Day 17

Today was the short drive from Santa Cruz to Big Sur. We made our way to Monterey for a look around this morning but were disappointed to find two big car shown on (one that we knew about $300 for a ticket!) and the other at the raceway, which we did not know about and Greg was very disappointed not to be allowed in for a look. There were so many nice cars out because of these shows (as you’ll see in the photo’s). We drove through Cannery Row but everything was paid parking and we were only stopping for a little while. Finally finding somewhere free to stop by the water we went for a walk to check out the view, there were kids in bikini’s swimming, they must have been crazy as it was freezing again this morning and foggy.. surprise surprise!

Following the road we headed out to Carmel by the Bay and WOW are there some fancy houses here, its like people have built their own mini castles overlooking the sea! I can see why they would live here, the beach is beautiful probably the prettiest I have seen so far. It was great to drive past all these amazing houses.

The rest of the drive to Big Sur was windy and amazing, but it soon became frustrating as many of the places we had intended to turn off and explore were gated and we were not allowed in! Passing our hotel, we drove on (as it was still early) in an attempt to visit some more places in the plan, again met by gates and no signs!

Both of us frustrated and tired from being in the car, we decided to head back to the hotel and find some lunch as we were an hour and a half early for check in. This worked out okay as there was a BBQ and jazz music behind the River Inn Restaurant as well as a beautiful creek to eat by, we settled on a basket of French fries ($7… ouch) as the burgers and other things started at $15 going upwards! and we weren’t super hungry, just in need of time wasting. Just after 2pm we decided to try our luck at check in, and we were happy to find out it was ready early yay! This was a nice set up for what we needed and as it was still early in the day I used the time to catch up on these blogs (sorry!) and Greg had a well deserved nap.

Later in the evening we dressed nice and headed over to the River Inn restaurant, enjoying and entrees of bacon wrapped chicken with an apricot glaze and Garlic Bread. Greg chose a main of Pork ribs, house slaw and fries and I had a Hangar marinated steak, garlic mash and steamed vegetables, all the food was well enjoyed and we had a lovely evening together and and a reasonably early night for something different.

Thanks for reading

N&G