California 2009

Wednesday

June 24 - Monterey

The weather was gloomy in Carmel so we drove over to Monterey. We walked around the Cannery Row area and did a little shopping. We had clam chowder at Louie Linguinis for lunch.

Monterey Coastline

We rented bikes and rode over ten miles along the bike path in Monterey and Pacific Grove. The weather cleared and was beautiful, but still chilly. We had fun watching the seals and otters play. Then we rode the bikes to Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed tasting the samples of clam chowder each restaurant was handing out. On our way home we stopped by the market and brought food home for dinner. Later in the evening we walked over to a little Irish pub for drinks.

Fishermen's Wharf

I liked this sign

Otters playing in Monterey Bay

Tuesday

June 23 - Carmel

We headed for Carmel today along the PCH, it was foggy so the sites weren’t as pretty.

We went through the visitor center at the Hurst Castle, but we weren't interested in spending the time it would take to go through the house. Our next stop was at Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. There were hundreds of seals on the beach and I enjoyed seeing them, but they smelled horrible. I had to stay upwind to take pictures.

Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas

The weather cleared up a little here and there and by the time we went through Big Sur we had sun. We stopped and looked around a little.

The marine layer

River Bend

The Bixby Bridge

It was cloudy and cool when we got to Carmel. We are staying at Lobos Lodge, very nice. We had a large room with a seating area and bedroom. It reminded me of my Grandma’s house on the lake. We ate leftovers and fresh fruit for lunch. We spent the late afternoon looking through the little shops in Carmel. We found a wonderful place on Ocean Ave. named Dametra Café for dinner. It's a small Mediterranean place with only 13 tables. The owner was very friendly and even played music and sang. We had a great time. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching TV. Carmel is a quaint little town with cute buildings….it looks like you've stepped into a story book.

Buildings and homes around Carmel

Dametra Cafe

Monday

June 22 - Santa Barbara

We watched the boats in the marina while we had breakfast on our balcony. It's just beautiful here. Today we drove up the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) towards Santa Barbara. We drove past large beautiful homes in Santa Monica. I wish we would have stopped and looked around a little, maybe next time. It's very nice in this area.

I wasn’t impressed with what we saw of Malibu. We stopped at Westward Beach just past Malibu and walked in the sand. It was a pretty nice beach, but we really didn't spend much time this trip looking at the beaches.

Westward Beach near Malibu

We continued on, it was neat to see the strawberry fields around Oxnard and all the workers in the fields. We stopped and bought strawberries…half a case for $5. The best strawberries I have ever eaten. I love buying fresh fruit, so much better than what we get in the stores.

Strawberry fields near Oxnard California

Fresh strawberries....yum!

We got to Santa Barbara before lunch, and were lucky we could check into our motel. It's a cute place close to the beach called Marina Beach Motel. We had a picnic lunch before heading out on the bikes the motel provided.

Marina Beach Motel

It was so much fun riding along the water. We also rode to the Santa Barbara Courthouse. It was a little strange at first riding along the street, so close to the cars, but we got used to it. I really like this town. We saw our first seals from the wharf…how neat. I was talking to Judy and we both got excited. We spent our day riding bikes, shopping and relaxing in the wonderful sun. We had dinner at Moby Dick’s on Stern Wharf. I had the snow crab and Stan had salmon (of course)...they both were very good and the view was great.

Views of Santa Barbara

Stern's Wharf

Harbor Seal by the wharf

Bike path along State Street

Santa Barbara Courthouse

Inside the courthouse

Sunday

June 21 - The Vacation Begins

We took Griffin, Eric and Courtney to the airport and then headed over to Venice Beach. We had lunch at the Terrace Café, we sat outside and watched people…very relaxing. After lunch we walked along the main drag. It was very crowded….but it was Sunday and Father’s Day, so we expected that.

About three o'clock we drove to Marina del Rey, and checked into the Marina del Rey Hotel. Great location and we had a room with a balcony overlooking the marina. The view was wonderful, the bed was great and the bathroom clean, but the rest of the place could use a face lift. It was fun to watch the boats moving around in the marina. Since it was Sunday there was a lot of action going on. Some of the boats were huge…some even had their own helicopter on the back! After relaxing on the balcony we walked around the marina and looked at more boats. We had dinner at an Italian place called C & O Cucina. They had wonderful garlic rolls. We went to bed fairly early and finally caught up on our sleep.

Venice Beach