Monterey Bay to Big Sur

Track -Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival.  "I could not help concluding this man had the most supreme pleasure while he was driven so fast and so smoothly by the sea" Captain James Cooke.

Day 6.   As it turns out...a loud knock on the door at 10pm when we were fast asleep by a self proclaimed activist against camping on the street, luckily he seemed to regret disturbing us and immediately apoligised and wished us well.

 Woke up to a foggy morning and a lovely cliff top run for becs doing the surf report for pete. After breakfast and some reading practice for dylan, pete headed out into steamer lane and caught a couple of nice waves. Cold in the water and lots of kelp around the legs.

 We then headed out to Monterey stopping to get some artichokes on route. They are growing everywhere. Found a lovely stop in Marina Rv park in the dunes.

 Saw sea eagles and a ground squirrel and nearly got blown off into the pacific. Had a bbq and did our washing and generally felt like we were getting into the swing of it all. Dylan made some little friends and we managed to stay awake later than the boys for the first time and have a few drinks.


Day 7.   After a lazy start and again dumping and reloading (dylan and becs have nominated pete for this job) we were off again down highway 1 to Monterey.  We found a parking spot in town and sorted out quarters into the meter and then into the aquarium.

Our favourites were the sea otters, the jellies, the seahorses and the hammerhead shark. Made our first contact home with a few signal problems, and then we drove the '17mile drive' a section of road along the coast you pay 9 bucks todrive along, with the famous Loan cypress tree and some prime real estate amongst multiple golf courses.

We picked up a few groceries in Carmel by the sea and a copy of Monterey Peninsula Homes Magazine.

For a mere $27, 000, 000 you can snap up 3410 17 mile drive, a beautifully maintained home and grounds on 2.4 acres, the essence of pebble beach elegance! We camped in a beautiful spot called Saddle Mountain RV Campsite.

 Day 8   Had a nice slow start to the day with lovely hot showers for all, and some drawing for mummy and dylan. We headed on along a stunning coastal drive to Big Sur. We found another fantastic camping area called Riverside RV Camping and we had a spot right on the river.

 We went off for a walk to see a waterfall in a nearby state park and it was about 2 miles round trip, all of which dylan walked, with a little encouragement.  The trees were enormous.

 We saw quite a few very large green slugs too. Dylan and pete did some playing in the river whilst Solomon had an outside bath in his rubber duck. We then had a campfire complete with sausages and marshmallows. Both boys unusually fell asleep well before us so we were able to sit out and watch the older children catch crayfish by torchlight.