Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Two

June 18, 2010
Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and Points Slightly South.

Got up around 6:30AM and had my morning in room coffee while getting ready for the day. Around 7:30, I picked up the map and directions to the hotel where the wedding was located then left for the room where the motel serves a complementary continental type breakfast. After I grabbed another cup of go juice, I had something to eat while trying to commit the directions to memory.

The breakfast room faces Mission Street also known as California 1 or Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). There is just something about getting up early in a strange town and watching the world go by. Very little traffic was moving; just a few cars here and there then quiet for a while. Sure beats the Friday morning rat race going on back in San Diego at that time of the morning. I could really get used to this slower pace rather quick. My daughter came in the room around 8:00 and after she had some coffee and a bite, we hit the road.

We turned left out of the motel to head towards Carmel, noticed a doughnut shop and taco shop across the street, and made a mental note to try them both out before we leave. We stopped for gas a few miles out of Santa Cruz then continued on south. Halfway between Santa Cruz and Castroville, we started to see the first of many roadside produce stands where artichokes were the main item and were a featured item at a restaurant near Moss Landing called The Whole Enchilada served them as well.

South of Castroville we notice that traffic was slowly building the closer we got to Monterey. Around Sand City, traffic signs started to appear next to the road directing traffic to park and ride lots that were set up for the US Open while the traffic continued to build. As we arrived in Monterey proper, traffic was heavy but still moving along at 25 to 30 miles per hour. Traffic opened up quickly once we were south of the Pebble Beach to the posted speed limits of 45 then 55.

According to the directions from the hotels web site, the exit was 3 miles south of where PCH narrows down from a four lane to a two lane south of Pebble Beach. As we approach the three-mile mark, we started looking for a street sign. I then saw a sign that said the hotel was the next left so I slowed down. The turn was on a semi-blind curve. After making about a 220-degree turn, we started up a very steep and narrow winding road with blind curves that seamed to be just hanging on to the side of the hill. As we rounded a curve, we blinked and the hotel was on our right, we blinked again and it was gone. As the road kept climbing and winding up hill, we were trying to figure out where to turn around to get back to the hotel, let alone back to the main highway without running into someone or something. We some how ended up back at the hotel, we blinked again and it was gone again and we were back to PCH. We shook or heads then decided to turn left and go south for a while.

Our travel time from Santa Cruz to the hotel was approximately an hour and a half. I figured it would be best to allow 2 hours as Saturday morning traffic should be worse than Fridays as one would figure that the weekend is the real draw to a major golf tournament.

Oh, by the way, that road to and around the hotel had one of the most gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean I have seen in years.

As we wound our way south on PCH, we came upon the Rocky Point Bridge, just north of the Point Sur lighthouse, so we decided to stop for a photo shoot and a well deserved stretch. The Point Sur area is one of many gorgeous locations that you find along the Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and Morro Bay. Our stomachs were starting to growl so we headed back to Monterey to look for some place to eat. With a little help from my daughter’s iPhone, we found a local eatery in Monterey called the Old Monterey Café.

The Old Monterey Café is a place that is open for breakfast and lunch only. After we arrived, we had a little less than an hour to eat as they closed at 2PM so we ordered breakfast. I find one sign of a good place to eat is one that says everything listed the menu is cooked to order. This made the choice to eat here even better.

While we were waiting for our order, I just gazed around the place and really enjoyed what I saw. The café is long and narrow, a very high ceiling with a skylight and seating for around 20 or so. All sorts of bric-a-brac, from old oil lanterns, glass bottles and jars to comic books were on the walls and shelves. When our meal arrived, we dug in. I ordered the bacon omelet with hash browns, sourdough toast and an ice tea. My omelet was just right as the bacon, along and hash browns were crispy just the way I like them. After we finished, we were sipping the last of our drinks and we noticed it was almost time for them to close so the bill was paid and we were on our way.

As drove around Monterey for a bit, my daughter was looking up some places to visit and directed us to a museum near by but then we found out they were closed. We drove around some more and ran into the Presidio of Monterey, a US Army post where the Defense Language Institute-Foreign Language Center is located. Though I do have a base decal for access to almost any military base in the country, I did not want to try to test the waters per say, as I know that security there would be very high because of what they do and I had no valid reason to go onto the post. Therefore, we drove around some more and found a sign directing us to the Presidio Museum of Monterey.

This is a very small museum with some very big goals. Though I do not think the inside was no larger than 20 by 50 feet, they did an excellent job of presenting the history of the Presidio of Monterey. In this small space, they had assorted photomontages of the history of the Presidio from pre Spanish times to today along with a few dioramas. There have plans to expand but they are on hold for now due to the economy. After we finished our self-guided tour, we were having a very pleasant chat with the docent but alas, we ran out of time as they closed at 4PM. As we left, we decided to head back to Santa Cruz as Saturday morning was going to come early and it would be long one.

