Richard's place is a in a great location for activities in the surrounding area. It's about a 25-minute drive to Half Moon Bay and 40 minutes to Santa Cruz. Plus, there are a ton of little state beaches along the coast, including one right across the street from his house with free parking and barely anyone there. It was beautiful. It's also only about 15 minutes from Ano Nuevo beach, where you can walk down to watch the elephant seals on the beach.
The house is about an hour south of San Francisco and two hours from Big Sur, which was a beautiful drive and well worth it. It's also only about an hour from San Jose and the Winchester House (which I highly recommend visiting!) and there are a lot of state redwood parks within an hour drive of the house. Henry Cowell State Park was incredible and had some amazing trees.
We had a really nice stay in Pescadero, and we'll remember it for a long time. : )