MONTEREY

What has happened to the Californian heatwave?  Those gloriously sunny temperatures we’d seen on the BBC website before coming here seem to have evaporated and been replaced with chilly greyness.  Perhaps things will brighten up as the day goes on.

Craggy coastal scenery of the Cabrillo highway

Our road trip has truly begun now that we’ve picked up our hire car (Nissan Altima) and managed to find our way out of San Francisco onto the Cabrillo highway (California 1).  

Our chariot for the next month

Today’s destination on the itinerary is Monterey but first a few stops to take in the beautiful coastal scenery.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

We pulled into a place called Ano Nuevo State Park, one of the numerous beaches and nature reserves along the coast noted as a place to see elephant seals.  We trudged for miles across the sand but not a seal in sight.  

Ano Nuevo beach

However, there was an abundance of pelicans so it then became a quest to get the perfect pelican photo as they skimmed the surface of the waves on a fly past.

Pelican fly past

The perfect pelican

Pelicans in flight

An interesting thing we noticed about the area before Monterey is that it’s the brussel sprout capital of the world.  Field upon field of sprout plants lining the roadside.  It stunk too!

Loads of pumpkin patches round these parts

Unfortunately thanks to our seal searching exploits and the huge amount of traffic on the road as we hit Santa Cruz, we didn’t reach Monterey until it was dark so plans to explore the town were scuppered. 

The long road ahead

Spending the next 2 nights at the Inn By The Bay hotel, not quite as grand as The Chancellor but clean and very spacious.

Inn By The Bay - Monterey

Basic room but very spacious

Alvarado Street - Monterey