The Goose & Turrets Bed & Breakfast

Located in the seaside village of Montara, California, on the San Mateo County coast, the Goose and Turrets Bed & Breakfast offers a quick getaway from San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The historic building (constructed around the turn of the century) and its sheltering gardens are only 20 minutes from the San Francisco International Airport and 25 miles south of downtown San Francisco. Better yet, a long sandy beach where harbor seals stare back at the occasional beachcomber is a pleasant half-mile walk away.

Besides being dramatically beautiful, uncrowded, and undeveloped, the Coastside offers a fine sandy beach in Montara, bluff walks and teeming tidepools at Moss Beach, a major fishing fleet in Princeton, walking tours of old town and the jail or a weekend art class at a gallery in Half Moon Bay, the famous San Gregorio Store (everything from kerosene lamps to a first class book department - owned by an ethics professor at Stanford), irresistible freshly baked breads in Pescadero plus Phipps Ranch for beans and out of the ordinary animals on view. Pescadero Marsh features great blue heron and egret rookeries, and Ano Nuevo (15 miles farther south) offers mainland views of elephant seals in their breeding season.

There are at least 20 good restaurants scattered along the coast (all price ranges, many with exceptional food specialties, some with ghosts, some with lurid histories, some with ocean views); amateur theatre is healthy and has a new home; dancers and others entertain at monthly Flower Mart.