After leaving Stinson Beach, we drove north to Bolinas. On our camping trip this summer we fell in love with Bolinas' small hippie town charm. Once there went to the People's Market and we got overpriced ice cream from an awkward pretentious man, which put a sour note on the visit. The ice cream was good, but the atmosphere wasn't too welcoming. With ice cream in hand we walked down toward the beach, and got conned into buying lemonade from some young entrepreneurs. Though Bolinas is still a wonderful place in my eyes, it loss some of it charm. The best part of our Bolinas experience came during a stroll around town when we stumble on a poster discretely hung outside the Bolinas Market. The poster was for a Blank Tapes show, along with other performers, that night.
The show wasn't until 7, so we had plenty of time to kill. My need for coffee, internet, and a place to plug in my phone led us to Fairfax. The drive was longer than we had expected but we had never been before and are suckers for a new experiences. Fairfax tuned out to be a pretty cool town, the streets lined with restaurants and shops and a good atmosphere. We got coffee at the Coffee Roastary, which turned out to have the best coffee I've had in a while. Afterward we walked around the town and ended up at Good Earth Organic and Natural Foods for dinner. Good Earth is a grocery store that seemed to offer better food than the restaurants we passed by. Matt got a veggie burger and I got a spinach and mushroom pizza, and we were both pretty satisfied with our choices. Good Earth's prepared foods are 99% organic and they are working on going all the way. Something that I really liked about the place was that in their produce section they included the distance their products traveled to get there. It really makes you think twice about that banana that came from 3,000 miles away. After eating we were done eating we walked across the street to Fairfax Ice Cream, a little hole in the wall joint. This is by far the best ice cream I've ever had! All ice cream is organic and homemade, and if you're ever in the area you'd be a fool not to stop.
The drive back to Bolinas for the show was beautiful. The windy roads of Mt. Tamalpais matched with a view of a setting sun in the distance only made our trip better. The show was put on a the Bolinas Community Center and for the first hour we were the only people there who weren't playing that night. Once others began to arrive the awkwardness began to fade. We were there for the Blank Tapes and they put on a great show, they only performed a few songs but it was free and small venue. No complaints here. The other performers were Obo Martin, Indiaana Hale, and Michael Musika. Once the show was over we drove south to Golden Gate National Recreational Area for the night.
We stayed at the Bicentennial campground, which is easy to access being only 100 yards from the parking lot. It was dark and extremely cold when we arrived and no fires are allowed, so we set up the tent quickly and went to bed. I wasn't expecting this spot to be much more than a place to crash for free, but in the morning the scenery was a pleasant surprise.
On the long drive home we stopped by Swanton Strawberry Farm to pick up some jam. Last time we were there we didn't come prepare with enough cash but this time we didn't walk away empty handed.
The best jam, ever, I promise.
Cooking from the back of the car.
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