Penultimate Day

Sunday 4 November 2018

We awoke early but only because the clocks went back an hour overnight so our 6.30am awakening would have been a 7.30am awakening yesterday morning.  So we made use of the extra hour to lie in bed watching telly, reading our tablets etc.

Beth had warned us that the breakfast provided here was not much chop (indeed, not much of anything) so we decided to treat ourselves to a cooked breakfast at a cafe as after 3 weeks of cereal, toast and bagels something cooked and savoury appealed.  We obviously picked a Sunday morning favourite with the locals as we had a 25 minute wait for a table but the cafe ‘First Awakenings’  was on the outside of a shopping arcade so we passed the time window shopping and Jenny practiced her shooting in an arcade game.  Not much incentive to hit the frog target though because it squirted water at you if you did!

Didn’t seem that long until our name was called (people still queuing as we went in – by this time they were telling people it would be a 45 minute wait and they were still happy to wait!) and we sat down and then had a hard time deciding what to have – so many options!  Eventually Larry chose the breakfast dish which is best described as a like a potato rosti with fried eggs on top.  I had an omelette filled with bacon, avacoda and cheese and with a pile of the potato/bacon on the side.  Huge servings and we probably got about 2/3 of the way through.  Larry was thrilled that he actually found the plate at the bottom of the dish in one spot!

Waddled out and then negotiated the one way streets of Monterey to find parking and headed into the Aquarium just after opening time.  It really is a very good complex and well worth the entry fee.  We headed straight to the sea otters and were there just before feeding time so that was very interesting and well as entertaining.  Sea otters are much bigger than I had expected and so damn cute.  As these ones are well fed they have plenty of play time and were happily interacting with kids along the glass.  Just gorgeous.

We wandered around the rest of the displays and dodged the many pushers and wheelchairs to see into most tanks.  We were particularly taken with the jellyfish exhibit and the very, very tiny plankton that look like mini lighthouses when you look at them close up.

Left the Aquarium about lunchtime and wandered around the Cannery Row area looking at the touristy shops.  We would have bought a “Hairy Otter” T-shirt if we had any room left in our cases – such a cute otter in his Harry Potter glasses!!  Bought some drinks and found the car and then took the 17 mile drive south.

We followed the pamphlet and stopped at most of the points of interest to make the most of the $10.25 entry fee for the road and Larry watched the golfers enviously and I checked out some of the palatial houses enviously.  A couple that I would seriously contemplate buying with my Lotto win!

We emerged at the southern end and drove through Carmel-by-the-Sea before the GPS sent us down some local roads (also very interesting  to see the cute residential houses) and to a luggage place we had asked it to find at the Crossroads shopping centre.  Well I think this shopping centre is for the wealthy that either live in Pebble Beach or at Carmel Heights as it was your $700 type luggage so our idea of buying another small flight case for all the extra stuff was quickly rethought.  Went into a Starbucks instead and had a coffee and a bite to eat – we hadn’t felt like lunch but by 3ish we were feeling like something – then headed back to Pacific Grove.

Our last stop for the day was the Monarch Butterfly reserve around the corner from our motel.  They come here to nest in large quantities over winter and start arriving about now.  There was a docent there who had a couple of telescopes set up to find the clusters who had already arrived.  They are pretty hard to see with the naked eye as they cluster on the eucalyptus (!) branches at such a height that from ground level they just make the branch look a bit darker than the others.  So we were lucky to be able to see them through the telescope and see how tightly they cluster.  Would be an amazing sight when there are millions more here in a couple of months.

Headed on back to the motel and started organising our bags and before we knew it, it was getting dark outside.  The first night of non daylight saving had caught us out!  We drove down to Lover’s Point and went to the Beach House for dinner but unfortunately we missed the sunset and had to make do with twinkling lights over the water instead.  We spoilt ourselves with a cocktail, lovely dinners, salad and dessert tonight as it is the last proper dinner of our holiday.  Lovely steak and shrimp in garlicky butter and a caramel-apple cheesecake.  The salad was the Beach House special and included candied pecans, cranberries and goats cheese.  I do like American salads as they have lots of interesting things in them and are usually not swimming in dressing.

Went to bed with a seriously sore throat (even after all the garlicky butter) and Larry rang Qantas to find out what to do if we are too sick to travel tomorrow and they said, “No worries, we can upgrade you to business class for $10,000 if you like”!!!!!  Hmm, hopefully will feel better tomorrow.  At that price I will certainly try!

