Up and out early to get to Highway One, but first, Lenora, the nice young lady at the front desk gave us some directions to view the Hollywood sign close up--we decided to do this before leaving town. We ended up driving back to Griffith Park, where we could not get in the night before, and this was great luck!
We rolled up the steep, windy road--tons of bicyclists and runners enjoying the park this Sunday morning, and a fair amount of tourists like us up there to see the Observatory in the daylight and see the panoramic view of the city from such high point--we were so glad we did this--what an incredible view--and what a beautiful place. We ran across a statue of James Dean, one of Stacey's heroes, displayed at the observatory as the last scene of one of his most famous films, "Rebel Without a Cause" was shot here. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed walking around this beautiful landmark before having to leave to keep on track to make Watsonville (outside of San Francisco) by nightfall.
We found Route One and its curves and the Pacific Ocean and drove and drove and drove. We were not afraid to stop--we drove up to Mailbu, a beautiful place where we stopped at a public beach full of people and surfers--Stacey especailly loved it here--so pretty, and sunny and fun. We got our bookend picture taken by a wise man wearing a T-Shirt from our favorite series "Breaking Bad"--and he took the shot needed to hang on our wall--our family at the Pacific Ocean-to compliment the shot taking in June when we visited LeeAnn in Boston and drove to Cape Cod National Seashore where our Atlantic Ocean photo was taken!
Sadly, for time reasons, we had to turn away from the coast for the much easier drive up route 101--also a beautiful highway due to the giant flowering bushes in the median, but not the same as Route One!
We had to go--we drove on and eventually stopped at a subway near Salinas--we saw tons of farm fields, and even bought some terrific strawberries at a roadside stand--we all agreed the best we had ever had. The area is also very diverse with many migrant workers living here.
We turned back to Route One to see the town of Carmel By The Sea--what a stop--the parking gods shone upon us as we found a spot right next to the public beach as someone had just left and we made our way to the massive hillside beach to be present for a beautiful sunset. The beach was alive with people, especially kids, have a blast--there was a massive family reunion of a family with members in town from London England. We are right down the beach from the famous Pebble Beach Golf Club. The girls enjoyed getting their feet wet in the Pacific once again, with the waters now noticably cooler, the landscape lacking palm trees, and now full of fir trees and cooler temperatures...after the sun set, fog rolled in--we were now closer to San Fran than LA...it was a great trip up the coast and we all left saying we would do it again.
On to Watsonville and a fine Mexican themed, tile filled motel stop--what a day!
No comments:
Post a Comment