The Bay Area has so many beautiful places to explore it can be hard to decide, ocean, forest, wine country, the city, and all of them are within an hours drive of one another, but for our family it’s really no contest… The ocean is calling…
More often than not a free weekend means piling in the car and heading for the water and more specifically Half Moon Bay. Tim loves the waves, the boys love the fish and chips and I love family time. A win for all!
Barbara’s Fish Trap
I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way we discovered Barbara’s Fish Trap and we never looked back. The perfect place for our family, Barb’s is a casual dining restaurant with friendly service and consistently good food! They have both indoor and outdoor seating and a take away window as well.
We aren’t the only ones who love Barbs, so if you’re interested in table service be prepared to wait, otherwise the ever present line for the take away window moves along at a fairly rapid pace and the quality of the food remains the same! We’ve met many interesting people over the years while sharing one of the sunny yellow picnic tables outside at Barbs.
If you’re wondering, what do we get? Elliot and I always get the clam strips & chips and Simon likes traditional fish & chips while Tim likes the seafood combo. The portions are quite generous so you might consider sharing. Keep in mind they only take cash, but there is an ATM on the premises.
Mavericks
Mavericks is a world famous surfing location off of Pillar Point Harbor and just up the road from Barbara’s Fish Trap. It’s also Tim’s favorite part of visiting Half Moon Bay! The bigger the waves the more he likes it. He follows the surf report and he will often drive down early in the morning in the hopes of seeing some wave action.
The waves can reach as high as 60 feet in the winter and most winters they hold an invitation only big wave surfing competition. Because the waves are unpredictable spectators aren’t allowed to go down to the beach during the competition, but the beach is very accessible at other times of the year.
What Else…
There are so many fun things to do in and around Half Moon Bay depending on the time of the year!
Wildlife sightings!
Strawberry picking at the U-pick patch in the summer!
A visit to the pumpkin patch at Halloween time.
Walks and hiking along the beach…
The Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton offers many fun activities throughout the year and you don’t even have to be a guest to enjoy them. For example, at the holiday time they show movies on a large screen under the stars and of course there is another one of our favorites, marshmallow roasting all year long!
What’s that I hear?
Oh, gotta go… The ocean is calling!
Kelsie O
Love love love all of your photos and it sounds like so much fun! Great post.
Hilary
Thank you so much!!