lunch Ride. Turns out that this was a fruitless exercise since Hwy 1 heading south was a parking lot. The weather was gorgeous. The views along the coast can be spectacular. And were the sight seers out in large numbers today.

Today's Specials. Actually I think they are the Specials everyday.

K. C. and I have the bowl of clam chowder with a 1/2 order of warm sourdough bread. Rad has the same except she only has a cup of chowder. At $6.95 {$2.00 for the bread} this was a pretty good deal.

Uwe has a cup of artichoke soup and a grilled chicken sandwich. Uwe is not a sea food fan.

Someone snapped this photo with my camera as K. C. and I were looking at the map.

Uwe's sandwich.

Red Beard had the fish and chips. It looked good, but I had ridden all this way for a bowl of clam chowder.

After lunch we had a route planned heading south on Hwy 1. Well, that quickly changed as we ran into a 3 mile long line of cars. We can lane split in California, but you need multiple lanes to do this. Hwy 1 is a two lane road here {as well as most of it}. So no lane splitting. We turn around and head north back to Pacifica then up the hill to Skyline Blvd.

It has been quite cool on the Coast. As we are now riding the spine of the Coastal Range it is becoming quite warm. We stop to remove some gear and figure where to next. But we are very near the route to the San Mateo Bridge. So Red Beard and I bid our farewells and head back to Fremont and Stockton, respectively.

That is Uwe's new to him 1998 BMW R1200C in the foreground.

Red Beard and my 1999 Cardinal Red Triumph Legend with the new to me Givi bags. One of the bags I was using took a ride down the highway when I did a poor job of snapping it in place.

You can view K. C. photos of the rest of the Ride at:
K. C. 's photos of todays Ride

After Don, and Red Beard headed home we continued south along
Crystal Springs Reservoir. We stopped at the old Woodside Store
built in 1894. A local place of interest.


After a quick stop at Alice's restaurant, we went west to
San Mateo County Park for ice cream at the park store.

End