More recap, the last couple days have been busy at work and at home, so I haven't had much time to write.
Day 6: We decided to drive up to Santa Cruz to check out the boardwalk and beaches there. It's only about a half hour drive from Monterey, so we had plenty of time to check stuff out. The route to get there goes right through farmland of strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, spinach and artichokes. There were lots of workers out harvesting in the fields. We stopped at a Goodwill and a St. Vincent de paul thrift store, but both were small and neither had good stuff. We had a nice lunch at a REAL mission-style burrito place, that actually had great choices for fillings (mmm, steak and perfectly cooked prawns) and you could unwrap and eat without getting it all over yourself. Taco del Mar, I am looking at you! The boardwalk was cool, we got some ice cream and slush puppies and walked around and took pictures for a while before heading over to Natural Bridges State Beach. The weather was perfect and there really weren't a lot of people there, so we relaxed in the sand and watched the teenagers body surf and kids play in the waves. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in Moss Landing to have dinner at The Whole Enchilada, which speciallizes in Mexican seafood (and was very good). We sat outside on the deck and the owner was there and saw us taking pictures of our food and stopped by to check on us and make sure we were doing ok. He was cute, with big fat black square like Giorgio Armani glasses. On the way out, he gave us this piece of sage advice: Remember to be like the ocean: keep on making waves!
Day 7: We were sad to be leaving Monterey, it's so nice there. We made sandwiches out of our leftover Madonna Inn steaks to eat for breakfast, finished packing and hit the road for the Redwoods. ETA: I almost forgot! We hit the Goodwill in Monterey just before we got on the freeway and scored bigtime! We found 4 Pyrex refrigerator dishes in great shape (2 big, 2 small), a Strawberry Shortcake FireKing mug, our first Catherineholm piece (an enameled bowl in pink) and a cool wood-burl like treebranch California Pottery planter. All for only $12! We hit a lot of traffic outside of San Francisco (Friday afternoon traffic always sucks) and it took us a long time to actually make it to the Avenue of the Giants on the 101. We stopped at Bean Hollow State Park, which was really cool because there are all these little polished stones and shells that make up the beach, with cool rock formations from erosion. There were also a ton of farms, right up to the ocean's edge. I wouldn't mind having a little farm that could actually be named Seabreeze or Oceanview Farm! We ended up stopping in Santa Clara to find a bathroom and some food for lunch and discovered it was the hometown of Peanuts creator Charles Schultz. There's a Charlie Brown and Snoopy statue in a park near in the downtown area. The drive through Sonoma county with all the vineyards was pretty, but traffic sucked too much enjoy it. We didn't get to the redwoods until about 6 pm, so we stopped at the drive-thru tree (one of many in the area) and then looked for a motel. We stayed in a sort of sketchy place, but it was fine and clean. The owner was really friendly and helpful with suggestions for dinner and what to do and see in the area. He also had a pet goat that he put in a crate at night! We ate dinner at a little diner down the road a couple miles and then watched TV for a bit before bed.
Day 8: After stopping for coffee and snacks, we drive through The Avenue of the Giants, of course stopping along the way to take pics. We saw the Founders Tree and another Big Tree (to add to our list, of course) and a herd of elk grazing the yards of some summer cottages. Interestingly, the "elk viewing area" half a mile down the road, where the elk supposedly hang out in a big pasture near the forest, didn't have any elk at all. Disappointed, we got back on the road, only to spy them about 3 minutes later off the side of the road! In Eureka, we drove through the historic downtown area and saw a really cool display of The Wooden Sculpture Garden of Romano Gabriel. He apparently created these elaborate wooden sculpture pieces and filled his entire yard and covered his house with them. After he died, they took them all and made this:
We made it ip the coast as far north as Florence, OR before stopping again for the night. I got a speeding ticket outside of Eureka, my first ever (and I was being so careful the whole trip, except the one time I get distracted on an open stretch of road and lost track of my speed!), so that kinda sucked. We stayed at another sketchy motel, which also ended up being fine, but it still made us crabby to have to stay there. We went to dinner for fish and chips and then played video games on the DS and watched TV til bedtime. We debated going to the Sea Lion Caves, the next morning, but checked the reviews on Trip Advisor and pics on flickr and decided to skip it and save time and money.
Day 9. The home stretch. We just wanted to get home at this point and decided to skip the reast of the Oregon Coast. I am sure it was nice and all, but the weather was crappy and after being in Monterey all week, the Oregon Coast was just boring! We cut over to I-5 at Eugene and stopped at Elmer's outside of Salem for some breakfast. It was soooo good! I expected like Denny's, but it was so much better, with giant dutch babies and super tasty bacon and cheese filled potato pancakes! After this, the trip was all downhill. Traffic between Olympia and Tacoma was bumber to bumper stop and go, for who knows what reason, so we stopped at Shipwreck Beads to have a look, but it was too overwhelming (it's a HUGE place!) and we were too tired to actually try to get anything there. We made it back to Seattle just in time for a big thunderstorm and we went directly to Szechuan 99 in Lynnwood for dinner before even going home to unpack!
