If you enlarge the pictures, you can see some of the houses built right on the cliff's edge.
From the coast, the narrow winding highway goes past Tomales Bay, and to Inverness.
I went on to Bolinas, a curious little town just across a lagoon and estuary from Stinson Beach, a more well-known locale to Bay Area residents. My family moved here in 1959-60, and I went to school in a two-room schoolhouse for 8th grade. It burned down in the early 80's, but a duplicate was built on the site.
Bolinas was the part-time home to Richard Brautigan, and in his time fabled occurances happened, such as he and Montanan Thomas McGuane having a fly casting contest, and the looser having to walk the length of town sans trousers. It's were he also shot numerous television sets, and himself. It became a legend of sorts in the 60's and early 70's as a haven for hippies and anarchists.
While living here, I was friends with a classmate, Wayne McKenney, 'Mickey', as we called him. He drowned in an unfortunate accident in May, just before we finished 8th grade. I've been back several times over the years to his grave, in a nice graveyard behind the small catholic church just north of town.
I've visited his grave several times over the years, starting in the 1970's. Mickey's parents are long-gone, his only sibling, an older sister lived in Bellingham. I talked to her once on the phone in the late 1980's, and her memories were either dimmed or she didn't want to rouse them. I think I understood, and never called her again. His grave is beneath hundred-plus year old eucalyptus trees, and quiet. It's as good as place as any, I suppose. He missed a lot, though.
I had stopped on the way down at Hog Island Oyster farm, and in Pt. Reyes at the Cowgirl Creamery. And there happened to be a bakery nearby.
Dinner was simple fare....
We vagabonds are simple folk, and a brace of oysters, a local triple-cream and asagio cheese, with a crusty bread will do us fine.
As much as I love to cook elaborate meals, I am also a HUGE fan of dinners just like that one.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to live near the ocean, but that first photo has convinced me to not live right at the edge!
ReplyDeleteYour meal looks superb, just the sort of thing road trips are best known for. I've never gotten the hang of eating oysters raw, but that loaf of bread would go very well with a stew made of those oysters. The life of a vagabond has its allures, to be sure!