The extra, extra day in Monterey. Trouble is, it turns out we are all worn out! At one point today, we nearly turned around and came back to the hotel for a nap! Maybe we should have, but I’m glad we didn’t.
After an early night last night, it meant I just woke earlier than usual, after my customary 4’ish hours sleep. So from around 2:30am, the usual pattern followed (awake, doze, awake, fidget, “bugger this, I’m getting up”), although I did manage to get the “Day 17” blog out with my particularly early rise.
By 7am, I’d had two cups of coffee, read a few articles (“bricklaying for beginners”, a Santa Cruz travel guide, and one on effective carburation of an air-cooled VW engine by Gene Berg), and then completed my 834th consecutive daily-play ‘win’ on Solitaire. OCD has a place…
With the world set right, I then decided I use the pool facilities. Swimming shorts on, I opened our sliding patio door and flyscreen and took around 12 steps forward before letting myself into the pool area.
It was overcast and very cool, so much so, the pool was steaming – I reckon it was around 11°C air temperature.
The water felt lovely and warm, so a few laps up and down, and a few widths underwater got me moving. It was very relaxing, and I was able to completely ‘zone-out’ for a while, focusing on nothing but the water, the temperature and not drowning.
I then moved into the jacuzzi which was comparatively scorchio! 10 minutes of that and whilst relaxed, I was overheating. A dash back to the room, for just after 10 past 8, and thankfully Jane and Charlie were awake, so some gentle ‘chivvying along’ got us to breakfast at a more reasonable time today. Scambled egg on toast, topped with smoked salmon from the buffet for me. As a heads up, the three buffet breakfasts are around $85/day, so I’m glad that’s covered for our three days, at no additional charge!
Given it was overcast and there was a sea fog, we set off for Carmel-by-the-Sea, where property prices are a snip compared to those a mile or so away on 17-Mile Drive.
You could either rent a quaint little house for $12,000/month, or go the whole hog, and spend between $1-4 million and just buy one. They are lovely though – some look almost like hobbit houses, they are so cottagey!
A walk around town sated the shoppers and “Po-Go’ers” (Pokemon Go’ers) amongst us. I was less enthused, being honest and it was noticed. Even a walk up to Clint Eastwoods old bar, the Hogs Breath, didn’t make my enthusiasm cup flow over. I’m just knackered again! We had a pint in there when we came last, but it, like Carmel as a whole, seems just that touch more touristy, even if they tourists here clearly have fat wallets.
Having seen enough artisan shops and local artist galleries, we got back in the car and pottered along the scenic drive to shortlist our holiday home purchases. Honestly, it wasn’t the $1-4mil price tags that stopped us, we just didn’t see anything that quite met out requirements, otherwise we’d have got one for us, and one that friends could have used!
From there, I was given “free rein” on where next. I had had it in mind that I didn’t want to drive south, as we will be spending the next two days doing that, so I did a “180” and headed north on the “Pacific Coastal Highway 1” (PCH, for short). Hence my reading up on Santa Cruz earlier. None of us have been, and there’s a beach from boardwalk amusement park with old-school fairground rides and wooden roller coasters. For any 80’s film-buffs out there, it’s also where the comedy/horror film “Lost Boys” was filmed.
After around a 50-minute drive through acres of Brussel sprouts and strawberries, all being picked by those nice folk that will do a hard days work, those that Mr “POTY” Trump wants to build a wall between, we arrived at the sat-nav destination. Except I’d plumbed it in wrong and we ended up at very nice harbour, which would have been lovely to mooch around, if we had another day. Five minutes of added time later and I rescued a point, by getting us to a parking meter near the Boardwalk.
Despite us only having enough silverware for 100 minutes of parking, we put the last coin in as Jane and Charlie were walking away from the car, and headed to my pre-planned, “unexpected” attraction.
As we got to the eastern entrance to the boardwalk, I mentioned that the bridge to our left was allegedly the one out of Lost Boys scene. “You know the one where the train goes over, and Keifer Sutherland and the other vampires hang below?”. With a relatively loose grip on accuracy, I then explained the scene that would be more memorable to Jane. “You know the one where the kids are crossing and the train comes and the almost have to jump off the side?”. Not that that is from Lost Boys, or anywhere near here, its from “Stand By Me”. Still…
Anyway, the ploy/manipulation worked and both Jane and Charlie, walked across the railroad bridge, with the very large gaps between sleepers, and nothing but river below.
I did remined them that we needed to make sure we got across before the train came, but fair play to them, they took that very calmly and pottered across. Up until the midway point, where there is a missing sleeper and a gap much bigger than the rest.
After a slight hesitation, we all went across, and made it to the other side. Charlie and I then walked it back, whilst Jane chose the footbridge to the side.
All good fun, and we’re all less sleepy for a little taste of adrenalin.
Right! On to the Boardwalk! It was really nice meandering through the busy-but-fun amusements. It felt very “No(rthern) Cal(ifornia)”, and laid back. Although the donuts were pretty “in your face” big!
Charlie decided that he only wanted to go on one ride, and that was the historic wooden roller coaster, the “Giant Dipper”, putting us in that elite category of 60-million riders since its 1924 opening!
It was great! Short, but fast, and rickety, where probably two rides are never the same as it shifts around so much! We both really enjoyed it and are very glad we had a go!
Back to the car after a quick game of “totally annihilate Charlie at AirHockey” (Competitive Dad on Tour), and we decided to head home. As we walked back, I pointed out the train that had just arrived, and laughed about how we were lucky it hadn’t arrived an hour earlier, otherwise, we’d have been on the bridge and had to jump off.
It was then that their expressions gave away the fact that they thought I’d been joking when they walked the bridge. No wonder they were calm.
We hadn’t decided to head home via 10 miles of traffic jam however, which added a good half hour or so to our journey. Given traffic was so slow, and our car seems to have a hole in its fuel tank(!), I decided once again to fill up with fuel.
This Gas Station was manned by none less than the “spitting image” of Jackie Chan. Honestly, that’s not in anyway a lazy, racist comment, he did look a lot like Jackie Chan. It was when he smiled, in particular. Which he did, as he took almost $100 off me, for just less than a full tank of Regular! Wipe on, wipe off, my arse!
Back onto the slow crawl, which eventually got moving, occasionally even getting close to the speed limit (65mph). We toyed with just going back to the hotel but decided to eat at Fishermans Wharf. Touristy? Yep. Value? Unlikely. A “done that”? Definitely!
It was bloody freezing walking from the car down the pier, and only otters playing and a few sea lions barking helped take our mind off what cold feels like. Something we’ve forgotten until now.
We ate at an “OK” place, Clam Chowder was good enough. I chose fish and chips because I anticipated it being poor, along with most other things I fancied, and that was the cheapest of the things I was unlikely to enjoy. Which was the case. Charlie however made the best decision, having the Clam Chowder served in a bowl of made of bread!
What was brilliant though, was our view. We watched a big boat pull in, that had clearly been out “Whale Watching” and was full of people looking way to eager to get off! Out of around 100 people that walked past our window, none had a smile on their face, at least two looked medically frozen, one lady was clearly having a “right pop” at her partner for taking on such a “goddam’ awful, freezing, seasick-ridden trip”, and the rest all looked very, very cold!
Blimey, I’ve right wittered on today, and we didn’t even do much. Sorry about that! I’ll sum up.
From there, we came home for the last night here, and I wrote this diatribe!
I’ll call it a day, and catch up tomorrow with our trip down Big Sur to our second of three Santas, Barbara!
Night, folks!