Road Trip 2012, Day 7: Big Sur, Monterey & San Fran

One thing we had discovered on the way to our campground at Arroyo Seco was that we were going to completely miss “Big Sur,” which is supposed to be the consummate Pacific coast drive. We decided we couldn’t be out here and miss that. So, being us, we decided to drive west. No, we didn’t have any clear idea of what road to take or anything, we just knew we needed to be on the other side of the mountain. We took something that seemed to be heading the right direction and happened upon an Army training camp, Fort Liggett. Fortunately, the guy at the gate told us to keep going across the little bridge and on through the mountains. Unfortunately, the MP’s didn’t like our 20 MPH over the 10 MPH bridge and we got pulled over in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, their radio service was crap and they couldn’t check out our registration and they just gave up, giving us a verbal warning.

The drive was pretty unbelievable: huge drops, scenic vistas and crazy curves. Eventually we made it to the Pacific Ocean.

The drive from there to Monterey was pretty awesome, but I’d be lying if I said it was the most incredible thing I’d seen. Now maybe the hype kind of made it not too jaw-dropping, but I kind of saw it as “west Texas rolling mountains meet the Pacific.” If you’ve never seen west Texas mountains, then maybe it would be more of an OMG kind of thing. Don’t get me wrong, it was worth seeing, it’s just that other things in my life have wowed me more. Neither Brad nor I regret the several crazy hours it took to get us there, but I’m not booking our next vacation along that section of coast.

We finally made it to Monterey. The town was cute, but the breeze was terribly chilly. Even Brad bought a jacket. We decided to forgo the Monterey Aquarium. At first I had been really, really excited about going there, but the more I thought about it the more I remembered all the other aquariums I’ve been to and the diving and snorkeling, too.  Besides, we totally did NOT have the time to spend there…

…We needed to get to our GoCar tour!!!

Thanks to one of those group deal coupon websites, we got a twilight tour of San Francisco for like $30 per car. The cute little car has GPS built in so as long as you’re following its directions it will tell you all about the area, like how Telegraph Hill has a population of wild conures and how the merchants at Point Park would watch to see what types of cargo were coming in. They were a blast to drive and we got lots of laughs and stares, especially as we drove down the curviest street, Lombard.

After our tour we raced back to our hotel to meet my brother, Brandon and his significant other (fiance? girlfriend? Need clarification!), Ayuri. Brandon and I had never met before; he’s one of my two half-brothers who both grew up in California.

We met excitedly and trotted off to find some good grub, ending up at a pizza place called “Patxi’s Chicago Pizza.” We ate way too much, talked tons and really enjoyed each other’s company. The girls were surprisingly well behaved and I think we had a great night. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with Brandon & Ayuri.

Our hotel, the Capri Motel, was a great deal – perfect location near the marina district, free parking and free wifi. The only issue was that it only had mini-blinds and no curtains. Since it was east-facing this was kind of a huge deal because at sunrise we were utterly blinded. Well, at least that got us up and moving pretty early so we could enjoy some more of San Fran before we had to drive out to see the redwoods.

Road Trip 2012, Day 6: From LA to Arroyo Seco

This day started in a very untraditional vacation manner – with haircuts. I finally convinced Caroline that getting a haircut in Hollywood would be the ultimate of coolness so we walked up the street from our hotel to the Supercuts, which opened at 8am. We literally sat on the curb waiting for the doors to be unlocked so we wouldn’t have to wait – we wanted to get on the road!

Note that I’m sportin’ my new GAP jacket (and like 2 layers under it). Yeah, I don’t know what’s wrong with my family that they all wear little, teensy clothes when it’s frigid and only in the 60’s!

We once again packed up the Sequoia and hit the road. This time – and this is the only time it’s happened – we didn’t have quite the sense of how to get where we were going. The key is that we wanted to get to the Pacific Coast Highway but our GPS was all set on taking us on major interstates more inland. We finally pulled over and a nice police officer helped us get going to the right way.

At a suggestion from Paula & Bob, we drove up the coast to Piedras Blancas beach where there is a population of elephant seals that hang out in the sunshine. It was a great suggestion. We’ve now swum with harbor seals and mooed with elephant seals!

This is a crazy lone male who kept popping his head up and bellowing for 20 seconds or so.

After the beach we headed a good bit inland toward our campground, Arroyo Seco. I have no official idea what that means, but I think it’s something like “deep in the mountain, far from anything and cold.” It’s very difficult to reserve camping spots in California in the summer and this campground was between LA and SF so I figured it would work out. It could have been better, could have been worse. The drive there was a LOT like driving through west Texas: rolling hills of brown grasses dotted with trees. However, we did hit some farming areas and they looked kinda cool.

The night was freezing. Like totally, massively freezing. I think it hit around 42 degrees. Eeek.