Point Lobos State Reserve

Our last day of the honeymoon, we wanted to visit Point Lobos State Reserve. Since it wasn't going to be an all day adventure, we had a leisurely morning eating breakfast and then checking out downtown Monterey, which we hadn't done yet. It's in a different area than Cannery Row. We didn't find much of interest so we headed over to Pacific Grove to check out their downtown area.

We discussed having lunch at the Mission Ranch in Carmel, which I understand is owned by Clint Eastwood. However, we decided to eat at Peppers in downtown Pacific Grove. It was recommended via tripadvisor and since we were there it was convenient. They had good Mexican food. A sign as you enter states that it's an old mason building and that it's not stable in case of an earthquake. As we eat, we realized the floor slanted down from the front of the restaurant to the back. Not thing food rolled off the table but it was noticeable. We'd go back again.

After lunch, we made it to Point Lobos State Reserve. It costs $10 for a car to enter and we drove to toward the Sea Lion Point Trail. I had read online that it was a good trail. Most of them are fairly short but the views are amazing! This particular trail was a short walk that went down to the water so you could walk on top of the rocks and watch the waves crash over them. Near the point, there is a small island where dozens of sea lions sun themselves. You can easily hear them barking when you're on the path.

Across the cove from Sea Lion Point, is the Cypress Grove Trail, which they say is another short, popular trail. It too is very nice and provides break taking views. Unlike the Sea Lion which goes down toward the ocean, this one goes up slightly so that you're standing on top of a cliff looking down over some other rocks. The whole path is lined with cypress trees. Which are interesting as well. They seem to take shape of the wind so many that we saw in Monterey area are bent over from the wind.

I looked at the map about which trail we could do next. They are short but I took time taking a lot of pictures. I wanted to the north shore or south shore trail, but my husband didn't want to walk that far. I convinced him we could a portion of the south shore trail and not the whole thing but when we got down there, the Bird Island Trail looked more interesting. At the 7 Mile Drive, they also have a similar stop which they describe as a snow cap rock which is really bird poop so I wondered if this was just going to be a rock with a bigger "snow cap."

This trail went between several coves so it was beautiful. We rounded one corner and there was a black sand beach with seals sunning themselves off in a distance. Another cove had rocks where holes had worn through from all the waves. I was also amazed at how blue the water was in this area. It was almost tropical! Maybe it was the time of year, but there wasn't a lot of birds on Bird Island (luckily).

Overall, a much better hike than what we had done in Big Sur. We will definitely visit Point Lobos State Reserve again.

Pebble Beach - 17 Mile Drive

Today was my husband's day. We started the morning and went to Macy's for a short shopping experience. The good thing about being on a honeymoon is it's an easy excuse to spend money and not feel guilty about it. :)

Afterwards, we went to Pebble Beach, the world renowned golf course. We had lunch at the Lodge at Pebble Beach at the Stillwater Bar and Grill. Corey chose this restaurant because it overlooks the infamous 18th hole which sits next to the beach. The weather was gorgeous with the sun shining and about 65 degrees. After lunch, visitors are allowed to walk the course as long as they stay in the cart path. We walked around while I took tons of pictures of the course.

Although my husband was wishing he brought his golf clubs, he did enjoy critiquing all the hackers on the course. It seems everyone wants to say they played Pebble Beach golf course even if they can't play golf.

After walking a few holes, we got in the car and did the 17 mile drive. It costs $9.25 to enter the gated area for Pebble Beach but if you eat at any of the restaurants, they will reimburse the amount to your bill. Just gives you an idea of the $19 cheeseburger we each ate during lunch as well as my $12.50 bloody mary.

17 mile drive was interesting and we were luckily going the opposite direction of the rest of the tourists. The most interesting points were the Lone Cypress, the Cypress Point Lookout, and the Fanshell Overlook. There is quite a bit of historical stops along the way but I was more interested in the landscape. In all honesty, the drive wasn't as good as I thought it would be although it was nice to see Pebble Beach and the million dollar homes in the neighborhood.

The best part was stopping at the Inn at Spanish Bay to watch the sunset. They have an outdoor seating area with wooden chairs and couches that surround a gas fire pit. It looks over the ocean as you enjoy food and drinks. We had a couple of appetizers and beers as others joined us around one fire pit. Once the sun sets, a man stands at the end of one of the greens dressed in traditional Scottish attire and plays the bagpipes. Another gorgeous day!

Big Sur

We started off this Wednesday morning with the intent to visit the Hearst Castle. We knew it was about 2 hours away (if not a little more) but we had to go through Big Sur to get to it. Our plan was to visit the castle in the morning and then Big Sur in the afternoon.

