May 23 Pacific Grove to Coalinga

Pacific Grove, on the Monterey Peninsula, has more Victorian homes per capita than any other place in the US, many of which have been turned into BandBs, such as ours:

It also has the oldest working lighthouse on the West Coast.

It is also known as "Butterfly Town USA" because the Monarchs rest here on their way from Alaska to Mexico and the townspeople aid them by planting acres of flowers, mainly ice plants.  The carpeting of color is extraordinary and all plants are covered with butterflies during the migration. It is against the law to kill or threaten a butterfly in this town.

It is a lovely town which we explored this morning.  We had seen the business area last night when we went to dinner in an Italian restaurant where I had.....sand dabs!  My West Coast favorite.  Closest cousin to plaice!  So we headed straight for the ocean drive and the lighthouse.  So many beautiful Victorian homes.  But also other stunning homes right on the ocean.  The road wound around to the lighthouse.  

Fishing boats in Monterey Bay.

We then took 17 Mile Drive around the peninsula, passing several golf courses including the renowned Pebble Beach course. The drive is spectacular and includes views of the iconic lone cypress.

Then it was off to Coalinga and Harris Ranch.  We turned inland from Monterey and into the Central Valley.  Flat fields of crops and fruit trees, rimmed by yellow hills in the distance.  Yellow because of the severe drought.  And heat....we left the coolness of the coast behind and headed toward highs in the 90’s!

We stopped at Andersen's for lunch and I enjoyed their famous pea soup.

Harris Ranch is in Coalinga, pronounced Co-a-lin-ga.  However, the name comes from from Coaling A.  There were three coaling stations here, A, B and C.  Now it is ranch country, but the name stuck and a new pronunciation was born.  Harris Ranch supplies top quality beef to restaurants and supermarkets. It keeps the very best for its own restaurant.  After the success of the restaurant, Harris added a hotel/spa.  It is really in the middle of nowhere, but halfway between LA and Sacramento on Route 5, which makes it a convenient stopping place.  Harris himself owns racehorses, but not California Chrome.  However, California Chrome was born and trained here, of which Harris is very proud.  Videos of the horse are on a constant loop in one if the hallways.

My patio!

It is a striking place...an oasis really.  Our rooms have patios and we repaired to them with Single Malts and cookies after dinner.  Our meal was excellent, the beef divine.  We had drinks before dinner in the bar, a bottle of Cabernet...and then the scotches.  So, it was a boozy night, but it was our last night andnwe wanted to celebrate under the stars.  Paul projected a slide show of fhe frip on the pario wall.  so edfective and such fun.  We head for home tomorrow and I leave on Sunday.

This is the end of the blog.  The trip has been wonderful....from Philly to Harris Ranch.  In California, have enjoyed the extraordinary scenery. I have tasted excellent food and drunk outstanding wines.  And I have found the drivers disciplined and the people friendly.  Most of all, I have enjoyed Paul and Amy's company, as usual!  They have been so generous with their time and efforts in arranging this trip.  And Paul is just an angel to have driven all those distances.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, my dear friends.

May 22, Big Sur to Pacific Grove

The day dawned cool and misty.  The drive was  beautiful in a different way.  Eerie.

Bixby Bridge.

Amy sketching at Bixby Bridge. And Paul.  My wonderful friends and hosts.

We stopped at Point Lobos to check out the sea lions and sea otters.  We saw a few sea lions, but the main contingent were out on the rocks barking furiously, out of my camera range.  Try as we might, we did not see the sea otters, which the ranger assured us had been there earlier.  We did see some guillemots..a first for me!  Now this is the place where Jonathan said I would need my handicapped permit because the small parking lot was always full.  And he was right and I was so angry with myself when I surveyed the lot, especially as all thehandicapped  places were empty.  But, lo and behold, a car pulled out just in front of us and we were in luck.  Whew!

From there, it was on to Pacific Grove where we checked in to our BandB...a yellow Victorian house.  All very nice indeed.  They suggested a nice place for lunch in Carmel.  The Forge in the Forest.  Our GPS took us in through all the tiny side streets lined with lovely, but not ostentatious homes.  Two western jays stole food from the hostess's stand which was hilarious.  A very nice meal washed down from Margaritas.