It Never Rains in California

Saturday 03 Nov 2018

Nicely decked out breakfast room this morning – a crock pot of oatmeal meant porridge for a change.  The day was warm, blue and sunny – the eternal Californian summer –so we walked over to the beach again and checked out our seal friends who were already in the water fishing. 

We took off up Highway 1 and, as both of us would rather look at scenery and seals than pay money to wander around in somebody’s house who had more money than us, decided to give Hearst Castle a miss and just spend the day meandering up the coast.

Stopped just north of San Simeon to check out the elephant seal vista point.  Well there were plenty of seals there – not convinced they were elephant seals – and we spent a while watching their antics.  So many personalities – those that are happy with their own space, those that need to snuggle and those that need to be a pest and barge and/or flop on top of somebody else.  Then those that want to be active in the water and those that want to shout instructions at others.  (We called that one Brendon after Brendon Goddard!)

Back in the car and drove on.  It was at this point, as the road started going up and up and getting windier that the gas alert ping went off.  Slight stress as we should have fuelled up in Cambria before taking off but a quick bit of googling and found we could gas (albeit expensive gas) at Ragged Point.  So we stopped there and put a half tank in and grabbed Larry his ‘heart starter’ Coke and on we went.

A few people had suggested to us that we were doing this road in the wrong direction as we wouldn’t be on the scenic side of the road but we decided that, in the end, going north with the sun behind us was probably better and there were plenty of turn outs to pull into to check out the views.  There was a reasonable amount of sea mist over the water and coast but this burned off as the day got warmer and warmer.

We pulled into the Julia Pfeiffer State Park and paid our $10 to the ranger.  Unfortunately our National Park pass is no good in these state parks.  We got our money’s worth though as we availed ourselves of the facilities and ended up going to two other parks today.  Walked the path to the coast past a tinkling stream (luckily we had already availed ourselves of the facilities!) and checked out the cliffs and the McWay waterfall from the viewing point.  Very pretty and the water was a lovely aqua blue.

Warm enough now for the top to go down on the car and we lived our dream of cruising up the California coast on a warm sunny day in our Mustang.  The drive was very scenic with stunning coastal views and it was also interesting to see the bits of road being reconstructed after the landslides earlier this year.  Certainly a big civil engineering exercise and we were sometimes glad of the netted rocky cliffs above our head (all the more obvious with the top down).

Soon we saw Nepenthe which is a restaurant with stunning views that Margaret had recommended as a lunch stop.  Well it is obviously popular and arriving there just after midday on a Saturday meant that every possible car parking space was taken and there were at least 10 cars just hovering waiting for a space.  So it would have been lovely but just not doable today unfortunately.

We continued on and stopped at the Big Sur State Park.  We had had some morning tea so weren’t desperate for lunch and therefore decided to hike the Valley View trail and have a late lunch.  We were almost thwarted again as all the carparks for the park were also all full but as we were heading back out we happened across  a space in the first carpark and so were able to hike.  Perhaps we wouldn’t have been so happy about it if we had known what we were in for!  The first part of the walk across to Big Sur Lodge was lovely as it followed a creek line and was shady and then passed through a small grove of Californian redwoods.  We found the Valley View trailhead near the lodge and then started up and up.  At first it wasn’t too bad as it wended up a small valley and was in the shade but then it basically went up the side of the hill and it was hot, dry, sunny and dusty.  Think climbing Reabold Hill in the middle of the day in January, complete with flies.  We had our water bottles with us and climbed for a good 45 minutes and I think we were probably only about 10 minutes from the top when we decided we’d seen enough of the valley  and that it was all a bit too much like being at home and the only bit that had been really attractive and different had been the bit right down on the valley floor.  In addition, by this time it was getting on for 2pm and we were getting hungry and needed a cold drink as our water bottles were now warm and nearly empty.

Descended quickly to the car and drove on to a set of hotels/cafes etc a bit further along the road.  Unfortunately a number of them had decided that it was a good idea to stop serving at 2pm on the dot even though on a warm, sunny Saturday they could stay open all day and make money all day, so we had to make do with a toasted cheese sandwich at the Big Sur roadhouse.  (Athough admittedly a Big Sur roadhouse is the polar opposite of a Billabong roadhouse!!)  We drove onwards and over the Bixby bridge.  Once again a ridiculous number of cars pulled over into every available space to take a photo – wouldn’t have even been that good as they were taking them facing into the sun – so we drove on and decided to just buy the postcard instead! 

