Big Sur area of California, May 2006

Saturday May 6: John actually left May 3 (Wednesday) for a conference in Monterey that was the trigger for this trip. But I had finals that week so I finished up the semester and flew out on Saturday, rented a car at the San Jose airport and drove down to Monterey to meet him. The meetings had ended that morning but he had one more night at the Hyatt Regency where the conference was held so we spent the afternoon and night in Monterey. First thing, we just went down to the beach (left picture taken from top of dune) and walked for a while - I found a whole sand dollar! It was definitely not swimming weather (probably around 65 degrees) but pleasant for strolling and stretching after the long trip. Here are just a few pics to give you the feel of the day.

After a short rest we headed out again. This time we walked past the marina and then went down to the municipal pier. We were rather surprised to learn that this is a very popular scuba site! The divers acknowledged that the water temperature is about 52 degrees but they say it's not bad if you are dressed for it in good dry suits.

               

At the end of the municipal (or Coast Guard) pier, there is a long string of rocks that are covered with sea lions and cormorants. On the left you get the overall view, and then some closeups of each. From the bright blue, I think these are Brandt's Cormorants. We saw many of them all week long. They were doing some fancy mating dances and nest building. There were lots of sea lion pups and they, along with their parents, seemed to alternate sleeping and playing. There were some pretty noisy harbor seals out in the bay but they stayed out of camera distance.

            

                

The landscaping all over Monterey was nicely done - we enjoyed both wild and cultivated flowers, shrubs, trees and groundcover. Finally, we walked over to Fisherman's Wharf which is primarily for tourists these days but it's fun. Every restaurant has its own version of clam chowder and they're all giving free samples. We had dinner at Isabella's which was (by our modest standards) quite "haut" - I couldn't resist taking a picture of John's opakapaka (otherwise known as pink snapper) with ginger and lime sauce. I had penne with snow crab alfredo and both were yummy.

            

Sunday May 7: We had a quick breakfast, packed and drove to Carmel. There wasn't much of anything happening in town that early but we found the action at the beach. It was nice and sunny, though cool, and everybody and their dogs were walking and playing along the beach. We walked quite a ways on the beach, then climbed the stairs and walked back to Ocean Ave. along the street, admiring the wide variety of well-kept gardens.

     

We spent an hour or so walking up and down Ocean Avenue visiting galleries. John said it was much like going to museums but with your own private guide. We were quite taken by the sculpture of "frog man" Tim Cotterill - we had seen some of his work last year on Kauai (right is Hung Over from Artifacts Gallery). We also particularly enjoyed the painting of Mary Titus (left below is Mirage from Mary Titus Art), Marilo Carral (right below is Twilight from Caldwell Snyder Gallery). He even managed not to wince at price tags of $12,000 and higher. One of the fun things of the trip was when we stopped back later in the week to visit a couple more galleries and we were shown a landscape for $495,000! Boy, tough decision but we just had to pass on it this time.

            

We had lunch at a little outdoor cafe - Buon Giorno. Good food and reasonable cost and lovely to sit in the sun and relax. Before leaving Carmel, we visited the Carmel Mission Basilica (aka Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo) that was started in 1771. The church and school are still in use today.

            

We then headed south on Hwy 1 to Point Lobos State Reserve. Apparently in the California state park system there are no entrance fees, but you do pay to park. So wherever we passed a State Park entrance, we found cars lining both sides of the road for half a mile or so in each direction. For this afternoon we joined them and parked on the highway 20 yards or so from the entrance. We bought a map of the Reserve and then took the nearest trail which was the Carmelo Meadow Trail which led to the Granite Point Trail and Moss Cove Trail. We especially enjoyed the flowers, many sea lions, and beautiful views. I'll stop talking and just show you some pictures!

        

        

        

Around 2:30 or so we left the Reserve and headed south again towards Big Sur. We stopped here and there for views - to the left is the famous Bixby Bridge (completed in 1932 it was one of the longest single-arch concrete bridges in the world). The picture is pretty typical of the Big Sur coast - usually there was a bit (or more) of fog. Reminded up both of the Na Pali coast in Kauai. Fernwood Resort is where we stayed for our time here and we were very satisfied with it. No frills except a hot tub on our private deck which we enjoyed immensely! There was a nice gas fireplace in the room which was needed since the nights are still pretty chilly in May. The Big Sur river runs right through the campground here so John went down and investigated the driftwood and rocks for a little while. We drove down to the Big Sur Deli and bought breakfast then came back and had supper at the Redwood Grill in the Fernwood complex. Good and reasonable food, very nice people. We finished up the evening in the hot tub, among the redwoods and under a full moon. (View from hot tub shown to the right.) Very nice.