After a year of planning -- and 17 years since a new bookmobile came on the scene -- Coastside communities in San Mateo County from Montara to Pescadero and inland to LaHonda have a new bookmobile.

Thirty-five feet long, the vehicle sports a new blue and white design, solar panels, and a hybrid generator. It can also run on biodiesel. It has the capacity to hold 1,000 more items than before, and unlike the old bookmobile, is wheelchair accessible through a powered lift in the back.

On the afternoon of March 5 at Pescadero Elementary School, the Half Moon Bay Library (the home of the bookmobile when it's not in use) and the San Mateo County library system sponsored a community celebration for the bookmobile's opening day.

Families thoroughly perused the bookmobile's contents, then continued on to the celebration inside the school's multipurpose room, where they could make bookmobile-related art, shop at the book fair, and sit back and relax to the music of Trio Tarasco. Children even got to wear the center of the afternoon's celebration on their face, arms, or hand with a temporary "tattoo" which was the spitting image of the bookmobile.

Savories and sweets were served too -- in particular a cake decorated with an edible photo of the bookmobile on top.

You can read more about the bookmobile's features on Half Moon Bay Patch, as well as the history and some interesting trivia about the bookmobile in America.