Still not quite on west coast time... up at 0500, couldn't sleep. What a great day we had yesterday! Our plan for this 5th day of our adventure is to eventually make it down to Big Sur and the Lodge there via 'Carmel by the Sea' and, do whatever else we feel like en route.
I was showered, shaved and dressed before either Rose or Conor had stirred. Haven't been able to quite put work away yet. Logged on to my work laptop and took care of some expense reports. Shut down soon after that and jumped back on my laptop in order to parse through the plethora of photos we took yesterday. I still can't believe the luck we had yesterday morning with the humpback that breached in front of me! Feels like it was all a dream... one I'm glad I had. :-)
Rosie was up next and we were out the door by 0645 with a load of laundry, just need to find a place to do it. On the way to find the laundromat, we stopped and ran into the Starbucks at the corner of main street Cannery Row and Prescott Ave. Had quite a few folks already enjoying beverages and free internet including an Army Officer working on his laptop. Purchased our standard Starbucks orders: a tall, non-fat latte and a triple grande, non-fat latte and, departed the coffee shop to go do laundry
We went looking for a place called, 'Suds Cyber Laundromatt'. Was purportedly less than 1/2 a mile from our hotel. We made 2 loops around where we thought it should be before pulling over to have Rosie run in to a dry cleaner to ask where the laundromat was. Turns out we were very close to the laundromat. We'd passed it twice on Lighthouse Avenue looking for it but, missed it because of it's narrow frontage and change in name to: "Wash-Dry... Self-Service, of Monterey Bay Laundry Co." The laundromat isn't that wide but pretty deep. It's been years since either of us had been in one to do laundry but, we couldn't pass up the opportunity on this day with Big Sur so near, ~30miles away.
Overall, for us to do a wash and dry, took about 1hr, 15min and cost $3.50. In reality it only cost us $3.00 since I found a John F. Kennedy 50 cent piece on top of one of the washers! :-) We got our coinage right out of a change machine in the laundromat. We whiled away the time by reading paper and my iPad. One of the cool things about laundromats is that when you pull your clothing out of the dryers, there's a place to fold everything. Got back to the hotel by 0830.
By the time we packed up, had some chow in the lobby, checked out of the hotel and loaded up the SUV, it was 1015. Conor's turn to drive on this day. Didn't take us long to get to Carmel. We found main street and parked. The city is laid out on a long slope down to the water, like many cities by the sea. Our parking spot was about 1/4mile up from the beach and we took a very leisurely stroll down to the beach admiring the shops and homes lining Carmel's main drag. Another cool day but the weather looks like it will eventually clear.
Made a quick biology pit stop at the public restrooms before taking some photos on a gigantic piece of drift wood near the entrance to Carmel's wide, white beach. All of us took off our shoes in order to make our way down to the beach... a bit of a downhill stroll to the flat of the beach. Lots of folks had their dogs out and they were having a blast chasing each other around or just walking their owners. It was all Rosie could do not to introduce herself to all of the canines on the beach. The beach is actually quite wide and very clean. Even this early in the morning with more than just light winds, there were people out on beach chairs just enjoying the day. The water of the Pacific is quite cold - based on the empirical testing we were doing with our feet. Still, there were quite a few hardy soles swimming and even more in wet suits surfing.
Spent a pleasant 1/2hr strolling the beach before we headed back up to city center Carmel... it's all uphill! Along the way we picked up some souvenirs before reaching our SUV and departing Carmel by-the-Sea at 1145. Didn't know it at the time but, once we got back on PCH, we only drove for about 15mins before we ran into Point Lobos State Reserve. We couldn't park in the reserve because all the parking was taken and the line at the Ranger's shack was just sitting there until a car would leave. So, Conor found us parking right along northbound PCH. We piled out with our camera gear, crossed over the highway and made our way to the Ranger's shack at the entrance. Found the trail marker and headed out.
The coastal and ocean scenery of Point Lobos is spectacular! The low level fog and mist had cleared by now and the skies were azure blue with a few puffy clouds and, a light wind. We chose a trail that quickly got us to the water and then some. We hiked, photoed and enjoyed for about 1 hr before heading back to our ride and continuing our journey south on the PCH.
One thing we just haven't been able to do since we arrived is get on a normal lunch schedule. We've consistently eaten very late in the afternoon and it's impacted the types and times of the dinners we've enjoyed. On this particular day, we discovered the Rock Point Restaurant right at 1330 nestled along PCH at the base of the Big Sur range with amazing views to the ocean and surrounding coast. If you're driving too fast it would be very easy to miss. We exited to the right and carefully drove the couple hundred yards on their narrow, barely 2 lane road down to the restaurant's parking area. There were already a handful of patrons sitting outside enjoying the weather, drinks and food. We decided to sit inside by the wrap around window overlooking the sloping land down to the water. Rock Point is only about 15miles from our destination, Big Sur Lodge.
After enjoying our meals of: club sandwich, chicken enchiladas and hamburger (can you guess who ate what? :-) ), we departed Rock Point at ~1445. It's quite the scenic ride along the coast until you finally move inland a bit and get immersed in the huge Sequoia Redwoods. Not a whole lot going on en route to Big Sur. There are a few Inns, places to eat and souvenir shops just before you reach the entrance to Big Sur Lodge but, not much else... not to mention limited to no reception for phones and internet! We finally pulled up to the Lodge check-in/restaurant/gift shop at 1515.
