Back in March, my coworker told me his wife surprised him with a stay at a hostel by the Point Montara Lighthouse. I was immediately fascinated by the idea and got Sam just as excited! After we looked at the available weekends, I realized that the only weekend we could make it work was July 11-12, so we reserved spots! The initial plan was to head to Half Moon Bay or San Francisco early on July 11 and be on the beach during sunset, stay the hostel, and take our time heading home the next day. A couple weeks ago, though, Sam got an email from one of his friends, inviting us to join them for a weekend at Discovery Bay on the same weekend. After looking at distances, we decided we could do both!

So Friday night, we left work and drove east to Discovery Bay… which is this bizarre town where they made a bunch of canals so that every house is on the water. We arrived just in time for dinner, delicious turkey burgers with grilled pineapple, and played a round of Formula D (a racing board game) that ended up taking quite a while because there were so many people! The next morning we woke up, I made banana pancakes and then we just chilled. There was a lot of guitar/ukelele playing, lots of sitting around in the shade with a cold drink, some paddleboarding and kayaking, and just a lot of relaxing in general.

I’ve been meaning to try video-ing more because as much as I love photos, there’s something special about videos! So I ended up spending a lot of the time with my Mark III in video mode and trying very hard to hold still 😉 I think I got pretty good at it by the end of the weekend, actually! Here’s a video of our time in Discovery Bay. Picking the background music was definitely the hardest part! SongFreedom has so many choices.

I wanted to make it to Point Montara in time for sunset, but I knew we had to grab dinner first, so we ended up leaving Discovery Bay at around 4, with a quick pit stop at Starbucks for a green tea frappuchino… we got a little hooked on them in Seattle! Our original plan was to stop at Barbara’s Fishtrap for some fish and chips, but the large number of people waiting outside caused us to abandon our plans and head to the nearby Princeton Seafood Company… I have to say, I do /not/ recommend Princeton Seafood Company. The food and service were both only average, though we did get seated immediately, which was the important part! I was keeping an eye on the sun and was in a bit of a hurry to finish dinner.

We got to the lighthouse and checked in at the hostel because it looked like we still had an hour or so of daylight! We dropped our stuff off in the room and then headed straight for the secluded beach and cliffs right by the lighthouse, with tripod and camera in hand, of course! Look how incredibly stunning the view was!

Sam has been playing around with cameras for his startup, and he’s started really enjoying taking my camera from me and taking random photos. For some reason I can’t quite understand, he prefers to use manual focus… and I think he’s actually better at it than I am! Haha!

I managed to forget my remote, which usually isn’t a huge deal because I just use the timer on the camera… but it was definitely an issue here because I had to run down the path in my Tieks to try to get into the photo in time! In the first photo you can see that I didn’t manage to make it, so after that, Sam took over the running back and forth part! Best boyfriend ever 😉

There was also a cool little bridge thing to let a bit of a creek flow down to the beach, so I grabbed a few photos there as well. In that second to last photo, I actually almost knocked both of us over while I was running! Oops!

I wanted to play a little with my Edge 80, so here are a few shots. I really do need to ask Sam for the photos from his iPhone so I can share the ‘behind the scenes’ 🙂

Since I had my tripod out, I figured I might as well take a couple of long exposures as well! The sun had pretty much set by this point! I kind of love the blue hour light.

This is actually one that Sam took! Long exposure with the lighthouse in there too.

It was getting pretty dark by then, so we headed back to the hostel and put on some warmer clothes. We spent a little time sitting by the lighthouse and star-gazing, then headed to bed. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the sunset without needing to drive back to the South Bay in the dark!

We woke up the next morning to an absolutely stunning view and decided to head farther down the rocks to the tidepools instead of the beach. I was still in my Tieks and a dress, so I was a little more cautious and hung back from the water. Sam was, as usual, more adventurous and got a little wet at the very end when a wave splashed over his shoe! But hey, we got some cool photos, so I imagine he thought it was worth it.

We wrapped up our stay with a quick photo in front of the lighthouse and then headed into Half Moon Bay to grab some lunch! We ended up going back to Barbara’s Fishtrap and were there ten minutes after opening. The fish and chips and zucchini tempura were AMAZING! Seriously incredible. If I am in Half Moon Bay, I am so going back. It even inspired me to write my first Yelp review, haha! Anyhow, it was the perfect way to wrap up the weekend. We made it back to the South Bay at around 1PM, hopped in the pool for a swim, and had time to relax before the work day.