We then headed in to our third State park of the day being the Point Lobos State Park.  I had noted that there was a walk down to a Cypress grove that was lovely.  Once again, the carpark near that trail was chokkers so we continued through the park and found a parking spot on a coastal path.  We got out there and had fun rock hopping and then walked along the coastal path looking out for otters and seals.  We passed a few people who were excitedly taking pictures but we soon realised that the huge kelp forests included seaweed with heads that bob up and down and look just like seal or otter heads.  Larry and I thought we did actually see a couple of otters swimming in the kelp (because the head didn’t just keep appearing in the same spot) but it was hard to tell.  It wasn’t until we walked back along the path to the car that we noted two seals on a rock nearby – they weren’t moving and in the other direction had been dark and blended in with the rock – on the way back one moved and was light enough to realise wasn’t a rock.

By this time it was after 4pm so we set the GPS for Pacific Grove and drove on to our hotel.  As we drove through Carmel there was a football game just starting at the High School and we could see the cheerleaders and hear the pep band.  Classic America!

Checked into the motel and collapsed into the chairs to check in on the Wifi.  I remember from Beth’s blog that once they checked in here they walked down to the beach.  We were just far too exhausted to contemplate that so drove down instead.  We noted that the turf maintenance programme has relocated to the golf course across the road but other than that it was all as Beth had described.  We had changed into our thongs at the motel so were able to walk down to the beach at Point Pinos and dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean.  A bit chilly – will leave it to the seals.

We then drove into the Pacific Grove main street to find a market to buy some drinks and whilst there decided to just buy some microwave meals, frozen desserts and head back to the motel for a quiet night in.  After nearly 3 weeks we have tired of having to go out for dinner every night, not to mention the cost!  Towards the beginning of the holiday when we were breakfasting in our room we had bought a pack of plastic cutlery.  It has stood us in good stead and we will be sure to travel with a set of cutlery in the future.

So a quiet night in and showers to wash off dust, sand and sweat.  We were just not expecting it to be this hot in November and having just reread Beth’s blog and seen the photos I think it is warmer here now than it was when B&D were here weeks ago – Beth is wearing a jumper at Big Sur!!

Use the Ponies

Friday 02 Nov 2018

On the road again today after repacking our suitcases to cram souvenirs around superfluous jumpers and long pants – this trip has certainly been warmer than expected for late fall!

 

 Our outstanding GPS took us on a peak hour freeway tour of Northern Hollywood/LA. Eventually we made to the Pacific Highway and went north past the well to do’s that live along the coast. Malibu has some expensive real estate and we continued past until we got to Carpinteria State Beach where we politely declined paying $10 to park in one car park and instead parked for free in a side road on the other side of the kerb from the car park AND closer to the beach.  Go figure!  We stopped at this beach because Jenny’s research had said it had tar pools where the native Americans used to make canoes and also rocky pools to explore. The bit we stopped at, however, basically consisted of a very nice stretch of white sand.  So we basically spent 5 minutes going ‘What a nice beach with very nice white sand’ and then hopped back in the car.  Thank goodness we hadn’t parked for $10!

Onwards to Santa Barbara where we decided it was lunch time. Called into the Shoreline Cafe and had a very nice lunch and Larry decided to test his ability to drink beer again after being sick for the last two weeks. We can report that the trial was successful so he followed it up with another to ensure it was an appropriate test. 

Back into the Mustang and after all that beer it was Jenny behind the wheel.  We decided to put the roof down and headed inland as we were headed for Solvang which is a Danish inspired town. Well it was 34deg by the time we got to the town and our ears and necks were burning as it was hot. A very nice town and we had a Danish from the bakery and Jenny hadn’t had a coffee today yet so that was sorted.

Back into the Mustang, this time with the roof back on and we took some back roads as it was interesting to see the massive fruit and veg growing farms. From what we could tell they are strawberries, lettuce, broccoli , grapes and artichokes etc all ground grown fruit and veg.

Called into Pismo beach for a look and quite nice.  We walked onto the jetty past an old bloke tunelessly singing away into a microphone (not quite sure why he is allowed?) and chatted to some guys fishing.  He very nicely explained what he was trying to catch and how to catch it but wasn’t’ having much luck.  We have found everywhere we have gone in America that the people are nice and friendly and more than willing to have a chat.  Back into the car this time and we decided as it was a bit later in the day we would try with the top down and off we went towards Cambia. Well first the windows went up and after about 20 minutes we had to stop at a red light and the top went back on. It was freezing as the temp had dropped to 18deg but the wind chill factor on the highway caused it to feel much lower.

