Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel

We heard the weather might be turning rainy in a couple of days so we decided to head for the coast to be a tourist. Our first stop was Santa Cruz where we drove onto the pier and had a light lunch looking out the window. It was sunny but cooler than what we have been experiencing so far on this trip. Much of this area is in fog most of the days but today it was perfectly sunny.

Along the Santa Cruz bay is a beach side road that is lined with many restored beautiful beach homes. Some with lots of character. Many of them look out to the ocean and the pier. Once around the first point which is where the Surfing Museum is, we saw a couple of surfers but was really fun was to watch the sea otter. We continued down the road to a spot called Natural Bridges State Beach where there usedto be some rock formations that were tunneled by water. All but one have disappeared.

We wanted to drive the 17 Mile Drive which is a famous drive south of Monterey. It winds through the Pebble Beach area andthe Del MonteForest. It is a beautiful rustic beach ride where many weathy homes are situated. The famous Pebble Beach golf course runs along the beach. We stopped to see what they call Bird Rock but it was actually Seal Rock because there were many seals out there barking and hollering and playing in the water.

Before the Monterey area we went through the Salinas area where most of the salad we eat is grown. They also had acres of beautiful big red ripe strawberries and artichoke plants. We stopped by a local fruit stand and picked up some strawberries for the motorhome. YUM

After our 17 miles drive we went just a short way south to Carmel. Even the name Carmel makes me happy. I hadn't been there before and it is so sweet and charming. They saythere are more galleries there than even El Paseo in Palm Dessert has. That seemed true and we strolled through many of them. We checked out a brand new condo that was for sale in the middle of all the shops and restaurants. Only 1.8 million for 1300 sq. ft. :( Not exactly what we had in mind, but very nice. They don't have new condos in that area so this was the only one. We think this area is still too far north for us, so we aren't serious yet. We would like to spend some more time looking at the galleries though so we may go back. It is less than 60 miles from where we are staying.