Half Moon Bay | what to do

street art in Half Moon Bay (c) 2016 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

What's there to do in Half Moon Bay? We are spending the weekend at the Ritz-Carlton and are loving our stay. The room is beautiful. The seaside views are stunning. The resort offers 36 holes of championship golf, a spa, full exercise facilities, and excellent dining. And its Club Lounge is one of the best I've experienced with not only five meal services a day but wine on tap. But as superb as a resort may be, I've always believed that the destination is the most important reason to travel somewhere.

Yesterday, we experienced the Half Moon Bay Signature Drive. A full-day adventure, we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves very much. What did we do and see?

1. The village of Half Moon Bay is a small, charming town on the Pacific Coast. After parking our car, we explored the town. There are interesting, one-of-a-kind shops on Main Street (nothing at all with a corporate brand name). The town features some large murals painted in the side of buildings — see one extraordinary painting in the picture above. Half Moon Bay's local United Methodist Church was built in 1872, and its beautiful sanctuary is just one block off Main Street. We walked past a number of restaurants and made reservations for tonight at Chez Shea. Verdict: really good and healthy organic food!

2. Pumpkin farms line Route 92 which leads from the Peninsula over to Half Moon Bay. We were in luck, as pumpkins are definitely in season in late October. We passed fields and fields of pumpkins on sale for Halloween.

3. Redwood forests. We parked at one of the trailheads for the Purisma Creek Redwoods Preserve and enjoyed an hour hike down the gorge and back. The trail was shaded by a grove of tall redwoods — a beautiful hike to help burn off the calories from all the great meals we've had.

4. Lunch break. We had intended to stop at Alice's Restaurant, but when we passed it around 1 p.m. on a beautiful Saturday, there was nowhere to park so we drove a bit further to La Honda — a biker community — which has several places to eat.

5. Pescadera is another small, charming town. It's recommended to take Old Stage Road from San Gregorio south to Pescadera as turning left onto Route 1 is a challenge when there's a lot of traffic. We saw more unique shops and visited the Harley Farms Goat Dairy. Try the dark chocolate truffles — goat cheese dipped in chocolate. They were good, really!

6. The beach. While the northern California coast is not ideal for swimming (cold water, rough waves), the beaches are a beautiful place to walk and to enjoy the scenery. Be careful with the waves — we saw one dog enthusiastically chasing a ball thrown by his master who almost got swept to sea by a sudden wave. (His owner bravely rescued him).

7. Back to the Ritz Carlton Club Lounge to end a very fun day with a cup of cappuccino and a chocolate chip cookie!

Our entire drive with lunch, shopping, and hiking lasted about six hours — an enjoyable day well spent! See my Facebook photo album of the day.

copyright  (c)  2016 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.