After a heavy duty couple of weeks that included Free Comic Book Day and two comic book artist signings at the Wow Cool Alternative Comics shop, it was time to take a day off and head to the beach. The high winds and barely 60º temperatures cut into the beach time as it cut into our skin. We headed out to Half Moon Bay and it’s northern slightly more interesting bit El Grenada. Click on pictures for a larger view.
It’s always sad to see the corpse of a former print shop or publisher. This now-empty store in the heart of Half Moon Bay was both. I could find very little on Coastside Publishers & Printers. They published a book in 1977, “All heaven broke loose” by Clayton Fountain who is known for his writing on the labor movement in America and should not be confused with the most dangerous man in the U.S. prison system of the same name. His earlier book Union Guy is still in print.
The highlight of our day on the coast was a visit to Spanish tapas bar Seville next to Princeton Harbor. $5.00 Idiot IPA on tap. Paella on Sundays (pictured). Amazing olives. Mind-blowing jamón Ibérico (takes your supermarket prosciutto down a dark alley and beats it to death), much housemade goodness. Skip the usual seafood joints and eat here.
An Iberian Peninsula theme had started earlier in the day when we stopped at the The Half Moon Bay I.D.E.S. Society Holy Ghost Festival in celebration of the Pentecost, which has some special significance for the Portuguese, as explained here. I also acquired a curious edition of Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra earlier in the day at a thrift store which contained a postcard that had journeyed here from Madrid, but not by post.
OK. Enough cured pork and ale. Time to get back to work.
