Monterey Bay Inn

Finally left the noisy dorm room yay. Saw some massive waves along the coast towards Monterey. Stopped off in Santa Cruz, not much going on in Fall! Apparently it's wooden rollercoaster is a national monument! Got to Monterey and found a visitor centre for a map. Hotel man upgraded us to a deluxe king, had a microwave and a fridge! Watched lots of TV ...

... and barefoot was painful with rocks.<br><br>On the way down to Morrow Bay where we stayed at a campsite (bathrooms nicer than mine), we stopped for a half hour or so to watch the sun set off in the distance on the blue Pacific Ocean. Just sitting there on those rocks was nice.<br><br>Randoms:<br>-Brits called the Mojave (Mo-hauv-a) Desert the Mojave (Mo-jav) Desert, lol.<br>-Matt accidentally driving Lola on the left side of the road<br>

... of the waves...(don't think it was Talon though).<br><br>05/11/2009 - After a lovely lie-in, we woke up to a gorgeous breakfast of berries and porridge. We headed back into town and found a 'secret walk' along a river. The houses along the path had private little gardens right on the rivers edge. It looked like such a lovely place to live. <br><br>After grabbing lunch at a cafe (Jim had a Philly cheese-steak and ...

... the hill casually, now knowing that the guys at the bottom have watched me turn around. I get off the phone in a panic and try calling anyone I'm travel ling with, hoping that at least someone has their phone with them, near them, and on. THANKFULLY, Christa is my first bet and she answers...<br><br>"Christa, LISTEN!, NO LISTEN!" - me<br>"What? I can't hear you?" -Christa<br>"GO SOMEWHERE QUIET AND LISTEN!"<br>"OK, ok, whats wrong?"<br>"SOMEONE IS STEALING LOLA, I repeat, SOMEONE IS ...

... blue sea with white waves crashing onto the beach. The photos in this blog cannot do it justice. <br><br>We spent about an hour on the beach before the long trip back to LA beckoned, and we climbed back into the Bus at about 3pm. It took another couple of hours before we were really out of Big Sur, and as the countryside flattened out we passed a beach packed full of elephant seals basking in the late afternoon sun. We just HAD to ...

... It was quite spicy and the flavour very complex. Azrael&#8217;s steak was really good too! The meat was done to perfection, and the sauce was also very flavourful and complex. The salad was very well combined, but the garlic potato cake was slightly disappointing.<br><br>You will notice that we hardly ever have dessert.... and this time was no exception. The desserts weren&#8217;t screaming our names, and we were pretty stuffed. All in all, another fantastic meal.....

... after Pebble Beach.<br><br>In order to enhance our stay, someone had organised an enormous vintage and top-of-the-range car rally that climaxed in a two day grand auction. There were more vintage Ferraris than you could shake a stick at including 250 GTO&#8217;s being offered at $5m. Bugatti Verons were two a penny, Lamborghinis were for plebs, anything under $100k was towed away and we could not dare to be seen in a smelly Ford Mustang (I let Debbie drive whilst I curled up on the ...

Final thought before departure: There is no "silver bullet" solution to the energy crisis. Biofuel will play a role in providing alternatives to fossil fuels as they diminish as will electric vehicles, hybrids, and perhaps hydrogen or fuel cell cars...We are living the experiment: Can we innovate?

... I can't wait to see her. It's been 4 years! She won't be home from work until 6 or so, so I will entertain myself somehow. I was thinking of heading to Carmel and maybe Big Sur if that's on the way. I know I will spend some time in Santa Cruz reminiscing too. I'll probably stop by my old community college and just drive around Santa Cruz. And, of course, I will be getting my shrimp burrito. And going to Trader Joe's...and ...

... got one pic of the cub. We have seen amazing wterfalls and hiked all day long. The previos weeks we were staying in senoma which is wine county and went wine tasting, hired bikes and went canoing down the river and spent the 4th of July watching amazing fireworks. Its time to go see where i am sleeping tonight but it can not come sooner, i am always tired so much to be done everyday! Hoping to go down the big sur tomorrow but looking unpassable due to the fires! x