Highway 1

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We had spent the night in Cambria where a walkway offers spectaculair ocean views. After taking pictures with my analog camera (yes, I’m back to the pre-digital age, so you’ll have to wait a few weeks for those shots!), Nancy drove us up to Hearst Castle. We took the Upstairs tour, and saw the lavishly decorated guest bedrooms and Mr. Hearst’s private suites and library. The library was magnificent. He had over 8000 books, divided between his personal library on the 3rd floor and the guest library on the second floor. Apparently his mistress Mary Davies used the largest persian carpet (about as big as the ground floor in our house!) for doing summer saults.

After the tour, we headed up Highway 1. We stopped to take a look at the sea lions, and made a second stop at the cove where the sea lions were mating and baby sea lions were basking in the sun. It was amazing to see these huge creatures (the males were about 5000 pounds and looked like they were 2,5-3 meters long). The babies looked the size of mature seals. They made funny noises, and several bulls were fighting and trying to mate with the females (who tried to scuttle away). Very spectacular to see!

Next we traveled up the coast, passing beautiful views – interspersed with construction sites – and deep drops.

Good thing we drove on the mountain side because there was no safety rail on the steep cliff side. We stopped at Nepanthes restaurant (www.nepenthebigsur.com/) with beautiful views and a wonderful gift shop.

It got dark as we left, but Nancy drove confidently and within the hour we reached Monterey.
We’re now enjoying our breakfast and discussing our plans for today. Back to Point Lobos to see beautiful views or onward to Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay and then San Francisco. Today we’ll drive through SF to Greenbrae to stay with my friend Erin. It’s been 10 years since we last met so lots to catch up on. I’ll keep you posted.