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Pumpkin Time

Today was the day to find Halloween pumpkins. Although there are plenty of them in Livermore, it seemed more reasonable to us to drive to Half Moon Bay, the home of the largest pumpkin festival in the Bay Area.

“We’re all mad here,” but we are not crazy – the Pumpkin Festival was on October 13 & 14. Although the Festival is great fun, we often choose to give it a wide berth, since it attracts folks from all over the Bay Area, and there are essentially three roads into Half Moon Bay: Highway 1 North, Highway 1 South, and Highway 92 over the coastal range. Highway 92 becomes more of a “blood clot” than an “artery” during the Pumpkin Festival. Highway 1 North goes through an area called Devil’s Slide (where the road often slides into the sea) before reaching Pacifica. Devil’s Slide was intact today, and work on the bypass tunnels was continuing. Devil’s Slide is home to a couple of reminders of World War II, spotting stations and fortified coastal positions. Highway 1 South, on the other hand, continues to San Gregorio before there is another major road (84, of which I wrote earlier) that crosses the coastal range.

Today we took the scenic way, across the San Mateo Bridge on 92 to 280 North, then 35 to a turnoff to Pacifica (if you don’t like fog, don’t live there :-) ), then southward on Highway 1 through Devil’s Slide, Montara, Moss Beach (home of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and a haunted [by The Blue Lady] Distillery), Princeton-by-the-Sea, El Granada, Miramar, and then to Half Moon Bay.

We bought our pumpkins, stopped briefly at an ocean overlook on Poplar Street, took a look at a badly congested Highway 92 eastbound, and decided to retrace our path northward on Highway 1, through Devil’s Slide (some places are so good that seeing them again from a different angle is quite pleasurable).

I am hopeful that foot traffic will be allowed in the Devil’s Slide area after the tunnel bypass is completed. The geology of the area is amazing. The angle of the strata is nearly vertical. Ultimately, after the tunnel is completed, the current stretch of Highway 1 through Devil’s Slide will meet its fate in the Pacific Ocean below.

-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™

You can view higher-resolution photos (*generally* 7-30 megabytes, compressed) at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. Apparel and other gifts decorated with some of our most popular photos can be ordered from the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Store on CafePress®.

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