The PCH

I wasn’t that impressed with the PCH drive. Most of the view was like this:

What was more fun was watching the mist roll in as you drive through the PCH.

Yes, its been close to over a week since I made this drive, so everything will have to be from memory now.

The little towns along the way, out of LA were well, little, with equally little shops. And it’s nice to browse around, if you’re the type who likes to browse at impractical and hard to transport things. Or have the money to have them shipped back. But I think nice impractical things are great with big houses with no children to fill with stuff.

Santa Barbara’s City Hall was a nice stop.

It’s still being used, and you’re allowed to walk around freely. You can take a lift up the tower for a birds eye view of SB.

We stuck with the 1 more faithfully than others would have and passed through farming land and found stalls selling strawberries, cherries and other local produce of the area. Unfortunately, most of them were closed. One we found that was open had some of the freshest, sweetest strawberries I’ve tasted.

We arrived late at San Luis Obispo and so walked quickly through the place. Small towns close early. This is the Mission’s Bell.

We lodged for the night at Morro Bay, which is a smaller town and cheaper to stay at than San Luis Obsipo.

I managed to catch the sunset at Morro Bay.

The next morning, Morro Rock was hidden behind the mist.

If you look closely, you can see the head of an elephant seal emerging from the water. By the dockside, a few of them were lazily basking.

Along the way, we stopped by towns like Harmony.

I think they exaggerate the population size. Anyway, there’s a potter, glass blower and vineyard there. They can give you a glass blowing workshop in 2 hours. Had I known about this earlier, I’d have planned for it.

We encountered more mist.

And managed to find the unmarked gate to the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park that leads to the hanging waterfall.

And the required shot of Bixby Bridge, although I don’t think this is an oft-taken angle.

We spent too much time idling and just drove through the towns of Carmel-by-the-Sea, had dinner at Monterey and basically skipped Gilroy and Goldman seeds, which I had planned to get to before 5pm. We also had to skip the Italian food at Palo Alto, recommended by a friend, and the Ikea at Palo Alto where I wanted to get longer legs for my bed.

Dinner at Monterey was, to put it simply. Horrid. Touristy, over priced, bad service, bad food. I’d say skip Monterey all together.

It took me about 2.5 hours from Monterey to get to my friend’s place. Driving on the unfamiliar dark highways of San Francisco at 70-80 mph, was pretty nerve wrecking.