After leaving San Fransisco, our next stop was Marina Dunes which is just north of Monterey. Ray and I had stayed in this particular campground on another trip and really liked it. It is a beautiful clean site within walking distance to the dunes of Monterey. We spent two nights at this spot. On our 1st day Russ went for a very "short" bike ride, which turned out to be about 45 kms. While he went for his ride Ray took Vonnie and I for a ride down towards the wharf in Monterey. We saw some amazing scenery along the way.
Down on the wharf, there are so many different shops and galleries to browse through. All the restaurants brag that they make the best clam chowder, handing out free samples which Ray and Vonnie tried. One restaurant said they made the best deep fried artichoke, which I wanted to try, but alas there were no samples.
We had "thought" that we were going to hook up with Russ in a particular spot near the lighthouse after about 2 hours. About 3 or 4 hours later, we did finally hook up!!! I think there was some sort of miscommunication!! Lol, it all worked out anyway. When we finally found Russ, we ate at a restaurant whose menu showed deep friend artichokes. Everyone put in their order and I asked for the artichokes. Of course they were out of them!!! I settled for a salad. Food was great, but I was somewhat disappointed!
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| The Vonz posing on a very uncomfortable rock! |
Down on the wharf, there are so many different shops and galleries to browse through. All the restaurants brag that they make the best clam chowder, handing out free samples which Ray and Vonnie tried. One restaurant said they made the best deep fried artichoke, which I wanted to try, but alas there were no samples.
We had "thought" that we were going to hook up with Russ in a particular spot near the lighthouse after about 2 hours. About 3 or 4 hours later, we did finally hook up!!! I think there was some sort of miscommunication!! Lol, it all worked out anyway. When we finally found Russ, we ate at a restaurant whose menu showed deep friend artichokes. Everyone put in their order and I asked for the artichokes. Of course they were out of them!!! I settled for a salad. Food was great, but I was somewhat disappointed!
The 2nd day we were in Marina Dunes, we decided to drive down to Carmel. We took the “17 Mile Drive”. This is one of the most scenic drives in the area taking you through the Del Monte Forest and the magnificent Pacific Coast. The highway twists and turns past a number of golf courses and beautiful homes. We finally came out to the Pacific Coast Highway and found our way into Carmel.
Carmel By The Sea is its official name, but is known as "Carmel". This tiny beach town situated in the Monterey Peninsula on the Pacific coast is about 330 miles north of Los Angeles. In 2013 the population was 3842. It is a very artsy town with many galleries in the quaint downtown section. After the 1906 earthquake in San Fransisco many artists, musicians, writers and painters moved to here. They were offered "home lots, for $10 down, little or no interest". Today the average price per square foot is about $1200.
I love this tiny town. It is quaint and very clean. We did not see any homeless people in the shopping area. It has great shopping, most of which is quite high end. We did hit the Coach store for a couple of bargains. We ate dinner at the Hogs Breath Inn which used to be owned by Clint Eastwood.
We said our goodbyes to the lovely Carmel by the Sea and continued down the coast towards Pismo Beach.
Carmel By The Sea is its official name, but is known as "Carmel". This tiny beach town situated in the Monterey Peninsula on the Pacific coast is about 330 miles north of Los Angeles. In 2013 the population was 3842. It is a very artsy town with many galleries in the quaint downtown section. After the 1906 earthquake in San Fransisco many artists, musicians, writers and painters moved to here. They were offered "home lots, for $10 down, little or no interest". Today the average price per square foot is about $1200.
I love this tiny town. It is quaint and very clean. We did not see any homeless people in the shopping area. It has great shopping, most of which is quite high end. We did hit the Coach store for a couple of bargains. We ate dinner at the Hogs Breath Inn which used to be owned by Clint Eastwood.
We had decided that we would drive down towards the Hearst Castle which is in San Simeon. The drive down was absolutely beautiful. We had decided to stay on the coast which meant lots of winding twisting roads. My stomach was okay as long as we were able to take a lot of breaks!! We drove through Big Sur which is not quite what I thought it was. Mind you had we stopped and walked from the little town towards the beach it may have been different. It was still very beautiful.
Just before you get into San Simeon, there is a spot to pull over to view the elephant sea lions. There were literally hundreds of them lying all over the beach!
I had picked a campground in Pismo Beach (south of San Simeon by about an hour) as everyone we have spoken too said that Pismo is a must. As it turned out the campground was not in Pismo but in Oceana, it was an “okay” campground. The worst part really was that the sewer ran uphill in our particular spot. Not great when you are trying to dump the sewer! I will leave that to your imaginations!!! The campground was very clean though. We drove back into Pismo and had dinner at the “world famous “ Splashes. Apparently people come from all over to have their clam chowder. I didn’t have it because I hate clam chowder, but the others did and said it was very good. Splashes is a funny little diner that you line up for, sometimes, blocks to get inside. It only took us about 15 minutes to make it in the door. It is busy, noisy and has very little seating. We did manage to get a very small table. The food is very good
Hearst Castle
We took a day trip from Pismo beach, back north to San Simeon to tour the Hearst Castle.
In 1919 William Randolph Hearst hired an architect to build a house on top of the hill at his ranch in San Simeon. The building of this house took from 1919 to 1947 to “complete”. The architect was a woman named Julia Morgan and she designed this as a Mediterranean revival estate. It was filled with Mr Hearst’s arts and antiques that he had been collecting over the years from all over the world. Some of which are Egyptian artifacts and are more then 3000 years old. The estate was named La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill). Hearst died in 1951 and in 1954 it became a California State park. In 1958 it opened to visitors. Today it is known as Casa Grande and the Hearst Castle.
In 1919 William Randolph Hearst hired an architect to build a house on top of the hill at his ranch in San Simeon. The building of this house took from 1919 to 1947 to “complete”. The architect was a woman named Julia Morgan and she designed this as a Mediterranean revival estate. It was filled with Mr Hearst’s arts and antiques that he had been collecting over the years from all over the world. Some of which are Egyptian artifacts and are more then 3000 years old. The estate was named La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill). Hearst died in 1951 and in 1954 it became a California State park. In 1958 it opened to visitors. Today it is known as Casa Grande and the Hearst Castle.
There are three different tours to choose from. We took the “grand” tour which was a tour of the grounds and the main floor of the Castle. Not only the grounds were spectacular, but so was the castle and the artifacts inside. This tour is well worth going to if you are ever in the area.
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| Egyptian, about 3000 years old |
Russ took way more photo's with his camera, but I forgot to have him email them to me so I could put them into the blog.
We spent two nights in the Pismo area. The weather was warm in the daytime, but very cold in the evenings. We all were in agreement that we wanted to head to a hot dry climate. So we said our good-bye to the coast and headed inland towards Arizona.
We spent two nights in the Pismo area. The weather was warm in the daytime, but very cold in the evenings. We all were in agreement that we wanted to head to a hot dry climate. So we said our good-bye to the coast and headed inland towards Arizona.
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