It's Sunday, 7/1, here in San Francisco. Our target destination for today will be Monterey via the PCH approximately 120miles down the coast.
I was up comfortably early by 0600 and decided to go down and utilize the Fairmont's fitness room. While I was enjoying a 30min recumbent bike ride, Conor and Rosie made time to go down to the Cafe on the parking garage level to pick up coffee and some continental breakfast. Got back up to the room by 0700 and discovered that Rosie had bought me a spinach and cheese croissant and a skim latte for breakfast. I enjoyed both.
Side Note: just as we were preparing to depart the Fairmont, I got a strange voicemail message from my cousin Ricky in Oklahoma. In his voicemail he said that Carla, our sister-in-law married to my older brother Bill, had posted a message in FB asking for prayers for her son Sean. Ricky was wondering if we knew why that was about. My Mississippi family aren't the best communicators when it comes to important family happenings. I told Rosie about the message he left and she immediately called Carla and got through to her. While she was getting the details of a car accident my nephew, Sean, had just been in, I called Ricky back. Turns out Sean had dropped off a friend up in Starksville, MS, and was on the way back to his place when he lost control of his vehicle and it went tumbling out of control. Somehow Sean's left arm got caught outside as the car rolled and one of the primary arteries in his arm was severed and he had been rushed to hospital for surgery. No idea when or how it happened, who found him and called for an ambulance, etc - that will be for later. We're all very concerned for Sean's well being. Anyway, it was nice speaking with Ricky, gave him the update as we knew it and, wished his family well. We'll definitely keep Sean in our prayers for a speedy recovery.
We were all cleaned up, packed, checked out of the Fairmont and in our SUV heading out for the day by 0945. In no big hurry to get down to Monterey. Conor had voiced a desire to drive down the 101 to Menlo Park, ~30miles, in order to check our Facebook's (FB) HQ so, we headed down that way. Light traffic on this Sunday and the weather looked like it would eventually clear up nicely. We found our way to FB and were underwhelmed with the look of their campus. The coolest thing one sees at the traffic light at the entrance to the FB is their iconic 'thumbs up' on a blue sign. Made a slow loop of the campus. It's pretty sizable but mostly deserted on this weekend day. Well, we could say we'd been there.
Needed to backtrack north on Hwy 101 until we came to the Hwy 92 exit which would take us over the San Mateo mountains to Half Moon Bay on the PCH. Was a very pretty, wooded ride but still a bit misty. Stopped for gas in Half Moon Bay before continuing back north on the PCH. My goal was to be able to say we traveled almost the entire length of PCH down to Los Angeles so, we drove the ~15miles up to Pacifica. Once we reached Pacifica, we pulled into a shopping mall area to buy some donuts and shoe laces for my Sketchers in a Payless Shoe store. Having accomplished our tasks, we jumped back on the PCH to head back south destination: Monterey.
Annie told us Monterey was ~105miles from Pacifica via PCH. It's a very scenic drive and we made quite a few stops along the way including: Montara State Beach; Pescadero State Preserve where we took time to enjoy the scenery overlooking the rocky beach there and was home to at least 1 sea otter and a number of sea lions; Pigeon Point Lighthouse where we discovered a hostel in addition to the lighthouse and gorgeous views; Waddle Beach where there were quite a few para surfers enjoying the great weather and high winds, and; we drove through Santa Cruz without stopping.
Once you get to the Santa Cruz area, the allure of PCH turns into multi-lane highways on down to Monterey. We looked for places to pull in to lunch but, could never quite find a place to our liking so, we just continued on until we got to our hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, off of Wave St right adjacent to Cannery Row in Monterey at 1515. What a terrific location! Just 1 block off the water and a short 5 min drive or 20min walk to the old Fisherman's Wharf.
You park under the hotel and the parking garage elevator just happened to take us up to the 3rd floor and opened up to our room there, 315. After we got settled, decided to head out to find us a place to have a late lunch since we'd only had breakfast back in San Francisco. I was craving fish tacos and asked the front desk where we could find some good ones. We were told to walk to Papa Chevo's a short 100yds away! Papa Chevo apparently made some of the best fish tacos around. In less than 5mins we'd found Papa Chevo's and put in our orders: fish tacos for Rosie and I, carne asade tacos for Conor. They did not disappoint. The fish tacos were delicious!
After our brief repast, we headed out towards Cannery Row and the Aquarium talking about many things including the possibility of renting kayaks the next day to take out onto the bay. Easy walking distance from where we were and our hotel. Cannery Row feels familiar but, strangely new to me all at the same time. Many things had to have changed in the decade we'd been away but, I couldn't tell you what those changes were. Tons of shopping and eateries line both sides of the main drag. Also, tons of penny mashers (one of my favorite collectibles) all along the Row. Conor and I indulged in some ice cream along the way before we continued on into the aquarium.
The Aquarium in Monterey is pretty cool. You can book time snorkeling or diving in their open ocean pool to get up close and personal with the variety of sea life in and about Monterey Bay or just spend a great deal of time wandering throughout the aquarium, indoors and outdoors. It's a bit pricey, $35/adult, $32/student, but, you gotta go. Turns out on this particular evening they had a wine tasting event with an open bar and food for purchase while a jazz group entertained the visitors after 1800. That was pretty good. We were only in the aquarium from 1705 to 1945 and enjoyed our short time there. Before we left we'd gone back outside to stare at the kelp forests, sea otters and kayaker's. Rosie and/or Conor struck up a conversation with a tall fellow on holiday from Atlanta and he shared with us some remarkable video on this Canon camera of the 1/2 day whale watching trip he enjoyed on this day. He had some great video of blue whales and we suddenly changed our plans for the next day!
Left the aquarium and made our way back to the hotel by 2015. We planned on calling one of the Whale Watching tour company's in the morning to book 3 seats. Hopefully, the weather would be as good as it was on this day. Skipped dinner because of our late lunch and the light snacks we purchased at the museum. Another great day and relatively early night for us.
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