Maxima

We enjoyed our Starbucks coffee along with a sample of maple latte and some kind of egg on english muffin.  I guess Starbucks is getting into the healthier breakfasts.

Again we had a beautiful sunny day and it was a lovely drive through Monterey.  Along the beach we saw Dennis the Menace Park.  So we stopped and let monkey play.  He drove the train and then monkeyed around with Dennis.  We stopped at a park next to cannery row.  This is where John Steinbeck wrote about ordinary people.  I have read some other Steinbeck novels but not any about the canning of sardines in Monterey.  I read the history of this business and it is not such an easy thing to do.  I have a new appreciation for sardines.  There were several very expensive hotels with lovely gardens.  Our lunch was prepared for us at a small family mexican restaurant.  We got it to go and ate near one of the fountains in the flower garden of the nice hotel.  I had a chicken taco and blips had a chicken burrito.  Both were the best we have ever had.

We had been told that the 17 mile drive on a peninsula was worth the $8.75 fee.  This is a gated community and includes Pebble Beach Golf Club.  I’m not a golf fan but even I have heard of that golf Club.  There were a few houses(mansions) for sale.  Most had a sign that said, “by appointment only” but one had a sheet so I got out and looked.  9.4 million.  And it was not even one of the fancy or modern ones.  The view was wonderful and we spent an hour on the drive.  Next was Carmel.  We had spent alot of time on the 17 mile drive so we did not stop in Carmel but we could see it is just as beautiful a place on the seaside.  No spottings of Clint Eastwood.  I guess he was at City Hall acting (heheheheehe) as mayor.

I thought I knew what Big Sur was.  I thought it was a lovely drive along the coast.  HOWEVER, I was in for a big surprise.  It is an area where the mountains meet the ocean and a road has been blasted along the cliffs.  And yes, the view is spectacular and at times we were ohhhhhh at least a quarter mile up from the ocean with just a drop off at the edge of the road.  There are many many turnoffs where you can pull your car off the road and take pictures or just enjoy the view.  And they often put big boulders there to stop you from driving over the edge.  My camera will not really take a decent picture of such a distant view.  But there were these “feathers” on a stem that looked like arrows all over the hills.  They were about 5-6 feet high and were so interesting looking.  We saw a sea lion on one rock and I thought I spotted a whale but without binoculars, I could not be sure.  Whales migrate south for the winter along the coast.

We watched the sun set on Big Sur and were one hour out from our sleeping destination.  Ten minutes before we got there, blips said, “I have an idea…Let’s drive all the way to LA tonite so we have a full day tomorrow”.  That’s 219 miles and it is 7PM.  OK, blips gets the true meaning of a roadtrip now.  You get an idea and sell it to the others and walla…new plans and you are on the way.  Monkey and I talked it over with some officers. One said he drives that all the time at night.  So, walla…….3 votes to keep going.

We get to LA at 11pm and I thought there would be hotels along the freeway that we could pick from.  Nope.  We have to get off the freeway and pick Santa Monica Blvd.  Bars on the windows, bail bonds and payday check cashing spots.  Geezzzzz does all of LA have bars on the windows?  We see a Shell that has gas for $2.65 which is cheap here.  It is normal for $2.89.  We tried to use the two $25 gas cards I got for free for test driving a 2006 Grand Vitarra.  One worked and one did not.  I hope that is an innocent mistake and not a scam.  Send me a gas card and I can’t tell it is not good until I try to use it.  BUT, the kid at the gas station says there is a Days Inn just down the road.  We find it and they want to charge us $50 more than we have been paying.  In the end, he gave us $10 off for booking two nights.  We did not want to spend Thursday looking for a hotel.  I guess part of a roadtrip is paying extra for a hotel at last minute.

There is a Starbucks just 5 blocks from here…..at least we won’t have to search for that and there was no one waiting in bed for us this time.  Not that that is boring or anything Tomorrow….Universal Studios, The Entertainment Capital of LA.