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The Big Sur Trip
Should be in bullet point summaries. *g*
We got a late start. Yes, I know that will shock all of you that know me personally. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive. We stopped for dinner in Cayucos and had some excellent grilled halibut. They said they had homemade pie so we bought a couple of pieces to go. Man, that was the worst pie! There ought to be a law!
Anyway, we continued on through the patchy fog and leisurely encroaching dusk. Sometimes the fog was caressing the hills and other times it was lurking off shore. I would really like to go up there again and stay a night near San Simeon as the coast is rather pretty there (and of course visit to castle.) The lower part of Hwy 1 is very twisted but was pretty much empty. My fear of motorhomes and bicyclists did not come true! Wow. The drive was uneventful, save for me pulling out on the turnouts and snapping photos in a most compulsive manner.
We didn't get to Big Sur Lodge until about 10pm. It seemed adequate and we were glad to have arrived. Morning showed us a very trimmed landscaped, quiet neighbors and a lovely deck to drink our morning coffee on. It was lovely to just sit out there and absorb the beautiful sights and the rustic odor of redwood was everywhere. I saw a stag trot by the first morning. Breakfast and dinner at the restaurant was good. There were multiple trails through the redwoods and was in the mid 70s during the day so it was great to putter about.
We had dinner at the Nepenthe restaurant/bookstore and that is a great place with a wonderful view. Afterwards, we went to the Pfieffer Beach to catch the sunset. It was incredibly windy at the beach and spray and sand was going everywhere. Sand got everywhere!
The next day we went shopping at Carmel. I bought a few objects d' art, including a Christmas gift. *g* After lunch, we wandered around Point Lobos, a nature reserve. There was a big flat rock covered in Harbor Seals; it looked like a bus had run them over. From now on when I just want to say I want to lay about, I'm going to say I feel like being a Harbor Seal. On the drive back, I kept stopping and taking even more photos!
(ETA: I get those little red boxes, too so I'm taking the embedded photos out. I also wanted to say there was a motorcycle race on the weekend at Laguna Seca and the roads will filled with motorcyclists, mostly on little red bikes, wearing read helmets. Little packs of them zooming about. It so reminded me of something out of Speed Racer, little anonymous assassins buzzing about.
I also wanted to add there were a LOT of French folk on vacation up there. Must have been running a special. And almost all of them felt free to openly point at the overweight and laugh or whatever. So charming....)
The next day, we were going to go to the Monterey Aquarium, but there was street construction down there and it was very, very crowded. So, I kept driving. We went around the peninsula and stopped often to admire the loveliness. Then we drove up to Santa Cruz, had a lovely sandwich at Gayle's Bakery before we ended up at The Brookdale Lodge, which is in another forested area. The lodge was big in the 20s and 30s and it's a bit worn now. It does have a stream running through the dinning room (complete with trout) and the best food I've had in a long time. The chef would pop out of the kitchen and walk through the dinning room sneaking peeks at our plates. He came over at the end of the meal and we asked him about some items, like a ceasar salad served in a lacy 'bowl' made out of melted, hardened cheese.
The next morning, we had great pancakes at an old fashion diner. The cheeky waitress wanted to know what we were going to do, and I admitted I was going to buzz back into Santa Cruz to buy the Harry Potter book at Costco. She was so excited and asked if I could pick her up one, too, as she worked two jobs and wouldn't be able to go get her son a copy until Monday. I was pleased to be able to do for her. We were going to go tromp around another redwood forest but Mom had tummy trouble and wanted to stay close to the toilet, so, I got to read the first 200 pages of the book!
Sunday, we drove home. It was lovely weather and we went quite a bit east before we turned south and made amazing time. We left at 11:20am and was home by 6:30pm!
I also wanted to remark about this whole Harry Potter thing. I think it was astounding that millions of people in many different countries were doing the same thing at the same time. Has there every been a worldwide shared event that was about a book or any other type of art? There was 9/11, shuttle disasters, assassinations, the lunar landing and disasters...but I think this unique.