As we arrived in Santa Cruz, we decided to swing by the Santa Cruz Wharf for some of the great fried calamari from Stagnaro Brothers that I been telling my daughter about before head back to the motel.

Flash back about 15 years ago and the great fried calamari story. My wife and I discovered Stagnaro Brothers on the wharf while vacationing in Monterey. First of all, I am not much of a seafood eater (just ask my wife). She ordered the calamari and I ordered the clam chowder then we went back to the truck to eat. She gave me a piece of her calamari to try and all I could say is WOW. We went back for seconds. Therefore, over the years we have told, and retold this story to our daughters and friends about how great there fried calamari was. Now I had a chance to share something with my daughter that her mother and I have done.

Now back to the main story. We found a parking spot on the wharf and walked around for a while doing the tourist thing then figured it was time to go to Stagnaro’s for supper. The restaurant was full so we went to the take out window and placed our order. After we received our order, we went back to the motel to eat in my daughter’s room before calling it a night. Nothing has changed in the way Stagnaro Brothers prepare there chowder and calamari. I made sure that I ordered enough so I would not have to drive back for seconds but after I was finished, the though was crossing my mind. While we were eating, I commented to my daughter that I wish her mother could have made the trip with us because I know she would have enjoyed the food as much as we were.

We ended day two tired but full.

Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day One

June 17, 2010
Let the Trip Begin – San Diego to Santa Cruz

Though we had planned to leave San Diego around 9AM, we finally headed north on Interstate 5 around 10:30. I took the first leg to get us through the Los Angeles insanity. The “LA traffic gods” were very kind to us. The first normal slow point is at the El Toro Y where the I-5 and 405 meet and we just cruised through in the car pool lane. Even the crazy US 101 – I-405 interchange was clear. The only real slow down was due to a messy traffic accident south of Los Angeles International. Hope all involved are ok.

We stopped in Venture for gas then continued north on US 101 with plans to change drivers at the rest stop near the tunnel near Gaviota State Park. However, since my daughter was napping I drove on until we got to Santa Maria around 3PM as we both needed to take a stretch and have something to eat. As a rule when on any road trip, short or long, we try to ignore the mega national food pits and “Eat local” at a local café or dinner. We broke this rule by stopping at Arby’s, which in this case was somewhat ok as they are now few left in the San Diego area. After the pit stop, we switched drivers and continued towards Santa Cruz with plans on switching again in Salinas.

We had two choices to get to California 1 and Santa Cruz from the US 101. Exit in Salinas and take State 183 or continue on to San Juan Bautista and take State 129.

Around 6PM, Salinas was coming up quickly and since I was the navigator, I quickly reviewed the maps I made and decided that State 183 was the better choice. After we exited the US 101, we discovered that the direction signs were a bit confusing (so was the navigator). Therefore, we ended up going the wrong direction for a few minutes (we got confused at the same spot on our way back). Once we figured out which way was which, we finally got headed in the right direction to Castroville and Santa Cruz.

The drive to Castroville was relaxing as it was a two-lane highway and the view of the farm fields being harvested and being prepared for planting was a great change from seeing miles and miles of homes and strip malls in Southern California. I could get side tracked and go on and on what I feel are the benefits of driving two-lane highways and byways but I will save that for a future post.

As we approached the city limits of Castroville, we noticed a big sign that said “WELCOME TO CASTROVILLE. ARTICHOKE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”. We now knew what they were planting and harvesting in the fields. The thought crossed our minds of stopping and getting some artichokes but decided against it as we had been on the road for about eight hours and our beds were still an hour or so away.

Where State 183 met State 1 was the only other location on the drive where we had slow traffic as it was two two-lane highways with lots of traffic going the same way trying to merge. We guessed that the traffic coming up from the Monterey area was the leftovers of the Thursday afternoon rounds of the US Open at Pebble Beach in Carmel. First impressions about the traffic were that it was going to be a nightmare around Carmel Saturday morning as the wedding site is south of Pebble Beach exit by about 5 miles. The delay was not very long though and once we merged with the northbound traffic, the rest of the drive went quickly.

We finally arrived around 8PM at our motel and were very happy to check into our rooms. After we checked in and moved our bags to our rooms, we decided to get something to eat and to do a quick check of Santa Cruz. We broke the “Eat local” rule again and picked up something at Mickey D’s because it was just down the street, and drove around a bit while eating. We finally decided to call it a night, headed back to our rooms and let our heads hit the pillow.