Pismo Beach

Sat, 1/7:  Uck.  Predicting heavy winds to 40mph this morning.  Called Pismo Coast RV to see if we could check in early, hoping to get there before the winds got too bad.  They said no problem, so we left about 8:30.  Yes, it was windy.  Fortunately, the winds were coming from the SW and that was the direction we were going most of the time so the wind was right at us.  As we got closer to Pismo Beach, the winds got stronger.  We checked in and were set up by 2:30.  The RV park was really nice.  It sits right on Hwy1, behind a sand dune.  Most all the traffic is on Hwy 101, so it's not really noisy at all.  There are RR tracks nearby and we heard them the first evening, but not after that.  Must have been the direction of the wind.  Met my sister, Carol, for dinner at Figueroa Brewing in Arroyo Grande which was near our park.  Nice visit and we made plans for the next day.  It rained heavily all night. 

Sun, 1/8:   Dave got up Sunday morning and immediately went for a walk down the beach boardwalk.  He moves way faster than I do in the morning.  Obviously the weather cleared up.  I took this fantastic sunrise.  Carol met us at our coach mid-morning and we went sightseeing.  We were curious about the Trilogy at Rio Vista.  We'd been there when they first opened and wanted to see how it had progressed.  They had no current models open.  Their next division is being developed but not ready yet.  They had planned for 2- 18 hole golf courses and 1- 12 hole course.  They found that their ownership wasn't that into golf, so rather than develop the 2nd 18 hole course, they planted a vineyard and their next division will be built around the vineyard.  They will harvest and produce wine from the vineyard.  Sounds like a pretty cool idea and a nice area for houses.  We then drove north to Avila Beach for lunch.  It's a quaint 1890s vintage seaside fishing town but their main industry is now tourism.  In the late 1990s, Unocal began the cleanup of decades of old oil seepage discovered years earlier from corroding pipes under the township, and which had caused a massive oil spill under the town.  Over 6,750 truckloads of contaminated material was sent to a local landfill, and replaced with clean sand.  Many of the town's homes and businesses, including several blocks of Front Street and Front Street Buildings, were razed as a result of the quarter mile wide excavation and replaced with new buildings, homes and businesses.  It's really cute.  We had a really nice lunch at the Custom House.  It was packed, so we knew we were in the right place.

Carol and I went back to the coach for a visit and glass of wine while Dave when next door to the Pismo Beach State Park Golf Course.  It's a 9 hole (flooded due to heavy rains) par-3 course.  There were a few "lakes" in the middle of the fairways, but Dave had lots of golf balls and rain gear and waterproof shoes and ball retriever....etc. etc.  Yuk.  He's more of a trooper than I am, but he loved it.  Carol and I had a good visit and said our goodbyes.

.....and then the rains came.  About 5:00pm the monsoons began.  It poured all night!  Mid-evening I asked Dave where our life preservers were (he didn't think it was funny).  We were watching the river flowing in the street in front of our coach and a little concerned about the creek adjacent to the RV park.  

Mon, 1/9:  When I got up this morning, I checked the weather and they had a flash flood warning in effect due to high tides.  I was glad we had a huge sand dune between the park and the beach.  Gad zooks.  Did we bring this with us from Washington???  I didn't bring waterproof shoes, but I'm going shopping soon.

Pismo Beach in front of our RV Park

Pismo Beach from the pier

Heading to Anaheim tomorrow.

Carmel and Pebble Beach

Thu, 1/6:  This was a wonderful day.  The sun was out and we headed south to Carmel in the morning.  The sun was out, but the wind was blowing hard and it was chilly.  We parked in downtown Carmel and walked down Ocean Avenue to the beach.

Carmel Beach below Pebble Beach Golf Links

Pebble Beach Golf Links from Carmel

  

 

The beach was beautiful, and one of the things on Dave's bucket list was to walk the beach down to below the Pebble Beach Golf Club.  It's the beach you see on TV when the professionals are playing their big tournament at Pebble Beach.  We walked north as far as we could go.  There were golfers above us.  We thought for sure we'd find some golf balls, but the sand is so white and fine, they were't visible if they were there.  The walk south was much more comfortable with the wind to our backs.  We climbed the sand dunes back up into town and wandered the streets window shopping....there are some very expensive shops in Carmel. 

