The road north from San Simeon State Park begins gently enough. But soon the road becomes one of the great stretches of road in the world (IMHO). Most of the way from here to Carmel the road clings to the side of the coastal mountains. It’s spectacular coastal scenery and one really does need to keep eyes on the road. But there are lots of pull outs where it’s possible to stop and be amazed by the scenery.
On of my favourite spots where we stopped had this view of one of Hwy 1’s bridges.
I decided we might as well pause and have lunch sitting on a big rock enjoying the view. About five minutes after I’d started enjoying my peanut butter sandwich, this very expensive and very black BMW rolled up containing a two adults and two children. Dad proceeded to unpack quite a bit of camera gear and tripods. Then Mom appeared and at first I thought I’d had my first California celebrity sighting. The woman was almost a dead ringer for Sarah-Jessica Parker. (Actually I’m pretty sure Parker and husband Matthew Broderick live in New York City, but I refuse to let facts get in the way of a good story.) The woman who was not SJP was dressed all in black with fancy boots. Clearly there was no hiking planned for her afternoon. There then ensued a photo shoot of sorts. There was much model type posing and some timer shots so that they could all get in the shot. I had assumed that the Mom would be kind of snooty but she came over to ask about Eliot and she was very down to earth and friendly. A lesson re-enforced, I guess.
On and on we drove up through Big Sur and eventually arrived back at civilization in Carmel, CA. Carmel is a very rich and ritzy place but it is also very dog friendly. It has a beautiful beach right downtown that allows dogs off-leash. So many California beaches prohibit dogs that it became rather frustrating. So Eliot and I had a great walk on this beach (end to end and back again).
After our walk, I was interested in finding a late afternoon cup of coffee. We wandered up to the shopping district that had many shops but only one coffee shop that I could find and it was just closing. Although I looked my very saddest, the owner was a hard hearted woman and would not be persuaded to even allow me the dregs from one of the urns. I reflected that in Carmel it appeared to be easier to buy a Rolex watch (a real one) than find a cup of coffee. One observation I have to make is that for a ritzy town there appeared to be a lot of shops displaying rather bad art (again, in my humble opinion).
Of course, I should talk. As we’d rolled into town I was sure we would come to a manned gate where the VW would be refused entry even though I was attired in my best wardrobe from MEC.
We spent the evening and night with our new best friends from Joshua Tree National Park. The Berry-Smiths. They were most accommodating. They have a beautiful home in the hills above Monterey with beautiful views of Monterey Bay. We spent the night sleeping in their very comfortable basement. Jennifer seemed quite concerned that we would not be warm enough and almost insisted that she dig out a space heater. I kept explaining that we were from Canada and that we would be quite OK. We slept comfortably and warmly
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