The day starts shortly before 6:00 a.m., and lucky for us it did. This sunrise is courtesy of our perch on the shore in Santa Cruz, California.
Our excellent breakfast was at Linda’s Seabreeze Cafe, which, along with the lighthouse view, made for the perfect beginning to the day.
Of special note: this post is being updated in February 2023 with the addition of 13 photos that were also taken during this trip from November 2006. They weren’t included back then as bandwidth limitations restricted be to 1 photo per post. The original text that described the day has been distributed between the new photos and, where possible, expanded upon.
Monterey begged us to stop to visit some of the locations we had just finished reading about in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. Visiting the aquarium today wasn’t to happen as with more than 700 miles needing to be covered, free time is at a premium.
Maybe stupidly, maybe indulgently, we opted to skip Highway 101, which travels inland at quite a fast pace and took good old Highway 1 south along the coast.
We are suckers for the Pacific; even if it does mean we won’t get home until almost 2:30 in the morning. The weather along the coast was picture-perfect all day.
We often stop to take photos of places we’d like to stay in the future but nearly always fail to reference the old directories to find those clues. Maybe if I’d been able to write extensive posts during these days, we’d have had an easier way of finding the hints but the truth is that blog posts are not always easy things to search when looking for specific information.
Caroline asked for a stop at the Big Sur River Inn General Store to pick up her all-time favorite Eucalyptus Soap from Big Sur Country Soap. A coffee stop at the Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant is now a part of our routine – we have lost count of how many times we have been here. The view is from Nepenthe Restaurant and gift shop.
If it were possible to commit every shift in perspective to be experienced along the central California coast in our memories, Caroline and I would collect and cherish each and every one. Having made this pilgrimage seemingly countless times and finding the reality of our adventures no less exciting than the first journey, the photos drawn from those days work to draw us back and remind us of how fortunate we’ve been to drive Highway 1 as frequently as we have.
One hundred years ago, the only way anyone was going to see this view was to take a seriously long walk from points inland, or they would have boarded a ship plying California’s coastal waters, dropping the person at one of the few ports so they could make the cumbersome travel over the rugged terrain. Today, we jump in the car and drive 15 to 20 times faster than we could walk and pull over to take it all in. We live in an incredible age where I don’t think we always see clearly how lucky we are.
Lucia Lodge is not cheap, but the location is hard to beat.
A final pullover to see the elephant seals near San Simeon once again, and then it was serious business to get home – it took another 12 hours before we would put our sleepy heads to rest.
Okay, just one more look back at the beautiful sea.
While we didn’t have time to visit the James Dean Memorial itself, we snapped this photo to remind us to return. As of 2023, we’ve passed through here a few more times but still haven’t paid homage to the memorial.