Today we headed to Hertz right near our hotel, picked up our grey Honda Civic and headed south towards the world famous 17-Mile Drive. Rob had a bit of a snooze while I drove. I only used the indicator instead of the windscreen wiper once which I thought was pretty good (they’re swapped!).
The freeway was very bumpy with lots of potholes, and we thought that maybe it’s due to San Fran lying along the San Andreas fault line. There is probably a lot of movement under the roads here.
We got to Monterey and got out quickly to stretch our legs. They are obsessed with stop signs here. Instead of having a roundabout at a T intersection, every one of them has a stop sign and it’s like an endless game of chicken!
We kept driving, arrived at the toll booth and paid our $10.50 to drive the 17-Mile Drive. We were given a good brochure/map so set off.
Our first stop was Spanish Bay, where we watched a man catching the waves in a kayak. I hope his wetsuit was good, it was freezing! I liked the rock towers here.
Then we saw Point Joe and the Restless Sea, where lots of shipwrecks used to occur. Our favourite stop was Bird Rock. Their used to be 120-150cm of bird poo on this rock (yuck!). Once it was cleared off, the harbour seals and California sea lions started loving it and sat atop it. We stood for a while and watched them. Some even jumped into the water and were having fun swimming around. Rob loves seals, he says they are the “dogs of the sea”. While we stood here, we also saw some brown pelicans. Apparently there are also otters here, but we didn’t see any. They were once thought to be extinct in this area but have made a recovery and there are now 3000 around.
We then stopped at Seal Rock, but ironically there were just birds here! At our next stop we saw some more swimming seals, and then we passed through one of only two Monterey cypress tree forests. I liked their gnarled branches due to the sea winds. The most famous stop was next - the lone cypress. With the grey clouds rolling in in the background this looked quite eerie and cool. It’s said to be 250 years old.
Our final stops on the 17-Mile Drive were at the Pebble Beach golf lounge and visitor centre. The golf club here was started in 1915, and has had the lone cypress as its logo since 1919. Bing Crosby started a PGA tour here in 1947 that now runs every early February, and the US Open golf tournament has been held here six times. We were lucky - we got to look at the trophy because it was held here for the sixth time just this year! It won’t be held again at Pebble Beach until 2027 now.
Next, we headed into Carmel. Carmel was first spoken of by some Spaniards 50 years after Columbus arrived America, but it wasn’t incorporated as a town until 1916. It has a reputation of hosting many artists, authors and poets, and from 1986 to 1988 Clint Eastwood even served as mayor! Doris Day also owns an inn here.
In 1917, the 450 local residents had already put in place an act that meant no one could chop down the local trees without stringent permission. The residents here do not want Carmel to become “citified”. To this day, there are no parking meters, no traffic lights and even no specific addresses for houses and shops inside the main part of town. Those wanting mail delivered into this area have to pick it up from the local post office.
We went to the beach, and the white sand was really pretty. It was very cold though, and it started to rain. Considering the forecast had said rain for most of the day, we had been pretty lucky up until this point.
We walked into the town and had a hot chocolate at a cafe before looking in the shops. I bought my magnet as I always do, and then we got back in the car. Rob drove home and we drove past the local mission church from the 1770s. It rained pretty heavily on the way back but we were cosy warm in our car. The visibility was terrible, and again we remarked just how lucky we’ve been the last few days walking and riding around in the sunshine!
On the way back we had to get petrol, and the station was really dodgy. There was a homeless guy harassing people at each pump, and the attendant was very reluctant to help us when our cars wouldn’t work. We got there in the end!!
We had some delicious pizza at the Italian place over the road. Luckily we shared a large pizza, it was absolutely huge and we were very full!!
We are off to Orlando tomorrow. We’ve really enjoyed our time in San Francisco (but our bank accounts have not!). The gridded streets and trams reminded us of home, but we also had some unique San Fran experiences too. I think our favourite was Alcatraz!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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