Roofline on an old quaint shop in Carmel

Artistic shingles

After putting in a couple of hours of walking Carmel, we headed south to the Carmel Mission (aka The Bascilica of Mission San Carlos Borromeo Del Rio Carmelo).  The mission is just one of 21 missions on El Camino Real (King's Road) created as a travel route by Spaniards.  Each mission was designed to be about a day's journey from the next (approx. 30 miles).  

Carmel Mission

Padre Junipero Serra founded the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo in 1771.  It was the 2nd California mission constructed and was the home base for Father Serra and his staff. The first mission buildings were destroyed in the mid-19th century and rebuilt.  The original bell tower dome still exists.  Today the buildings have been restored and serve as an active parish church as well as museum, concert venue and an on-site children's school.  We spent over an hour wandering the grounds.  It was such beautiful day and with the blue sky and sun shining on the mission, we got some beautiful photos.

 

On to 17-Mile Drive and Pebble Beach.  There is a $10 entry fee to drive on the privately owned and world-famous road called 17-Mile Drive.  The 2-lane narrow road is a loop that connects Carmel with Pacific Grove and follows the coastline.  The map received at the entry point gives points of interest with 21 scenic stops along the drive .  Much of the drive is lined with huge mansions behind tall fences, so the coastline isn't completely visible except at the scenic pullouts.  Our destination was Pebble Beach Golf Links for lunch.  It was too bad the weather was a bit chilly, because eating outside at The Bench would have been fun.  Instead, we opted to dine in the upstairs Stillwater Grill.  We knew it would be expensive, and it was, but the food and service were excellent and the view was unbeatable.  Our waiter told us that the current price to golf at Pebble Beach was $495+ per person.  Guess lunch was pretty affordable in comparison (also, they refunded us our $10 entry fee).  After lunch we went down to the 18th green and took some selfies and pictures of the beach below that we walked earlier in the day.  We wandered in and out of the expensive golf shops at Pebble Beach and slowly wound our way back home.  Pretty fantastic day

View from restaurant - Pebble Beach 18th Fairway

Pebble Beach 18th Green

18th Fairway Seawall

Carmel Beach from Pebble Beach Golf Links

We're at Pebble Beach!!

Fri, 1/7:  Well, we can't afford to play Pebble Beach Golf Links but we can afford to play Peter Hay Golf Course at Pebble Beach.  It's a 9 hole, par-3, 748-yard course located across the street from Pebble Beach Golf Links.  The layout twists and turns around "Momentum", a 15' bronze sculpture that was commissioned for the 2000 U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods.

                                    

The course caters to families and juniors, but it was a perfect spot for me to warm up after not playing since October.  Dave's been easing his shoulder into golf again with these 9-hole courses so it worked well for both of us.  The sun was shining again and though chilly, we didn't have the wind we had the day before.  It was a fun round and we can now say we played golf at Pebble Beach 😊

  

Now for lunch!  Dave found a roadhouse near our RV Park called Tarpy's so we decided we would go there for a late lunch and then we'd get back to the motorcoach early enough to get our departure chores done.  Tarpy's turned out to be a great find.  Really a cute, unique building and quite a history.  It's named after a man named Matt Tarpy who was lynched on this site in March of 1873 for the murder of his neighbor over a property dispute.  He'd been arrested for the murder and put in jail.  A mob of about 400, led by two bitter enemies of Tarpy's, overpowered the jail and grabbed Tarpy.  He was taken by wagon to the fateful tree in the area that later became known as Tarpey Flats.  The beautiful stone building that now houses the restaurant and wine bar was originally owned by the Ryan Ranch family homestead.  It dates back to the early 1900's and took the family about 10 years to build.  The property was bought and sold a number of times but in 1992 was purchased by a restaurant duo from Carmel and opened as Tarpy's Roadhouse.  We had an absolutely delicious lunch.  I had a grilled cheese sandwich that was thick french bread with lots of Gruyere and Fontina, sauteed Broccolini, Mushrooms and Truffel (I've never had a grilled cheese with broccoli and mushrooms).  Certainly not a diet dish, but it was fabulous.  Dave had a salad with avacado, citrus, lentils, tahini-cumin dressing, sunflower seeds and grilled salmon (I had a bite....it was yummy).  Of course we had a local Montery beer to wash it all down.  The restaurant consists of multiple rooms as well as an outdoor patio (not during off-season).  We ate in the main building with a vintage bar area and extensive wine cellar.  Well worth the stop.