We then explored Carmel, looking for a bookstore, which we ultimately found. A little gem, Pilgrim's Way, with The Secret  Garden in the rear...beautiful plants and garden accoutrements.  I bought a book on West Coast wild flowers.

Other than that, Carmel consists mainly of art galleries and real estate agents.   It is pretty enough, but superficial.  Of course, the houses here and in the surrounding area, are hugely expensive.  No, we did not see Clint Eastwood's house! 

May 21, 2014 Cambria to Big Sur

We had hoped to eat our breakfast on our patios, but it was too cool. Shame.  Grey, misty day. We set off for the first of our two big stops of the day on the way to Big Sur....the Elephant Seal Rookery, about 5 miles north of San Simeon.  Well, what awaited us was truly amazing.  What looked like a very long beach of enormous dead fish turned out to be juvenile elephant seals just lying about undergoing what is called a "catastrophic molt".  As far as the eye could sea along the beach...seals of all shades, depending on their age, in various stages of molt. The enormous males are long gone, having done their duty and mated with their harem for the following year's crop.  The females left next after nursing the pups and providing them with the fat reserves to survive the molt and the trip to Alaska.  The pups do not eat after the females leave.  They occasionally make their way to the water's edge when it is very hot, but they are not eager to swim.  There is no one to teach them.  But, ultimately, they do go farther and farther in, immerse their faces and then begin to dive. Mostly, the pups just lie there, occasionally moving closer to each other, or flipping sand on their backs.  A few young males were learning to "posture" and a few were playing in the water.  Rangers estimate that tens of thousands of elephant seals come to this coast to mate.  It was awesome in the true sense of the word.

Next stop Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.  More beautiful scenery along the way.

Statue of Jonathan Livingston Seagull!  LOL

Smoking ground squirrel!

McWay Falls used to fall into the ocean, but then there was a huge landslide and now they fall onto a beach.  I am sure the original view was stunning, but so is the nw one. The water is turquoise.  The history of this park and the "Waterfall House" is complex, so  I am providing a link.  Ihttp://www.pelicannetwork.net/bigsur.brown.burns.htm

It is a fascinating story of a very wealthy woman from Boston and a California pioneer woman who became close friends. Heiress  Helen Hooper Brown and her husband built a house here.  She left all her property to the state and named it for her friend, Julia.  The house was torn down under the terms of her will because the state could not find a public use for it. The walk to the falls and the ruins is beautiful.much of the original gardens, including alien species, such as eucalyptus and palms, are still there.  We tried to ID some stunning blue flowers, only to find that they are native to Maderia and had been planted!

We drove on to Big Sur, which is not a mountain, or a hill, or a monument, as I always thought.  It is the name for an area south of Monterey.  To the Spanish it  was "El Pais del Sur Grande"....the country of the big south.  Just before our motel, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant/resort up a winding road, with a magnificent view of the ocean.  La Ventana.   It was too chilly to eat outside and too miss to see much of the ocean.  Once again, delicious food.  I have been so impressed with California food...and then there are the wines!

Our motel is in an 80 year old complex...Woden buildings on both sides of the road.  All rooms have porches and they are covered with roses and bedecked with other flowers.  A restaurant with a huge fireplace and terrace, pool, general store, all purpose shop, gas station and a psychedelic old VW bus dispensing ice cream and such.  And...Adironacks chairs dispersed in the lovely river... a great place to cool off in the summer with drinks!  Too cool for us rifht now!  I have not seen so many old VW campers in 30 years.  This is an area that attracts wanderers.  In fact, two men showed up with huge back packs, two dogs and two guitars.  They were busking.  Paul, ever the videographer, have them a nice banknote and asked them to play for his video and to talk about their lives.  They simply said that they had tried the traditional life and that this life suited them right now.

At dinner, we had a a nice surprise...the meatloaf plug plate special was $2.60 to commemorate the 80th year of the Inn.  That was the price of the meatloaf 80 years ago.  Paul and I both had it.  Very good and dowhome!