Thurs: Coastal Conquest, San Francisco to Santa Cruz

this morning greeted us with cooler morning temps & that famous SF fog...

originally, we had planned to leave from Pacifica... 

but yesterday it was decided that we would leave from Alameda,

then take the Bart into SF & ride out from there...  

the first 20minutes was misery for me... I was so cold

SO COLD

so cold that I wanted to hit all stoplights in the city...

because at standstill I could collapse over my bike, huddle myself into a ball & dream of warm, sandy beaches...

however, you also must know, that over the course of our entire ride, this was the only time I can ever remember being cold :)

in fact, we were beyond blessed with incredibly, amazing weather on this trip...

the boys were nice & we stopped in to grab a coffee... ♥

by the time we left our toe up, all was right in the world once again...

for about 1 mile...

where we reached "crazy-dangerous, steep hill"

that is not "crazy, dangerous..."

but "crazy-dangerous," if you get my drift...

our Highway1 route narrowed into 2 itty-bitty lanes...
walled by steep cliffs on both sides...

the already narrow section was also under construction...

with no shoulder & no bike lane...

super, SUPER narrow...

& did I mention STEEP?

2 trucks almost ran me off the road...

the garbage truck almost did me in...

on the bright side, this ended up being the scariest stretch of the entire 400mile ride...

done.  over.  behind us :)

plus, at the top, we got our first view of the ocean :) :) :)

@ Half Moon Bay we had our first meetup our beloved SAG crew... bless them...

do you know what SAG stands for? no?  us either... till we googled it...

SAG = support and gear

Matt: aka: "Stephan (pronounced ste-fahn) the navigator"...

& how could we forget Homer, the homeless man... :/

I think you can barely make him out in this next pic-he 's behind Matt...

I confess, I didn't take another picture of our ride today... :/

but I can tell you the coastline was beautiful...

there were fields overflowing with yellow flowers...

& canopies of redwoods to ride beneath...
Highway1 "gone country," if you will ;)

then, all at once,

the fog lifted,

& our scenic country road gave way to unbelievable, panoramic ocean views :) :) :)

the sun shone

the ocean sparkled & danced

we were almost to Davenport...

the sign said we only had 12 miles to go...

20miles later.... ?!? we were sitting with our SAG crew @ Davenport Roadhouse 

enjoying it's charming, old-CA look & feel... and lunch!

from there we cruised on into Santa Cruz :)

today's total mileage:  75.2!


We spent a lovely evening at the Santa Cruz pier...

enjoyed a yummy seafood dinner @ Stagnaro Bros, located on the outer end of the Wharf...

♥ that oceanfront view...

& the colors of tonight's sunset...

a lovely beginning :) to our Coastal Conquest...