Leaving for Pismo Beach tomorrow.

 

   

Rainy day drive & historic walking tour

Capitola

Tue, 1/3:  Today was a drizzly day, so we decided to do a driving excursion.  Headed north to Seaside so Dave could check out the two golf courses located at the site of the old military installation of Fort Ord.  I must say, both courses do look really nice...beautiful views from fairways lined with gorgeous wind-swept Monterey Pines and Cypresses.  Guess we’ll golf there next time through (when Dave’s shoulder is in better condition).  We continued north to Moss Landing to check out the KOA RV Park.  We’d considered staying there but now we’ve seen it, we’re glad we stayed closer in.  It’s a nice park, but it would be more suited to a quick overnight if we were passing through.  Moss Landing is just a wide spot in the road…not really a town.  For some reason, Dave wanted to go to Santa Cruz.  Along the way we stopped at SeaCliff State Beach to check out the camping options.  This park has beachside camping (a few with full hookups).  We thought we’d check it out for future.  We continued north toward Santa Cruz and got off Hwy 1 early.  We came upon an unexpected surprise...Capitola Village.  It was quite charming and reminded us of something you'd see in Europe.

We finally wound our way into Santa Cruz where we’d planned to have lunch. 

Santa Cruz Beach

Everything in Santa Cruz is a one way street!!!!  We tried to get to Beach Street that runs by the shoreline and amusement park, but no matter how hard we tried, we’d get on a one way street with no turns or a dead end.  We went around and around and around and was so frustrating, we just wanted to get back on Hwy 1 and head south.  Even that wasn’t easy to do.  When we finally did get to Hwy 1, we found a McDonalds had lunch and drove south.  We stopped to check out Marina Dunes RV Park in Marina because that’s the closest RV Park to Monterey (10 miles) without staying at the Fairgrounds.  It’s a nice park, but backs up to Hwy 1, so it’s really noisy.  We did get out and take a hike over the dunes to the beach.  We had the whole beach to ourselves and the rain just started as we got back to the car.  

It was still early, so we continued into Monterey to check out Fisherman’s Wharf.  It was raining and windy, but hey, we’re from Washington!  We have raincoats and umbrellas so we decided to stroll out on the wharf to see what there was to see.  The whole wharf was lined with seafood restaurants.  Even though the weather was ucky, the restaurants all had people out front giving samples of their clam chowder.  It was like going to Costco on a Saturday.  We stopped at the restaurant at the end of the pier for a beer and enjoy the view (there really wasn’t much of a view with all the rain).  Home for dinner and a movie.

Wed, 1/4:  We had heavy winds and pouring rain during the night.  No branches down or power outages, but lots of noise.  It was still raining in the morning, so we had a leisurely morning and when the rain let up, headed out to do a walking tour of historic Monterey.  The self-guided “Path of History” walking tour consists of 55 historic sites that describe California’s heritage.  We did find out that during off-season, the museums and historic houses on the walking tour aren’t open on Wednesdays.

  Whaling Station

  California's First Theater

 

My maiden name is Stevenson (Robert Louis Stevenson wrote many books here)

 

Even though the buildings weren’t open, we could walk around the buildings and most had information plaques out front.  Each site had a dialogue you could listen to if you called a phone number at each stop.  We must have been gone 2-3 hours (I know I got my 10,000 steps in) and we dodged the rain until near the end.  We stopped at Alvarado Brewery for lunch and tried 2 of their brews.  Home to dry out.

