Monterey Bay

Thursday, September 29

After I left the Obbema’s house early afternoon, I headed southwest toward Monterey Bay. (Oh my gosh – I’m still headed west!) I had heard this was a beautiful spot in California, and indeed, it was.

Auggie and I arrived in Monterey Bay and parked the Champagne Chevy. As we were getting out, there was a woman on her cell phone directly behind us. She paused her call to compliment me on the van. She also asked how much it cost, which I thought was a little forward, but she followed up by saying she might be interested in buying something like that. I told her, with a raised eyebrow, that the van was going back to Washington, DC with me, but that didn’t seem to phase her. She gave me her name, called my cell phone so I had her number and told me that she would be interested in possibly buying it. Well, OK then. Potential buyer for when I’m done with my trip? We'll see ... 

Monterey Bay is a little town, so it didn’t take too long to meander the main street, Cannery Row. We took a nice look at the bay and then strolled down to John Steinbeck Park. Steinbeck was born and raised in Salinas, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Monterey Bay and within Monterey County. He has written several novels that describe Monterey County, including “Cannery Row,” “East of Eden,” “Tortilla Flat” and “Sweet Thursday.” (none of which I have read!)

N.B. - The one (and only!) John Steinbeck novel that I just recently read was “Travels with Charley: In Search of America,” which a friend of the family lent to me before this trip. "Travels with Charley" is about Steinbeck’s 1960 roadtrip with his standard poodle, Charley, around the United States. I LOVED it. It was a perfect book for me to read before hitting the road myself with my dog. I have the book with me in the van and have referred to it a number of times. It was appropriate that we landed in Steinbeck Park.

Since no dogs are allowed in the Monterey Bay aquarium (a good reason to come back), we skipped that and took a nice walk along the beach. The scenery looked pretty good!

And how bout these big ole fat seals, sunning themselves on this rock in the water?

We walked down to a point, where Auggie and I climbed the rocky landscape that looked over the Bay. Very pretty.

After that, we climbed back into the van and headed south along the coast till we found 17-Mile Drive. I didn’t learn this till afterwards, but 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach is noted as one of the world’s most scenic drives, and it’s included in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Scenic Byways Program. It’s actually a (very tony!) residential area and also includes the well-known Pebble Beach golf course. It’s home to the Del Monte Forest of Fremont Cypress trees, as well as the famous “Lone Cypress Tree.”

Here’s a photo of the view from Cypress Point along the Drive.

And here’s a photo of the Lone Cypress Tree itself.

After taking all that in and trying to get my wind-blown hair out of my eyelashes, we jumped back into the van and headed south again along the Route 1 coastal drive. Good grief – wasn’t I done with this windy, curvy, craggy road yet???

The segment we drove that evening was less windy, curvy and craggy than it had been farther north above San Francisco, so we were not as nerve-wracked as we had been in the past. But still …

Eventually, we found our way to lovely Big Sur State Park, where we unpacked our camping mojo again and spent the night.

That evening, I finished Potter Book Six with tears streaming down my face. There is a very sad ending to this book!

Sniffing as I fell asleep, I slept like a log.