Another lazy start, followed by a very scenic drive. We didn't drive far, but we drove all day. We drove Northward towards our goal of San Francisco along the historic California 1, a coastal highway with the usual twists and turns, many switchbacks, up and down mountain cliffs, complete with many scenic overlooks, view points, and neat things to see.
California 1 is a coastal road, never far away from the Pacific Ocean. It is truly a great scenic road, not one of those transit or commuting roads. You drive it for the drive itself, the scenery involved, and the thrill of the ride. What a great way to spend a day in California!
These next two shots were taken at a beach access point: a parking spot or two, a beach [?] access with steps down to water level. The first is looking North, the next is looking South along the coast.
This third shot is looking behind our parked car at the housing behind the waterfront. Everyone has a view, and since it's the Pacific, the sunsets have to be beautiful...
Here's a park bench to enjoy the Pacific in a state park beach access. Wine, bread and cheese anyone?
We came across this colony of sea lions, and here's a large male [with his grotesque nose] herding a chosen female. They slipped into the privacy of deeper waters...
Other sea lions are very busy resting on the beach. Some noise, very little action, just soaking up the rays.
The pelicans here are no different than those living elsewhere: they cruise the beach with minimal effort because they can. Enjoy!
Every now and again, we crossed streams from the mountains that reached the sea, this one was particularly quick and voluminous: quite a sight.
Next is a sweet scene of two people having their lunch along the highway, sitting under umbrellas, watching the birds and the sea. Of course, their car is a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite, the same year and model that I once had, but that's another story...
Next is a view of one of the new bridges they've built on CA 1. You can see the road north is just hanging on to the edge of the cliff. At least this highway did have guardrails...
We did encounter some rock slides being removed with heavy road-work equipment. I has rained quite a bit recently, and many cliffs along the highway are eroding and have periodic mud-slides, or let go of precarious rocks on the cliff face. Some of these rocks would crush a car, some of the mudslides can close the highway. We were lucky and just encountered a few spots where we had to go single line, or wait for debris to be removed by roadbuilding plows. Very interesting and not all that time consuming. It just made you appreciate that Mother Nature has work to do, as does the roadworks department.
The whitish line across the horizon is a fog bank approaching the shore. As it came closer, you could see that the fog bank was about 10 feet above the water and about 50 feet think. We drove in and out of the fog for a while, but nothing serious enough to wipe the windshield...
We stopped for the day in Carmel by the Sea, a little resort town for the very wealthy... We're staying at an older Best Western Hotel and we walked to an excellent fish Restaurant about two blocks away. The fish was excellent, the Cabernet from a winery just south of us, and we crept back here where sleep is calling. The walk to the restaurant was past many art galleries where starting prices for paintings, small sculptures and such started at over $1000. with some prices well over $5000 and other prices that you had to ask about... definitely out of our snack bracket, but we did see some very nice things... We may have to walk around town tomorrow...
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