Time To Head Back To LA

It's been a great time in the beach house — the house was great, the views outstanding and both Jenn and I loved being together with Mom, Dad and Sue. It was lots of fun and felt so nice to all be together amongst the wild beauty of the northern California coast. Needless to say, it was a bit emotional saying goodbye.




Okay, we gotta go, peeps! Once on the road, Jenn and I make a beeline back down the coast to Bodega Bay, hoping to pick up some Spud Point Chowder for lunch and our drive through San Fran.

Spuds, unfortunately, is closed so we settle for chowder from Sandpiper, which the guidebook says is EVEN better than Spuds. It's not bad, but it's not Spuds.

All along the coast we are in and out of the mist, but once we start inland, out pops the sun and up goes the temps. It's 24 in Santa Rosa where we merge onto the 101 and begin our push down south, through San Fran and down to LA.

It's fairly straightfoward. We duck around San Fran, across the bay into Oakland and down through San Jose. I consider a pit stop in Cupertino to pay my respects to Steve Jobs, but the detour is longer than we want. I say a silent well wish as we pass by the exit and keep the pedal to the floor. RIP Stevie.

By 4:00 p.m. we are down in Monterey. I really want to do the coastal stretch of road from Monterey down to Hearst Castle, passing by Big Sur. This is another fantastic stretch of road, with high cliffs, rugged shoreline, blue waters, crashing waves. Stunning! Last time, we couldn't do the whole stretch as a section was closed due to a landslide. So, here's our chance to do the whole she-bang... AND camp near Big Sur!

That's the plan anyway. But first, some shots of this drive. It's a photographers dream, especially with the late afternoon light. Monterey and Carmel By The Sea are fogged over, but by the time we get out on the coast road, there's sun and a light, ethereal mist. Beautiful!










Hmm, getting hungry. We're in Big Sur. Where could we stop? How about Nepenthe? The word is the views are pretty great from the restaurant...

Whoa! Who had the vision for this rest stop? Check out the patio view!





It's an amazingly tasty dinner with the sun setting beside us, views of the Big Sur coast and homegrown broccolini.




Not sure exactly what I'm doing here... Kissing the sunset?




Now, if we can just swing a campsite. I'm pumped at the prospect of pitching a tent somewhere along this stretch of road and listening to the crashing waves as we fall asleep.




The universe is watching over us — we're driving now in the dark along the winding roads. Our first campsite option is closed, the second is full. But the third, at Plasket Creek, has one site left — just for us. Woo-hoo!

We set up our tent in the dark and hit the inflatable mattresses, listening to the shoreline and watching the full moon shadows.

The good news about finding a campsite is we can now finish the drive along this stretch of road in the daylight. We are up early and after a quick breakfast, on we go. We gas up in Gorda and then drive more winding cliff side roads which barely seem to be clinging to the hills they are built on. A few more glamour shots...








Crashing waves OVER the road!




Four miles north of Hearst Castle, we encounter an elephant seal colony — another bonus of waiting to do this stretch in the daylight. There are at least a few hundred yearling "pups" and some mighty blubbery juveniles! The sub adults, females, and the massive males won't pull ashore for another month or so. We watch as a few of the juveniles joust with one another knowing their time of being top e-seals will soon be coming to an end!







Next up is the ocean side town of Cayucos which was one of our favorite stops during our first drive through Southern California in the Spring. We are so glad to being coming this way at this time of day because it means...FISH TACOS!!!

SMOKED fish tacos, in fact, from Ruddell's Smokehouse. The very best we've had in California and we get to snorfle them down again.




Yeah, they are as good as we remembered them to be...




And then the big push, 200 miles down into LA. It's hot out, in the 90's. We ride the 101 until Oxnard, then jump onto PCH 1 along the beaches, through Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and into LA.

We find our hotel by the airport, drop the car and now, we're packing it all up again, ready to board our plane tomorrow. Hopefully, Air Canada won't be on strike (all looks good!)