Corning to Monterey

Pacheco Pass

Day 4, 1/1:  Happy New Year!  Next stop Monterey.  This was our longest day of driving, a little over 6 hours.  It was also the beginning of new territory for us.  Rather than leave I-5 north of Sacramento and head to the Bay Area, we continued south on I-5.  It was a pretty drive through lots of farmland and vineyards and the sun came out about Sacramento.  Hallelujah!  Had to get out the sun glasses.  At Los Banos, we took Hwy 152 west over Pacheco Pass.  The road climbed over beautiful grass covered hillsides and followed San Luis Reservoir for about 10 miles before the ascent up the 1300’ pass.  The climb wasn’t bad, but the wind was very strong.  We were glad to get to the other side of the pass where the wind died down.  We followed the river to the intersection of Hwy 156 heading south to Hollister and San Juan Bautista.  At San Juan Bautista we caught Hwy 101 south to the coast where we picked up Hwy 1 into Monterey.  Skies were overcast and it looked like we might need to set up camp in the rain, but we lucked out!

We stayed 6 nights (1/1-1/7) in Monterey at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.  This is not the best RV Park we’ve stayed in and we most likely won't stay here again, but it’s inexpensive in comparison to some other RV parks in the area and right in the middle of town.  The RV park looks like it might have been an afterthought for the fairgrounds.  The entrance had a very narrow gate with quite a deep curbside drainage ditch to navigate.  The camp host recommended we disconnect the car before entering and we’re glad we did that…very easy to drag bottom.  The lower area we camped in sits adjacent to the horse corrals (no, there were no horses and no odor).  It’s a grass/dirt area that has been barked to keep down the mud.  The upper area sites seem to be more suited to smaller rigs and back up to the fence alongside the golf course (no golf balls, thank you...don't want those sites).  The camp host told us there isn’t a level site in the park.  We're believers.  We had difficulty getting our motorhome level.  Once we got what we thought was level and the slides out, we couldn’t get the door open.  Pulled up the jacks and started over until we could get the door open.  It never got 100% level, but we did the best we could.  At least we were able to in and out and lock the door.  In addition to the golf course behind the park, there is also the Monterey Airport.  We’re early risers, so the first flight at 6:03 didn't bother us.  Think the last flight might be about 8pm.  Not big jets out of this airport, so commuters and private jets aren’t too noisy.  Though I’ve painted a bleak picture, this really isn’t a bad spot for the price and we weren't at our site that much anyway (notice how close the fellow on our right is….he pulled in after we did….geez, he had lots of room…not sure why he’s sooo close…must be a newby). 

After we got all set up, we went into old town Monterrey to a brewpub recommended by the campground host.  Peter B’s had a huge selection of beers, many of them their own.  It was happy hour til 6:30, so I had calamari (excellent…not the rings, but calamari fingers) and Dave had a chicken quesadilla and a cup of clam chowder.  Food and brews were very good.  There’s a lot of construction going on in the old section of town for a new conference center, so detours for pedestrians and traffic.

Mon, 1/2:  Dave was dying to go to the driving range, so headed to the golf course behind us while I stayed back and did the laundry and puttered (I’m good at puttering).  It was raining. Who wants to go to the driving range in the rain?  I can do that at home!  In the afternoon we drove to Pacific Grove for some sightseeing.  This is a cute little seaside town with lots of shops and restaurants occupying old houses, streets with cottages covered in weathered shingles and years of sea salt next door to magnificent Victorian homes now converted to B&Bs.  

There was a picturesque walking/biking trail along the rocky coastline, so we stopped for a short walk.  As we were crossing the grassy area to get back to the car, I spotted a folded $ bill in the tall grass.  Wow!  It was $50.

We stopped at Cannery Row on the way back home.  Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey.  It is the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories.  The canneries failed after the collapse of the fishing industry in Monterey Bay in the mid-1950s.  The last cannery closed in 1973.  The street name Cannery Row, was officially designated in January 1958 to honor John Steinbeck and his well-known novel, Cannery Row.  Cannery Row is now a tourist attraction with many restaurants and boutique hotels located in the former cannery buildings.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened in 1984 and is located in the north end of Cannery Row.  We found Cannery Row to resemble Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, with lots of trinket and souvenir shops, ice cream shops, arcades and over-priced restaurants….but it’s a must stop while in Monterey.  

Cannery Row Brewing Co

We stopped for a beer at Cannery Row Brewing Company, located in one of these old brick buildings.  They offered over 70 beers, none of their own, but many California Beers.  Watched part of the Rose Bowl Game and then went home to see the last exciting minutes.