After a stressful week at work and a busy Saturday coordinating volunteers at a bike race followed by my own ride with friends, I knew I needed to give my body a rest and spend some quality time with my sweetie. The solution: renting a big Harley cruiser and taking a ride to the coast.

The only thing that compares to a bike ride over the hills to the coast is a ride on the back of a motorcycle, especially when you need to chill. So when I asked my dear husband to take me out to Half Moon Bay so I could get a pumpkin, he gladly obliged with a ride on a Hawg.

Careful to avoid the heavy traffic on Hwy 92 for the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, we took Hwy 84 up and over the hill, then turned off on Pescadero Road ’cause I was craving coastal cuisine: artichoke bread at the bakery and pepper and artichoke soup at Duarte’s Tavern. The added bonus was hanging out with bikers at Duarte’s tasting “French fries with eyes,” aka fried smelt. (They were ok, but would have been better with a Southeast Asian sauce)

With full bellies in us and half-full saddlebags on the bike, we motored north, past the San Gregorio Store up to Arata’s pumpkin patch. We passed on the corn maze, the gladiator battle, the hay ride and even the pumpkin pie. Instead, we picked out a bright orange pumpkin and a couple of little white ones, for no good reason except to make me smile. And then we hopped back on the Harley and carved our way back over the hill, which made us both smile.

Do you ever wish your bicycle had a motor so you could enjoy the scenery and just chill?

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