Breakfast at the Beach

We were anxious, after the dreadful oil spill despoiling San Francisco Bay and adjacent Pacific shorelines, that the gorgeous Stinson Beach would be a victim of the spill. We were invited out to Stinson to join cousins Sher and Jyah for a day with their wacky, delightful friends and a small herd of dogs in all sizes - we went with some little trepidation.

We decided on the twisty, wiggly drive through a pea soup fog out to the coast, to have breakfast at the Parkside, our favorite Stinson haunt, reasoning that their business might have suffered since the beach is closed. Sure enough, we essentially had the place to ourselves, a rarity on a Saturday morning in this bustling and popular family restaurant.

Pictured is my generous breakfast of French toast and bacon, both cooked to perfection. The French toast was richly eggy and moist, steeped in egg rather than quickly dipped and dry like so many restaurants serve it, and their real maple syrup is well worth the extra dollar they charge. The bacon was applewood smoked and crisped just the way I like it with no hint of burning but still crisp as a cracker. Not pictured is the sweet, delicious fresh squeezed OJ - breakfasts at the Parkside are always hearty. We usually walk them off with a long stroll down the lovely beach but it was closed today for cleanup and to give relief to the oiled seabirds.

There will be months or years of fault finding in the wake of the terrible spill - hindsight is always 20-20. How much better it would have been for the birds, the sea life, the beach, the businesses and the people if we had had a prompt response to the accident and a way to round up all that black goo before it marked one of the loveliest beaches in California and impacted everyone in such serious ways.