Day Off in Cali

Coast Near Big Sur - Even More Majestic in Person - A Dream Realized

It turned out that the factory we were visiting out here in California had today off as a holiday.  This freed my co-worker and I up and we decided to do some sight seeing.  We had both already seen San Francisco so we decided to go zip lining in some redwoods located in the Santa Cruz mountains.  It was a truly scenic drive into the mountains and the redwoods – first time I’d ever seen some and they were extremely majestic.  It turns out that we should have called ahead because the place only operates Thursday through Sunday – I guess I really am in California.  If work turns out okay we may try again on Thursday.  Since we had more time we decided to head south down the Pacific coast.  We drove through Monterrey and then stopped by Carmel by the Sea.  This was extremely beautiful but we didn’t run into former mayor Clint Eastwood.  The town itself had some really striking houses along the equally striking coast.  There did seem to be an epic number of middle aged blonde woman walking dogs though.  I guess this is where California farms out blondes once they reach a certain age, I’m telling you, the place was teeming.  Since we were still short of lunch time I noticed from the map that we were only twenty miles from Big Sur, California.  It has been a life long dream of mine to drive the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur and today I got to realize that dream.  I was not disappointed – the vistas were truly breathtaking.  I was awed by the natural beauty and the fact that this has been preserved.  If this was the east coast these areas would have been developed long ago.  We stopped for lunch in Big Sur next to a fireplace and enjoyed another great burger, the culinary theme for this trip.  There was a stream out back that had seats for people to sit in, in the stream.  I just loved the place and the natural beauty so abundant and relatively unspoiled.  A good day.  I’ll post some pictures I took with my blackberry once I figure out how to send them to this computer – baby steps.

One of the Neat Houses in Carmel by the Sea