They were ready for us and we were able to check-in right then. They gave us a couple of briefing and passed over a handful of brochures that helped us understand the Lodge and Park's rules and regulations. We also had a basic map of all the hiking trails. We'd been assigned cottage #53. Jumped back in the SUV and made the short drive back to our cottage. Workers of the Lodge and Park get around primarily by golf cart. We parked right in front of our door and unloaded our gear into our rustic cottage room.
Nothing particularly 'shiny' about our room. No A/C but there was a heater. We were told that evenings could get quite cool. We basically had a large shared room with 2 beds, a head with shower and an outdoor patio/porch with a couple of chairs. With our hectic schedule we wouldn't be able to enjoy everything about the Big Sur Lodge but, we did as much as we could in the short amount of time we had.
This was the first day I stopped paying attention to work! Mostly because there wasn't any signal of any type to connect to - a very good thing. Rosie and I decided right then and there that we'd definitely come back for another stay given the opportunity. :-)
Once we got settled in our cottage, we discussed our game plan and objectives for the rest of the day. There were quite a few hiking trails of different lengths and difficulties nearby. Conor, feeling like he needed the exercise, wanted to challenge himself with a long hike up into the Big Sur woods along the 8mile round trip Mt. Manuel trail. Rosie and I were not quite as ambitious and decided to do the much shorter 2mile round trip Valley View and Pfeiffer Falls trail. Jumped back into our SUV and drove Conor the .75miles to the start of his trail, the most challenging one in this park. He'll hike his way back to the cottage.We then drove back past the Lodge and our cabin area to a small parking area near the start of our trail.
The redwoods are HUGE and Rosie had the obligatory 'tree hugging' moments or two along the way. :-) Although our trail was billed as only '2 miles', it was nearly all uphill... steeply up hill! I'm not sure how high up we eventually achieved at the Valley View lookout point but, it was definitely challenging and thank goodness for 'switch backs' all the way up. At Valley View point on this day, you could see the Pacific Ocean way out in the distance, parts of other campsites and parts of PCH winding it's way through the forested mountains. Was quite hot, no shade with only a slight breeze - which made a big difference in feel - and we were happy to take pause on the 1 bench at our objective as we took photos and sweated. On the hike up you eventually get to a fork: the left fork takes you up to Valley View and the right fork, we discovered later, takes you back down to the falls.
Left Valley View point and had a much easier trip, down hill, to go see Pfeiffer Falls. The falls were a bit underwhelming particularly since there hadn't been much rain recently but, still cool. The not so fun part was climbing back up to the fork in the trail via a series of switchbacks so that we could make our way back down to the parking area. We pasted a handful of intrepid hikers and a family of hikers with 3 small children on our way back down. Our afternoon hike in the Big Sur woods took us 1+15. Time was 1740 when we got back in the SUV. We were dusty, sweaty and parched. Decided to go straight down to the lodge and enjoy some cold beverages before heading back to the cottage to get cleaned up. We assumed that Conor would still be climbing his own trail and wouldn't be finished for another several hours.
Parked by the lodge, went in and asked to be seated - just for drinks - back on their patio overlooking the stream, Pfeiffer Stream, that flowed through this particular valley down to the ocean. To get to the patio, you pass through the lounge area, coffee/ice cream bar and, through the restaurant proper. It was pleasantly cool and shaded out on the deck. Being so early, there was no one else out on the patio with us except for our server, Stephanie. We both enjoyed getting to chat with and know a bit about Stephanie during our short respite. Turns out she lived in Monterey and commuted down to Big Sir Lodge daily to work. On her recommendation I discovered and quite enjoyed an IPA wheat beer called, 'Shock Top'... was excellent! Rosie enjoyed a very nice Pinot Noir. We spent over an hour relaxing and enjoying our beverages. We were deciding on our options for dinner and due to our experience with Stephanie, decided to go back to the cottage, wait on Conor and then return to the Lodge for dinner.
Got back to the cottage at 1915 expecting Conor not to be there and, discovered that Conor had been there for awhile! Turns out that his trail had been washed out way before he had a chance to get near the summit so, he turned around and back tracked his way past the Lodge, where we were drinking, to our cottage. He'd been there since ~ 1815. Of course, instead of feeling too sorry, we chided him for not stopping in to the Lodge before heading back to the cottage to join us for a drink. He had tried calling us but, we hadn't brought along our phones to have known that. :-)
After Rosie and I had showered and changed, jumped into the SUV for the short ride down to the Lodge for dinner. We were hoping to have Stephanie for our server but, she was only able to seat us and turn us over to another server right at 1945. Enjoyed a cocktail before ordering some appetizers and our entrees. The beer and wine was good, appetizers great but - and this is the only complaint we had with Big Sur Lodge - our dinners took over 1 hr to get to us!! We were served at 2100! Conor and I had the pot roast, which was quite average and felt store bought, not fresh made. Rosie had ordered the eggplant dish, which was served up cold and inedible because it had not been cooked through! Very disappointing. Stephanie made sure our meals were comped, was the right thing to do, and had the manager come out to listen to our feedback. He seemed genuinely concerned and apologized gracefully and asked if I'd mind providing written feedback, I didn't mind and did. Apparently, they had just hired a new cook (he certainly wasn't a chef) and he was good with the easier dishes but completely missed on our meals. On a positive note, our service was well above average and included those comments in my feedback too.
Dinner at Big Sur Lodge has been the only disappointment of our trip to date.
Headed back to our cottage at 2130. Rosie and I had had quite a few drinks on this day, half of which were free due to Stephanie and we tipped her big for her efforts, and were very happy to hit the rack soon after we got back to the cottage. We slept with the front window and rear sliding doors open. Both had screens to keep out bugs. Pretty sure I heard no bears that night.
Another gorgeous day!
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