Cloverdale to Morro Bay

We set out from Cloverdale early and drove through the wine country, past Santa Rosa and into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't get the famous view, though: the city was fogged in. You couldn't even see the top of the bridge! But we went through the city past Golden Gate Park and everything was beautiful and San Francisco-esque, as usual. I love the row houses painted all different colors, and the shops, and the hills.

MapQuest sent us on a route to the Monterey Peninsula that I've never followed before, and wouldn't have known existed, on tiny, winding roads through the hills. It took a long time, but it was just beautiful! I have no idea where we were. I was just following the directions. If I'd missed a turn, we'd probably still be up there!

We came down out of the hills into a cute little town called Soquel. They have a great playground, and Lulu played there for a while. We followed Route 1 down past Watsonville and Castroville, where Lulu held her nose at the smell of whatever they were growing (garlic? onions?). And then it was Monterey, Carmel, the Carmel Highlands, and Big Sur. Beautiful scenery all the way! The road goes through tiny towns, past big houses and estates in Carmel, and smaller houses and farms further south. The cliff appears to be sheer drops of hundreds of feet, but every once in a while you'll see a cluster of mailboxes and a steep, narrow dirt road leading down to God-knows-where. I didn't have the nerve to follow any of them, so I still don't know for sure if there are families of mountain goats down there getting mail, but I have my suspicions.

The views are spectacular: the ocean, the cliffs, the rocks, the hawks and eagles soaring overhead. I took a few pictures, but they don't come close.

I must say, though, it is a bit nerve-wracking driving on that curving, narrow road, with all the thousands-of-foot drops just inches away, for so long. I loved the beauty of it, but I was happy to finally come down (after 70-some miles) onto flat ground again.

And there, almost immediately, right near San Simeon, were the elephant seals on the beach! You can't get too near them, especially when they have babies, as they do now. But their size is amazing! One of the babies was very curious about all of us tourists staring at her, and she came a little way up the beach toward us and kept peeking at us over a sand dune.

We drove past Hearst Castle perched up on its hilltop, then past Cambria and Cayucos, and finally arrived in Morro Bay. We unwound for a few minutes after checking into the hotel, and then went down to the waterfront looking for some dinner. We came upon a place called The Flying Dutchman, with a big pirate statue out front. Lulu was having a good time being scared of him, and she especially liked the fact that right next to the restaurant were a toy store and a candy store.

Then it was back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. It's our last night on the road, and even though it was an outdoor pool, and it was cold by now, Lulu couldn't pass it up. I refused to go in--too cold for me! But Lulu jumped right into the water and wouldn't admit it was cold...until finally she said, "Okay, that's enough!" and ran for the nice warm room. She spent the rest of the evening wrapped in a blanket eating cookies and watching weird cartoons about Japanese hero-ninja warrior kids on the Cartoon Network.

All in all, a good day!