One Year Celebration

Ahoy! 

Just updating you guys on our life right now! :) This may take a while, grab some coffee, a snack, and get ready:)

We were on our way to spend a nice weekend on the coast for our anniversary, and on the way we saw this sign :) We thought it was perfect for the occasion! 

So we recently had our one year anniversary. August 10th to be exact, and we really wanted to do something special. Originally we were going to go to Catalina with my family, like we do every year, but this year the plans were postponed. So, we had saved money throughout the year for Catalina and didn't even get to go! Ergo, we decided to go to Half Moon Bay. It was an amazing trip to say the least. We stayed outside of Half Moon Bay right on the outskirts of Pescadero in an adorable little lodge/camping area. It was called Costanoa. We highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a private getaway.

Before checking in, we drove a little further and went to lunch in the small town of Half Moon Bay. We ate at Ketch Joanne. 

We both ordered the crab and shrimp grilled cheese. It comes with fresh king crab, shrimp, Monterey Jack cheese, tomato, and a sauce that was almost like thousand island, but better. (I say that because I personally don't care for thousand island.)

This sandwich was SUPER delicious and SUPER filling. I got mine with no tomato and the sauce on the side. Zach got his with no substitutions. I tried the sauce with my sandwich, but I felt like it didn't need it. It was so fresh and delicious. I crave it now just talking about it haha. 

After eating we walked around downtown and then headed back to where we were going to stay. 

It is honestly the cutest little place ever. They offered RV Parking, camping, rooms in their hotel, or what we stayed in, Tent Bungalows.

The tent bungalows had a single queen bed, but if you had more people going, they had some that could accommodate 4-6 with bunk beds. The bed came with heated blankets, robes (super comfy!) shampoo/conditioner, a chair, couple tables, and outlets. It was literally luxury camping. The bathrooms were incredibly nice. Clean, updated, had 3 showers outside, and 1 inside the bathroom...PER MEN/WOMEN baths! 

There was a restaurant as well as a small store. We ate dinner at the restaurant the first night and breakfast the second morning. I had some homemade granola and yogurt with fruit and wheat toast. I TRIED to eat healthy on the trip. We did a lot of exercise though, so that helped :) 

I couldn't even finish half of my food. Zach on the other hand, had a breakfast croissant and some potatoes. Something more "manly" and hearty haha. 

We were trying to fuel up for the day since we were planning to go biking and kayaking later on. We went biking right after breakfast. Costanoa offered bike rentals for full days. We only needed them for a couple hours...or so we thought. 

Biking was an interesting time haha. We were suppose to follow a trail that was 2 miles. Instead, we did not follow the trail at all and biked 4 miles, 1 uphill. It was very difficult hahaha. 

I dropped my bike :(

The ride was really fun, just challenging for someone who hasn't ridden a bike in probably 9 years lol. 

We saw deer and foxes but couldn't get pictures in time! :( 

We changed scene from the super long trail and forest landscape to the ocean:)

The trail was so nice, the weather was perfect too :) 

Isn't he so handsome?:)

As you can see, the views were absolutely gorgeous. 

There was a minor setback in the trail though... 

This trail had a HUGE ditch. We had to carry our bikes down and back up the other side. The left picture was the way in, then the middle is Zach in the middle of the ditch, and on the right is the view from the top of the ditch looking down into what we just climbed out of haha. 

It was such a nice ride :)

After biking along the cliffs, we followed a very UNBEATEN trail and back up the highway to our lodge and turned our bikes in.

After biking, we went back to our bungalow and got stuff together to make lunches before kayaking. After getting ready, we hopped in our car and drove toward HMB. But, on the way, we got stopped by a lighthouse:) 

It was a little chilly by the lighthouse, but it was cool to walk around and see the Hostels where people can stay in :)

But we continued on! 

  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of us kayaking on my camera. We got some on a waterproof disposable camera haha :)

After kayaking, it was time for our Anniversary dinner :) We chose Sam's Chowder House. It was incredibly packed the entire time we were in Half Moon Bay, so we concluded it had made a good reputation for itself. 

We ordered some Manilla Clams. They were served in a bowl with coconut water, some lemon grass, green onion, onions, and jalepeno chile. 

My goodness, they were delicious. 

After the appetizer, we ordered a dinner special that was for 2. It was a whole lobster, potatoes, some corn, coleslaw, clams, mussels, and some clam chowder. Now when I say this clam chowder was amazing, it was more than amazing. There is no way to describe how tasty and savory this chowder was. It was our conversation for the entire dinner and the next day. 

The food was absolutely delicious. 

I had a little trouble getting the meat out of the lobster....

I swear it just flew out of my hands and hit the window lol

Dinner was of course delicious, but we couldn't pass up dessert. :) The entire trip we ordered coffee from all over the town. We love coffee and I had been wanting to try every kind we could buy. So for dessert, we ordered some coffee and some homemade organic soft serve with olive oil and sea salt. 

As odd as it sounds, it was the perfect combination. We moved from inside the restaurant to outside to listen to the ocean and cool off. Sam's Chowder House gets a perfect 10 in the Zach and Kelli Food Competition. 

Our last night was a little sad because we were leaving :( We hung out in the hot tub, open 24 hours, but we were sooooo exhausted from the day and all the kayaking and biking, we called it an early night. We had to get up early anyway to check out and visit a coffee house we had passed multiple times and had been dying to try since first seeing it. It was called Blue Sky Farms Plants and Coffee. They sold coffee.....and plants hahaha. They were known for their scones...so DUH we got one :)

 

It was chorizo and jack cheese. It was very good...very, very good. Super fluffy too! 

We each had breakfast burritos with our coffee and espresso (also, very good)....

...and then I ordered the Gluten Free, Low-Fat Blueberry cobbler. It was very little dough and plenty of real fruit. It hit the sweet tooth spot without making you feel slow and full. 

Once we finished there, we started our journey home...back to the heat and reality. It was absolutely an amazing trip. I can't ask for a better person to have these kind of memories with. Guarantee we'll spend some more time back in Half Moon Bay and Costanoa. 

Hope everyone's summer has been great! Thanks for reading:)

Told you it was going to be long;)