Spindrift Inn Monterey

... caught up on sleep after San Fran. Up at 9am and headed towards Fisherman's Wharf and looked in lots of gift shops. Rich got tempted by clam chowder so we had lunch on the pier, sitting next to lots of huge pelicans outside the window! Very scary. Then drove down Cannery Row, named after a John Steinbeck novel! Went in a shop that sold things that ...

... there we'd find out. I'm not entirely sure it was a town so much as a point or small region. We found the Big Sur State Park and decided that it was the best option and turned on in. Although the woman at the front stand was a bit concerned for us, we knew Lola would do fine...she's seen it all. We decided to do a hike up to see some Redwoods and Pfieffer? Waterfall. Christa learned at the Grand Canyon and on that hike I learned...flip ...

... rundown, so instead we picked a little town just outside Santa Cruz called Capitola.<br><br>Although not quite the Big Sur that we would be travelling down later on in the week,the drive along the coast was fantastic and we stopped off a number of times at beautiful deserted beaches with rough, Pacific waves. <br><br>When we arrived at our b&amp;b, The Jewel Box, we were so pleased, it was really sweet and had a ...

... LOLA" <br>click.<br><br>Gathered from post-incident madness, Christa walks back into the restaurant and turns to Ryan "Come with me NOW". I think Ryan figured out what was going on, went back to the table and said to everyone "SOMEONES STEALING ALL OUR ****"...a nanosecond later the table about flips with the speed that all the guys rose. Out the door and full sprinnnt to the hill where Lola awaits...<br><br>Meanwhile, I'm still meeting with utter panic, the guys at the bottom of the ...

... over the edge and crash to your death on the rosks hundreds of feet below". At these points I crawled along at about 20 mph, and as far as possible tried to drive on the other carriageway!<br><br>We stopped at one particular "Vista Point", but otherwise kept going until we got to the Big Sur Bakery - a log cabin by the side of the road which sold excellent coffee, cakes, cookies, and quite a bit else. It wasn't cheap, but the location ...

... they built them.<br><br>On the way to Monterey, we tried to drive through Carmel, but couldn't find it (and we had GPS!) and then decided on the spur of the moment to do the "17 Mile Drive" around Pebble Beach. This costs $9 per car, and some may have philosophical objections to paying to drive on what in Australia would be a public road, but we were glad we did it. There are about 20 signposted "vista points", some of which are quite beautiful. One was called "The Restless ...

... down! We always impress the locals.<br><br> Monterey is a beautiful and busy town. Right on the Pacific Ocean, we drove into town and even managed to find parking. Here in Monterey you can shop, walk on the boardwalk, eat and enjoy the ocean. Monterey has a Marine Conservation Area which is full of scuba divers! We were also able to see some seals sunning themselves.<br><br>Monterey used to be a fishing ...

... catch my connecting flight to San Fransisco.  And here i am (in Monterey) after two flights, BART, CalTrain, Amtrak bus, car ride from a friend. Phuhhhhh....too many transfers. It really makes you pay attention to the time and follow a schedule, that's for sure.  Monterey is the start of my pacific northwest tour. My hopes and plans are to make it to Alaska and get on a salmon boat. Stay tuned for many PacNW postings..........

... less than 10 miles per hour. Anywho she wore a scarf around her face which didn't seem to go with her outfit, but when getting a closer look at her, I'm pretty sure she was just protecting her newly done plastic surgery from the sun. She really was relentless about our helmets though. "People...put your helmets on." She asked if we knew about the California law and we told ...

Today we left Santa Cruz, to travel a few miles down the coast to Monterey Bay, on the way we stopped off at the Mystery Spot, I will leave the pictures to explain it ...