Arrived in Cambria at our motel just in time for sunset and it was pretty good. We went to the beach and watched the seals poke their heads out of the water as if to say peek a boo before going under and coming up again close by to repeat it.  We stayed watching them for quite a while until the sea went that oily mirror grey that it does just after sunset and then headed back to the motel for jumpers and long pants as it had grown quite chilly.

A very nice dinner at a restaurant close by of seafood chowder for Jenny and Larry had seafood pasta washed down with a couple of Coors Light stubbies to confirm the earlier tests were accurate.  We then had a shower and grappled with the most interesting tap we have come across on our travels and that includes the weird boxes in the UK.  This one consisted of one tap but you had to tilt it, push it and turn it to get the water and temperature right.  It seemed a bit ironic that there are signs everywhere telling you how desperately short of water Cambria is and yet they give you a shower tap that means you waste 3 minutes worth of water down the plughole trying to get the water right!!

And so to bed.  A big driving day today, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more leisurely.

LA is a Big Freeway

Thurs 1 November 2018

A bit of a sleep in this morning after our late night and a leisurely breakfast.  We then tried to work out the best way to get down to LAX to pick up the hire car.  Public transport involved about 3 trains and a shuttle, the airport shuttle involved a two or three bus/train swaps also.  In the end we thought we’d hang the expense and Uber it down there.  Well in the end, although it took over 40 minutes to get there (and this is 10am when you’d think peak hour would be over) it only cost just over $20 and the airport shuttle thing cost about $16 so worked out ok.

Dropped at the Alamo door and did the paperwork and then you are sent off to the carpark to pick a car!  Larry’s early birthday present to Jenny is an upgrade to a convertible and there were two mustangs and a beetle to choose from.  We, of course, went for the newest of the Mustang convertibles even though it is a dark grey instead of red.  Still it’s pretty cool and we will look the part driving up the coast tomorrow.

We set the GPS for the Westfield Century City as Larry was hoping to pick up some ‘cheap’ Nikes.  Well the Westfield Century City is very upmarket with a Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nordstrum and lots of glam shops.  It even had a display of fancy Tesla cars!  We found Larry some new shoes at The Finishing Line (think Athlete’s Foot) and then found a big indoor food hall where we bought sushi.  It all sounds like any Westfield but it was all much posher – the tables in the outdoor food area had inserts of potted plants etc and the toilets were as good as a five star hotel.  I couldn’t help comment to Larry that the place was the polar opposite to our location 24 hours previously!

Eventually found the car in the large carpark and headed to the UCLA store I had found on Google as Kate’s request for souvenir had been something with UCLA on it.  Well the store ended up being in the middle of campus so that was an experience.  It was also an experience getting there as the GPS took us through Beverley Hills and then cut through a couple of very nice suburbs (but think Claremont rather than Peppermint Grove) to get there.  We parked in a visitor carpark and wandered the pathways with the students, some of which had their white coats on, and eventually found the store which was HUGE and had every piece of UCLA merchandise you could possibly imagine.  Eventually found something suitable – wait and see Kate!

Made our way back to the car and set the GPS to take us to Griffith Park.  Well that was an exercise in freeway driving as the GPS basically took us north, then east, then south so we could approach the park from the other side.  Eventually we escaped the freeways (which weren’t that terrifying as they are so congested you trundle along and have plenty of time to change lanes etc) and drove the much more pleasant and winding roads of Griffith Park past the LA zoo, golf courses, merry go rounds etc.  Eventually wound our way up the hill towards the Griffith Observatory.  We stopped at the ‘free’ carpark intending to walk to the top until we saw just how long and steep a walk it was and noticed lots of other cars continuing on up the hill.  We followed them up and managed to find a parking space towards the top and happily paid the parking fee as it would be cheaper than the money spent on heart medication if we’d attempted that hill!

Wandered around the observatory and could see the Hollywood Sign on the hills.   It appeared a reasonable size in real life but comes out as tiny in photos for some reason.  Oh well, at least we can say that we’ve seen it, at least we can say we were there.  Bought snacks in the cafe and were interested to see a sign in the seating area warning of rattlesnakes so were careful to look under our table before we sat down.  The Observatory has great views all over Los Angeles and you get an idea of how spread out the city is.  Only criticism with the lookouts is that there are no signs pointing out landmarks – not very tourist friendly really, I guess you are just supposed to know.

We left there about 4.30pm as we were not sure how long it would take us to get back to the hotel with LA traffic but it ended up being an absolute breeze.  The GPS took us the one side of the park we hadn’t yet traversed and took us in a straight line back to Hollywood.  We even got green lights the whole way there.  It wasn’t til within 200m of the hotel that we hit any congestion and the most difficult part was actually getting back out onto the main road to access the hotel carpark after we had got the parking pass from reception.

