On Friday it was time to head towards warmer climate and for the next three days we would be following the Pacific coast line on our way to LA. We had heard a lot of good things about Highway 1 and we wanted see for ourselves if what we had heard was true or not. We started our drive in a familiar foggy morning from San Francisco and found our way to Highway 1.
On our first day we had a few stops along the coast, first being Pigeon Point lighthouse were we spent a few minutes taking pictures and enjoying the coast. The second stop was a natural bridge formed on the Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. After seeing the one remaing natural of bridge and a very entertaining bird, we had a sushi lunch downtown and before we knew it, we were back on the road.
In Pacific Grove was Friday's main attraction, Point Pinos Lighthouse. Liisa is very interested in lighthouses and we had decided to visit one on each coast. Point Pinos lighthouse was different from our previous lighthouse, Cape Cod Light, in that it was actually inside the lighthouse keeper's house. Also the woman selling us tickets had lived in the lighthouse for a few years in the 50's and knew the place very well.
Our first night on our coastal part of our trip was in Moneterey and more accurately in the Super 8 motel, which was a nice and clean motel. After checking me and Liisa went for a drive around Carmel, which we had read a lot of good things, while Markku stayed in the motel to rest. Carmel was a disappointment. Sure the beach was nice but unless you get your kicks on looking at expensive and big houses by the beach, there's really not much to see. The town also seemed more suited for elder people with lots of money. Monterey on the other hand was much more to our liking and we ended up having a very nice late dinner in a bar called The Mucky Duck.
Our first plan was to go eat in the 17 Mile Drive which was supposed to be a beautiful drive and have great places to eat in. I'm sure the food in the restaurants are good but as we had left our Lexus at home and our Ferrari didn't have enough room for all three of us, we felt a little out of place and decided to eat elsewhere which, like I mentioned before, was a good decision.
Day 27 / 9/29/2012 / Monterey, CA - [Point Lobos] - Big Sur [Café Kevah] - Pismo Beach, CA - Santa Maria, CA
We had heard from a man in the Point Pinos lighthouse that Point Lobos, not too far from Monterey, is the most beautiful place in the area. So first thing in the morning, we headed there. The place was great and we had fun looking at the waves hitting the rocky shore and tried to capture this with our cameras.
After an hour or so we continued our trip south, towards warmth as it was a little chilly by the beach. On our way to Big Sur, a nice restaurant/café/store complex high on a hill by the sea, we stopped every once in a while to admire the coast or the cliffs next to the highway. Big Sur is in a nice location and the food we got from the café was good and the store, even though it's slightly over priced has some cool stuff like the little water thingy on Liisa's update.
After leaving Big Sur and stopping for a few times to take pictures, Liisa decided it was time for her to drive for the first time on this trip. The original plan was for the both of us to drive but since Liisa got a spinal disc herniation on her neck just weeks before we left, our plans changed. So it was my time to sit back and enjoy the ride, riding shotgun. Well I couldn't enjoy too much as it was Liisa's first time behind a wheel in almost three years and the curvy narrow roads next to a few hundred feet drop wasn't maybe the best place to start driving again. She did a great job and drove almost like a pro so I wasn't too worried. After the five or so miles her neck did get a little sore again so we switched back.
Close to our next stop in Pismo Beach, we spotted hundreds of sea lions relaxing on the beach and stopped for a moment.
The reason for stopping in Pismo Beach was to have a picnic there. As the day was almost over and the sun was almost setting we must have had the fastest picnic ever recorded. We sat down, took a couple of pictures, ate our Subway sandwiches, and got up and left. After that we checked the few beach stores close by which were really nice and headed for our hotel.
The hotel, not far from Pismo Beach, was by far the best roadside hotel/motel we've stayed at so far. The rooms were very clean, the service was good, and the breakfast was good. The hotel was Best Western Plus Big America in Santa Maria.
Day 28 / 9/30/2012 / Santa Maria, CA - Santa Barbara, CA - Malibu, CA - Los Angeles/Woodland Hills, CA
The morning was so sunny and warm that we decided to head for the first beach we could find. After searching for a while, we finally found a beach in Santa Barbara where Liisa and Markku went for a swim and I enjoyed the sun. When we drove closer to LA, we found even better beaches in Malibu and the area before Malibu.
The beach in Santa Barbara and every beach before that seemed to have a lot of seaweed or something floating in the sea right in front of the beach but a little further south from Santa Barbara it was all gone and the beaches were clear. So if you're looking for a beach in that area, go south.
Even though we were too late to swim in the beach we found, we still enjoyed a great sunset before heading to our LA hotel in Woodland Hills, another Best Western and another great find with good rooms and cheap prices not too far from Hollywood.
-Riku
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