California Coast

I went to Monterey this past weekend. I had originally planned to go to the Carmel Mission (yes Jill I'm aware that isn't the "correct" name) but due to the holiday that plan had to be changed. I knew they were closed on Easter but figured they'd be open Monday. When I got to the Mission on Monday there were a bunch of people in the parking lot so I assumed it was open. I went to the door and valiantly pushed as hard as I could. After a minute (during which time I assume she was smirking) a woman standing nearby kindly pointed to the sign on the door which said the Mission would be closed until Tuesday. I felt a little foolish but at least I knew I wasn't extremely weak all of a sudden.

Anyway since that plan fell through, I decided to do something I haven't done in quite awhile - drive south on hwy 1 past Monterey. I ended up driving to Big Sur and aside from nearly being blown off a cliff a couple of times and having to squint to see through the fog, I had a great time. It was a beautiful day to go - foggy, windy and cold. Truly I think that is perfect weather to view the California coastline. I forgot to bring my camera with me but fortunately had my iphone & was able to take some pretty good pictures. They could have been better but I was reluctant to lean very far over the fence. I think it was the sheer cliff dropping to crashing waves on pointed rocks that deterred me.

So here are a few pictures for you. If you haven't been down that way in awhile I'd suggest a trip. You get some pretty spectacular views. Just watch out for those cliffs and the cows. Cows? There was a field of cows - probably 500 or so and they were fenced in with a gate that had an American flag on it. I'm pretty sure they are part of some government plot to infilitrate cows into my neighborhood. I was going to take a picture of them but was afraid to get close.

One other thing I found interesting. There are all these little bridges that you drive over and they have a sign with the name of the bridge and when it was built. They were all built in the 1930's. I can't express how safe I felt driving over them. You can sort of see the sign in the first picture but you can't read it. You'll have to believe me - it said 1932!

Oh yeah. I like the last picture - you can see a cave down by the water. I considered climbing down to see if I could go inside it but upon reflection that didn't seem like such a smart idea. But it is pretty neat to think about!