Bolinas

The ride to Bolinas was fairly uneventful. Got to experience Humboldt counties finest at the super market in a town called Weed. We decided after a discussion about what people do in Weed is that they smoke pot, grow pot, get married and or knock someone up, have kids who smoke pot, grow pot and so on and so forth the cycle continues. Weird place. Did find a phone booth that brought us some enjoyment though. Found my twin. Hannah also did a spontaneous coffee tasting of the fine brews that Weed had to offer. The one that was warm won.

Exhausted and hungry we landed just outside of Mirror Beach and found a restaurant on the side of the road that was done serving food, but offered us some bread with our wine. Perfect. Talked to the bartender to see if he had any ideas on where to stay the night, as it was still a 40 minute drive to Mt Tem and we were pretty tired. We got two offers on places to crash from other bar patrons that overheard our conversation and were more then willing to help. I was a little on edge as we were the only women in the bar and the offers that were given were as follows. One rolly polly, weirdy beardy was in the leather business and offered us his leather warehouse to stay in. When asked if it was safe he said that he would give us a key to the padlock and I was thinking, ok so you have a spare…scary. I envisioned leather straps and leather smell, no thanks. The other offer was from a video game programmer with a guesthouse that he never uses. Sorry guy, video gamers scare me too. Needless to say that was our cue to leave and so we curved our way to Mt. Tem in the dark and found and camping spot. There was one other tent and unfortunately for them we woke them at our 1:00am poach. We couldn’t help it, for some reason we were giggling as Hannah tried to quietly blow up her air mattress with the electric blower. So loud. I am sure if the next tent had weapons they would of definitely used them on us. There was some sadness the next morning as we realized this was our last poach and last camp of the trip. We will miss it very much.

We took our breakfast to the overlook of Mirror Beach and enjoyed the sights from above. Very beautiful and so close to San Francisco truly amazed site. Small farms and quaint community’s very Topanga actually, but right on the ocean.

There was a fascination with Bolinas the whole trip for Hannah because a friend of her fathers lives there and works writing books about building unique structures around the world. Check out one of his books its called "Shelter", very cool stuff. So we were trying to meet him and she wanted to pick his brain about some ideas that she has. Unfortunately he had to do a book signing but we wanted to see the town anyways. About 45 minutes west of San Francisco, Bolinas is known for being sort of a hippy hotspot and let me tell you it was. Crazy town people that I think are still tripping from the 60’s were walking the streets. Character haven, loved it. Asking our fellow coffee owner what the deal was with a few of the strange wanderers he informed us on the following. Jane, a women that stood maybe about 4’1/2” feet tall, with a questionable brown tar like substance smeared like war paint on her face and equipped with a strange hat woven of newspaper and burlap, had multiple personalities and apparently is minted. Crazy millionaires make me happy. There is more to tell about Jane, but it would take about a page more and you might get tired. There was also another chap who we thought might have an ear piece in his ear because he was loudly talking…turns out as our friend put it, he’s just crazy.

As for the town, quite and eccentric for sure, cool people and very local friendly. Apparently they even hide the towns signs so that tourist pass by. The town comes equipped with a book store that when you want to pay for a book you put in what you think it would be worth and a cloths donation which works on the same honor system. Saw Jane a few more times that day as we walked around, could have swore she had her eyes on us. Nice little surf spot out front and because I was going stir crazy I headed out to get wet in about 1-2ft waves while Hannah explored more of the town. Hannah found a shrine and left a sweet little message thanking for safe travels. Thank you whoever grants wishes, we are very thankful indeed.