The photos have been uploaded here:
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/kelpster/Big%20Sur%202007/
We got a late start. Yes, I know that will shock all of you that know me personally. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive. We stopped for dinner in Cayucos and had some excellent grilled halibut. They said they had homemade pie so we bought a couple of pieces to go. Man, that was the worst pie! There ought to be a law!
Anyway, we continued on through the patchy fog and leisurely encroaching dusk. Sometimes the fog was caressing the hills and other times it was lurking off shore. I would really like to go up there again and stay a night near San Simeon as the coast is rather pretty there (and of course visit to castle.) The lower part of Hwy 1 is very twisted but was pretty much empty. My fear of motorhomes and bicyclists did not come true! Wow. The drive was uneventful, save for me pulling out on the turnouts and snapping photos in a most compulsive manner.
We didn't get to Big Sur Lodge until about 10pm. It seemed adequate and we were glad to have arrived. Morning showed us a very trimmed landscaped, quiet neighbors and a lovely deck to drink our morning coffee on. It was lovely to just sit out there and absorb the beautiful sights and the rustic odor of redwood was everywhere. I saw a stag trot by the first morning. Breakfast and dinner at the restaurant was good. There were multiple trails through the redwoods and was in the mid 70s during the day so it was great to putter about.
We had dinner at the Nepenthe restaurant/bookstore and that is a great place with a wonderful view. Afterwards, we went to the Pfieffer Beach to catch the sunset. It was incredibly windy at the beach and spray and sand was going everywhere. Sand got everywhere!
The next day we went shopping at Carmel. I bought a few objects d' art, including a Christmas gift. *g* After lunch, we wandered around Point Lobos, a nature reserve. There was a big flat rock covered in Harbor Seals; it looked like a bus had run them over. From now on when I just want to say I want to lay about, I'm going to say I feel like being a Harbor Seal. On the drive back, I kept stopping and taking even more photos!
(ETA: I get those little red boxes, too so I'm taking the embedded photos out. I also wanted to say there was a motorcycle race on the weekend at Laguna Seca and the roads will filled with motorcyclists, mostly on little red bikes, wearing read helmets. Little packs of them zooming about. It so reminded me of something out of Speed Racer, little anonymous assassins buzzing about.
I also wanted to add there were a LOT of French folk on vacation up there. Must have been running a special. And almost all of them felt free to openly point at the overweight and laugh or whatever. So charming....)
The next day, we were going to go to the Monterey Aquarium, but there was street construction down there and it was very, very crowded. So, I kept driving. We went around the peninsula and stopped often to admire the loveliness. Then we drove up to Santa Cruz, had a lovely sandwich at Gayle's Bakery before we ended up at The Brookdale Lodge, which is in another forested area. The lodge was big in the 20s and 30s and it's a bit worn now. It does have a stream running through the dinning room (complete with trout) and the best food I've had in a long time. The chef would pop out of the kitchen and walk through the dinning room sneaking peeks at our plates. He came over at the end of the meal and we asked him about some items, like a ceasar salad served in a lacy 'bowl' made out of melted, hardened cheese.
The next morning, we had great pancakes at an old fashion diner. The cheeky waitress wanted to know what we were going to do, and I admitted I was going to buzz back into Santa Cruz to buy the Harry Potter book at Costco. She was so excited and asked if I could pick her up one, too, as she worked two jobs and wouldn't be able to go get her son a copy until Monday. I was pleased to be able to do for her. We were going to go tromp around another redwood forest but Mom had tummy trouble and wanted to stay close to the toilet, so, I got to read the first 200 pages of the book!
Sunday, we drove home. It was lovely weather and we went quite a bit east before we turned south and made amazing time. We left at 11:20am and was home by 6:30pm!
I also wanted to remark about this whole Harry Potter thing. I think it was astounding that millions of people in many different countries were doing the same thing at the same time. Has there every been a worldwide shared event that was about a book or any other type of art? There was 9/11, shuttle disasters, assassinations, the lunar landing and disasters...but I think this unique.
The photos have been uploaded here:
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/kelpster/Big%20Sur%202007/