If I could afford the time and the money, we'd go right back. Yes, it was that much fun.
I don't think there was anything about the trip that was bad. The flights there and back were great; no delays, no bad weather to travel through. Enterprise was out of full size cars, so they upgraded us to an SUV at no charge. The Yahoo! maps worked pretty well, we didn't get lost (at least, not too bad).
Here's a day-by-day recap of the trip:
Saturday, February 26
We left for the airport at 6:00 AM, and got there around 6:40. By the time we checked our bags and cleared the security gates, we were at our gate by about 7:00. The flight left at 8:00 and we were in LA within 4 1/2 hours. We had an hour layover, and then boarded the plan for San Jose. Within an hour of takeoff, we were on the ground again.
The drive from San Jose to Marina is at times breathtaking. The rolling hills with beautiful green grass set against the perfectly blue skies make for a postcard-like view. We drove through several small towns, like San Martin, Gilroy and Prunedale. Gilroy is apparently the garlic capital of the world, and you could smell the aroma as you passed by the city. The artichoke fields seemed to go on fovever.
As we got on California Highway 1, we started seeing the dunes. Hill after hill of sand, with small plants scattered here and there. Then we saw a piece of the Pacific Ocean, and we knew we were close to Marina Dunes, our place of residency for the next few nights. We saw our exit, and just like that, we were there. The scenery was unbelievable. From our deck, we saw the large waves beating against the shore, with a small mist riding the waves. The water was an amazing blue-green. We unpacked, called home to let everyone know we made it safely, then headed out for Monterey.
We passed through Marina and Seaside on our way. Nice little towns with great settings. We spent the evening walking up and down Cannery Row. I read Steinbeck's book by the same name on the way out, and it was neat seeing all the different sites there and thinking back on the book. We ate at a place called Sly McFly's, then did a little more walking. Cannery Row was a very cool, with shops up and down the street, sitting right on the ocean. The winds made it feel colder than it actually was, and the bride did a little coat shopping that evening. She never did pull the trigger and buy one, though. After a little more shopping, we decided to head back to Marina Dunes for the evening.
Because of the time change, I think we were asleep before 9:00 PM. During the night, we woke up a few times and thought we heard thunder. It wasn't thunder, but actually the sound of the waves. That's a nice sound.....
Sunday, February 27
One of the great things about this trip was that there were no real agendas to follow. Sure, there were things we wanted to do, but nothing had to be done at a specific time. We got up and ate some breakfast, then went on a walk on the beach. One of the things we noticed while on the beach was that dune sand is different from surf sand. With each step, the bride and I sunk a couple of inches. This made walking on the beach a bit more strenuous. We were use to more packed-down sand like in Myrtle Beach or Daytona. This wasn't a bad thing, just different. After our walk, we came back and got ready to do the 17-Mile Drive. Once again, the scenery on this stretch of roads is just the opposite of disappointing. From high up in the hills to right on the shore, the views are spectacular. The winds were up quite a bit, and it was an overcast day, but it was still stunning. Our favorite part of the trip was Pebble Beach. The Lodge was beautiful, and the 18th hole was nothing short of magnificent. From there, we got off the 17-Mile Drive and went to Big Sur. We ate at a place called Rocky Point in Big Sur. Unbelievable views, moderate food. The funny thing was that later we realized that we were in viewing distance of the Bixby Bridge, one of the most photographed bridges in the world. We would have gotten much better pictures of the bridge if we had known about it then. We drove on into Big Sur. (I kept wondering how anyone could question the existence of God after seeing all I had seen that day. There's no way all of THIS could have been accidentally created.) On the way back to Marina, we stopped and shopped in Carmel for an hour or so. Very cool town.
Monday, February 28
This was my favorite day of the whole trip. Again, no agendas, so we got a slow start to the day. We slept late, ate breakfast, then went for a long walk. We left the hotel around 11:30 and went back to Cannery Row in Monterey. We ate a small lunch at Archie's, then walked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We spent over two hours walking around the aquarium in awe of the exhibit and the animals. We kept talking about how much the girls would have loved to have been there. After this, we went back to Cannery Row for more shopping. (Did I mention that the bride likes to shop?) We went to Cannery Row's Factory Outlets and bought a few things there. Then back to the shops on Cannery Row where we bought a few things for the girls. Dinner that night was at Bubba Gump's. This was our favorite meal of the trip, probably because it was our BIGGEST meal of the trip. The bride had fried chicken, and I had coconut shrimp. We were full, and we normally don't do this, but the desserts looked too good to pass up. The bride went with her favorite, key lime pie, while I decided to be a COMPLETE glutton and have the chocolate chip cookie sundae. Our waitress was nice enough to roll us out of the restaurant. If she would have only rolled us UP THE HILL to where our car was parked..... Not to worry, we knew our old friend Gaviscon was waiting for us back in our room!
Tuesday, March 1
We decided to set aside Tuesday as our San Francisco day. It took us about two hours to drive there, but the scenery was once again worth the drive. We shopped up and down the streets at Fisherman's Wharf. We had lunch at Boudin's, then took a bay cruise where we got an up-close look at things like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. After that, we shopped on Pier 39 for an hour or so. While the bride shopped, I sat on different benches until I found an unprotected wireless Internet connect and e-mail the girls at home. By this time, we were ready to head back south to our hotel. We did decide by the end of the day that we enjoyed the Monterey/Carmel area much better than San Francisco. Monterey and Carmel are both more laid back and low-key. We stopped in Gilroy at the outlets and (guess what?) did more shopping. After supper and American Idol, we started packing for our trip back the next morning.
Wednesday, March 2
We woke up to ants in our pastries this morning. Someone on tripadvisor.com had this happen to them here, and there was even a thing in the room that said to keep food sealed. We thought it was sealed, but not well enough. At least it was the bride's pastries and not mine.....don't worry, I shared with her! We took a few more looks at the Pacific Ocean, and then got in the car to leave. Thank goodness for HOV lanes between Gilroy and San Jose, or else we would have never made our plane in time. When we turned in our car at Enterprise, they told us that they had been looking for this Envoy. Apparently when they didn't have a full size car and gave us the Envoy instead, the young lady failed to document this little detail. I guess we were lucky we didn't get pulled over and accused of driving a stolen car. We made it to the airport and waited for our plane to take off. The guy who worked for Southwest at the gate needs to come up with some different terminology for the sake of his customers. As he was scanning our tickets, he said "This thing's been acting strange all day, running really slow. I know it's gonna' crash." The word "crash", while appropriate when talking about computers, should NEVER BE USED around people who are boarding a plane.
When we got to LA, we ate a bite of lunch and waited for our plane home. We kept noticing this guy with a turban and a long beard walking around at our gate. He would wander around and then go to the pay phones. No, I wasn't being politically correct, but I couldn't help it. Wrong or not, the bride and I were EXTREMELY relieved when he wandered on down to another gate. We also watched to see if he boarded our flight, and again, much to our relief, he didn't. We made it home safe and sound, and it was great to have the girls there at the airport with Ken and Hattie. The ride home was anything but quiet, with us talking about the trip and the girls catching us up on their week.
Our bodies are starting to adjust back to our time zone. And we're getting back into our routines once again. Softball practice started for both girls this past weekend, so we know spring is just around the corner. It may take some time before the bride and I get to take another trip like this again, but I can say with some bit of assurance that Monterey will be our destination sometime in the future. And I can't think of another person that I'd enjoy traveling with better than my bride.
I hope to post some pictures from the trip later today. They may be a little fuzzy on here, because I'll need to lessen the resolution just a bit to post them.
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