As we had some spare time we ran a load of washing through the machines and then headed back down onto Hollywood Boulevard for the last bit of souvenir shopping and then an early dinner at a French Crepe place – yummy!

Halloween

Wed 31 October 2018

We didn’t really have much planned for today other than heading down to the beach so we thought we would do that first up.  Well that was pretty much the day done as we decided to put a day pass worth of money onto the metro cards we got yesterday to go to Universal and to go on the train.  Well we certainly learned our lesson – don’t use public transport in LA.  It exists but it is not great.  We unfortunately JUST missed the first train then had a 20 minute wait for the next one.  Then we had to take two different lines to get us to Santa Monica which took us on a giant loop around the city rather than just going west.  And the train stops for traffic lights!!  We eventually got to Santa Monica and walked down and onto the pier and took photos of the ‘end of Route 66’ sign and looked at the wide expanse of flat beaches and the hazy horizon.  Well it was okay but I guess we are spoilt by our much nicer beaches although I must admit that they keep the beaches in good nick – they are nicely raked, there are toilet blocks every 200m or so and rubbish bins aplenty.

We thought we would walk down to Venice Beach and that was a pleasant enough walk.  There are separate bike and pedestrian paths and MOST people keep to the right one but there was always a slight fear of someone whooshing past and grabbing a bag from us if we let our guard down so we made sure we kept a tight grip on our stuff!  We stopped around the Ocean Park area for lunch at a seaside cafe with chairs and umbrellas (LA is unseasonably warm and dry – about 30 degree maximums).  We shared a fish and chips and commented (quietly to each other) that for once the portion looked a bit small by American standards but would certainly do us for lunch, only for the lady to come out 5 minutes later with more fish saying “Sorry, I thought the fish portion was a bit small so I’ve done you another serve”.  So we had an American size lunch after all!

Walked on past many palm trees and a variety of architectural styles of condominiums and then hit Venice Beach.  Well I think it was a combination of the seedy tat shops selling t shirts, shells and hand painted ‘peace’ signs reminiscent of Bali, the lines of tent people selling even crap

pier stuff on the edge of the road, the genuine weirdos wandering around,  the people who were obviously either pickpockets or drug dealers and then all the normal people dressed abnormally for Halloween but the place had a distinctly sinister air and was seedy as f**k and, after a quick look at Muscle Beach (disappointing, nobody there) we found the safest road we could to take us back to the road and then just missed the bus to take us back to the station.

Larry unsuccessfully tried to find an Uber but another bus came along surprisingly quickly (I think because it was a Big Blue Bus which is a different company than the Metro buses – we found that out when the bus wouldn’t accept our card but the nice bus driver took pity on us and let us ride for free and pointed out where to get off – big shout out to Big Blue Buses of LA!)  We hopped on the next train out of there although I must say the area the bus drive along between Ocean Beach and Santa Monica looked quite nice and upmarket) and eventually got back to Hollywood/Highland station about 3.30pm.  So that was most of the day wasted unfortunately.

We consoled ourselves with shakes and sundaes at the Ghiardelli chocolate shop and soda fountain and then thought we should go and see a movie seeing as we are in the movie making capital of the world.  The TCL theatres were advertising ‘First Man’ in 4D which sounded exciting (the seats move, you get covered in moon dust, that sort of thing) but then the guy at the counter said it was a typo and just a regular screening that evening.  They were, however, also advertising a preview screening of Bohemian Rhapsody in the Imax theatre which is located in the original Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (the one behind the Hollywood hand and footprints) and as we both love Queen we got tickets to that instead.

Headed back to the room for a freshen up and then went to the screening.  Well what a fabulous time.  Not only the stunning and historic surroundings but a happy and engaged audience.  It was Halloween night and everyone was in a festive mood.  We had a lovely chat to the American guy sitting next to us who was also a Queen fan before the movie and then as it started everyone whooped and clapped and then proceeded to sing along and stomp and clap to all the songs.  It’s a great movie and the sound system was brilliant and they play a lot of the songs right through instead of just portions of it and the movie is funny and sad and just brilliant.  Go see it!!

We came out onto Hollywood Boulevard to a carnival scene – everyone dressed in Halloween costumes, kids with their trick or treat bags and all sorts of wild and wacky things happening.  The place was heaving but it was a happy atmosphere and there was a heavy police and security presence so that it all felt reasonably safe.  We jostled our way back up the street and back to our room and then took quite a while to wind down after such an exciting evening.