Off to California!
Up very early! 5:30 AM alarm, quick cuppa, throw last electronics in bag, and out the door at 6 AM. Easy ride to Newark, park at Haynes, and move fairly quickly through very long TSA Pre line.
Pretty comfortable flight: new plane, seats wide enough, enough leg room. Of course it’s United so nothing really works: wifi system to deliver entertainment has fewer than half of the plane’s capacity. Sue couldn’t get on at all, I got bumped half way through. And no food even on transcontinental flights.
Quick walk through SFO and onto air train, pick up our gray Hyundai Elantra at Thrifty and off we go. Californians drive fast but predictably: in Monterey in a jiffy.
The Monterey Plaza Hotel is really terrific. Built on pylons over Monterey Bay, it has great ocean views everywhere. Big dark wood lobby / bar with panoramic views and comfy seating hosted us for a glass of wine both nights. Room was spacious and comfortable, with views right out onto the bay.
We were tired, but we only put our feet up for a few minutes before heading out. We drove through Pacific Grove to the coast road.
The section through Pacific Grove is spectacular, with windswept, barren shores and surf pounding on huge rock formations. We stopped to gawk and snap every few hundred yards.
Seventeen Mile Drive is private and costs ten bucks. It is also marred to a certain extent by development: it really is a chain of golf courses (Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach) with huge, vulgar mansions.
But if you only look out to sea, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. A twisted, tortured coast with dense cypress groves. Many viewpoints, many pictures, a kind of natural ecstasy.
We drove into Carmel and drove around looking for a parking spot, thinking we would have a glass of wine, but 15 minutes brought no result. The place is charming, but very clearly a very rich resort–and jammed with (other) tourists. So we headed back to Monterey, which suited us much better.
We each had a glass of Central Coast Pinot Noir: a Talbot and something else. Very nice, and the glasses were enormous, probably a third of a bottle fo 18 bucks.
We wanted to eat early and walked about ten minutes into town to La Bahia. I went back to my roots with some really good Mexican American chow: combo platter with pork tostada, chicken enchilada and a terrific tamale, all washed down with a Negro Modelo. Sue had a whole plate of the yummy tamales. Only the frijoles were a disappointment.
Back in the room, it was lights out at 10!