Day 6: We decided to drive up to Santa Cruz to check out the boardwalk and beaches there. It's only about a half hour drive from Monterey, so we had plenty of time to check stuff out. The route to get there goes right through farmland of strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, spinach and artichokes. There were lots of workers out harvesting in the fields. We stopped at a Goodwill and a St. Vincent de paul thrift store, but both were small and neither had good stuff. We had a nice lunch at a REAL mission-style burrito place, that actually had great choices for fillings (mmm, steak and perfectly cooked prawns) and you could unwrap and eat without getting it all over yourself. Taco del Mar, I am looking at you! The boardwalk was cool, we got some ice cream and slush puppies and walked around and took pictures for a while before heading over to Natural Bridges State Beach. The weather was perfect and there really weren't a lot of people there, so we relaxed in the sand and watched the teenagers body surf and kids play in the waves. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in Moss Landing to have dinner at The Whole Enchilada, which speciallizes in Mexican seafood (and was very good). We sat outside on the deck and the owner was there and saw us taking pictures of our food and stopped by to check on us and make sure we were doing ok. He was cute, with big fat black square like Giorgio Armani glasses. On the way out, he gave us this piece of sage advice: Remember to be like the ocean: keep on making waves!
Day 7: We were sad to be leaving Monterey, it's so nice there. We made sandwiches out of our leftover Madonna Inn steaks to eat for breakfast, finished packing and hit the road for the Redwoods. ETA: I almost forgot! We hit the Goodwill in Monterey just before we got on the freeway and scored bigtime! We found 4 Pyrex refrigerator dishes in great shape (2 big, 2 small), a Strawberry Shortcake FireKing mug, our first Catherineholm piece (an enameled bowl in pink) and a cool wood-burl like treebranch California Pottery planter. All for only $12! We hit a lot of traffic outside of San Francisco (Friday afternoon traffic always sucks) and it took us a long time to actually make it to the Avenue of the Giants on the 101. We stopped at Bean Hollow State Park, which was really cool because there are all these little polished stones and shells that make up the beach, with cool rock formations from erosion. There were also a ton of farms, right up to the ocean's edge. I wouldn't mind having a little farm that could actually be named Seabreeze or Oceanview Farm! We ended up stopping in Santa Clara to find a bathroom and some food for lunch and discovered it was the hometown of Peanuts creator Charles Schultz. There's a Charlie Brown and Snoopy statue in a park near in the downtown area. The drive through Sonoma county with all the vineyards was pretty, but traffic sucked too much enjoy it. We didn't get to the redwoods until about 6 pm, so we stopped at the drive-thru tree (one of many in the area) and then looked for a motel. We stayed in a sort of sketchy place, but it was fine and clean. The owner was really friendly and helpful with suggestions for dinner and what to do and see in the area. He also had a pet goat that he put in a crate at night! We ate dinner at a little diner down the road a couple miles and then watched TV for a bit before bed.
Day 8: After stopping for coffee and snacks, we drive through The Avenue of the Giants, of course stopping along the way to take pics. We saw the Founders Tree and another Big Tree (to add to our list, of course) and a herd of elk grazing the yards of some summer cottages. Interestingly, the "elk viewing area" half a mile down the road, where the elk supposedly hang out in a big pasture near the forest, didn't have any elk at all. Disappointed, we got back on the road, only to spy them about 3 minutes later off the side of the road! In Eureka, we drove through the historic downtown area and saw a really cool display of The Wooden Sculpture Garden of Romano Gabriel. He apparently created these elaborate wooden sculpture pieces and filled his entire yard and covered his house with them. After he died, they took them all and made this:
Day 9. The home stretch. We just wanted to get home at this point and decided to skip the reast of the Oregon Coast. I am sure it was nice and all, but the weather was crappy and after being in Monterey all week, the Oregon Coast was just boring! We cut over to I-5 at Eugene and stopped at Elmer's outside of Salem for some breakfast. It was soooo good! I expected like Denny's, but it was so much better, with giant dutch babies and super tasty bacon and cheese filled potato pancakes! After this, the trip was all downhill. Traffic between Olympia and Tacoma was bumber to bumper stop and go, for who knows what reason, so we stopped at Shipwreck Beads to have a look, but it was too overwhelming (it's a HUGE place!) and we were too tired to actually try to get anything there. We made it back to Seattle just in time for a big thunderstorm and we went directly to Szechuan 99 in Lynnwood for dinner before even going home to unpack!
[this is good] Good update :) I'm glad you blogged the whole trip. I want to be able to remember it for a long time.
Posted by: schnitzle | Jul 16, 2009 at 11:55 AM