Once we had breakfast and got going, we realized there wasn't time for the castle. The tour was almost two hours long and it wasn't clear when it was offered so we could arrive at the wrong time and have to wait 2 hours before the next tour.

We had several recommendations for both lunch and dinner with overlooks of the ocean and gorgeous views. On our drive down to Big Sur, we made plans to eat lunch at Nepenthe and dinner at Rocky Point.

Unusual for me, I didn't do any research about Big Sur so I had expected Big Sur was a park in itself, not a town with a bunch of parks to visit. The drive down was probably better than any of the parks we visited. The road winds around various curves so you see the road as it hit hugs the road and then the mountains drops off into a huge cliff that went into the Pacific Ocean.

My husband was extremely patient with me as I asked him to stop about every mile or so in order to get some good photo's. It was beautiful. We stopped at Nepenthe and walked up the stairs to one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. They had tables lined up so you sat next to one another and it overlooked the mountains, cliffs, and ocean for several miles. After lunch, we headed to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

I had read about a couple of short trails that overlook a waterfall and other picturesque shots. When we arrived, it was a short 1/4 mile hike to the McWay Waterfalls, which are about 80 feet. We left this park and started heading north on Highway 1 toward our dinner reservation. Our next stop was Pfeiffer Beach. Ironically, getting to the beach isn't easy and there are only a few access points. Luckily, we found the directions online before we left about which "unmarked" road to take to this beach.


It was a nice beach. The thing that has fascinated me on this trip are the numerous rocks in the ocean that have been transformed by the consistent tide of the ocean. At Pfeiffer Beach, they had two large rocks where the water had chiseled holes in the middle of them. We walked the beach a bit and then headed back. The weather was in the 60's and the wind was strong so it wasn't exactly weather where you could lay out.

There is a Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park but we ended up not hiking it. At the Andrew Molera State Park there was suppose to be access to the beach via a 1 mile hike. I had to convince my husband it was worth the 2 mile round-trip walk. After paying a $10 park fee, we started on the trail to the beach only to go about 200 feet before there was a medium sized river crossing! Nothing was mentioned about a river crossing in any of the material we read. Considering we didn't want to take off our shoes and socks and stumble through the cold water, we headed back to the car. So much for beach access!

At this point, we headed to Rocky Point restaurant, which literally sat out over a rocky point on the edge of a cliff. We had an expensive (probably too expensive) but delicious dinner and watched the sun set. Another great day!

Monterey Bay Aquarium - Vineyards

Our morning started off visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had read at various places that it was a great aquarium as it was situated at the edge of the ocean. I had the impression that some of the exhibits were a part of the Pacific Ocean.

Unfortunately, being born and raised in Orlando and having visited Sea World quite a few times growing up, the visit to this aquarium was a bit anticlimactic (for me). They had a sea otter exhibit with two of them swimming around. It was upstairs and downstairs so you could see them in and out of the water. They also had a penguin exhibit, which was somewhat small. The aquarium is focused more on education rather than having a lot of animals (comparing it to Sea World). They had a large tank that held several different types of sharks including 1 baby great white as well as numerous other fish (Tuna, Sardine, etc). We watched the feeding show which we left after about 10 minutes.

They have a national marine sanctuary outside, which is a part of the ocean but it's just the ocean when you look out at it. Grab some binoculars; maybe you'll see something off in the distance!

We left the aquarium around lunch time and went into Pacific Grove to Latitudes, which is situated next to Lover's Point. Latitudes had yummy food and a great view of the point as well as additional coastline. After lunch, we were off for wine tasting!


I found a book at our inn which described a variety of different aspects of Monterey including the wine vineyards. About 20 minutes away, we drove into the canyon to visit those tasting rooms where they had vineyards, according to this book. We visited Bernadus, Heller Organic Vineyards, and Chateau Julien. Technically, none of them had vineyards although Chateau Julien was the closest with several grapes growing on the premises. Most others had vineyards but in some other "close" location. Ironically, Monterey has several tasting rooms including the Taste of Monterey, which does sampling of all the vineyards. I had wanted to go where they actually had the grapes growing and where they processed the wine. It was a fun afternoon stopping off at these few places and tasting the variety of wines. My husband didn't have any as he's not much of a wine drinker.

At the end of the day, we decided it was time to see a west coast sunset. Several people had recommended going to the Hyatt Highlands Inn and watching the sunset. Since it was located in Carmel, we decided to drive down Ocean Avenue which is "the" street for shopping in Carmel. For those familiar with Park Avenue in Winter Park, FL it was very similar to these stores. After a quick purchase for my husband, we headed toward Highlands Inn.

It was a gorgeous inn that sat on a small cliff overlooking the ocean. We had some appetizers and drinks in the lounge as we watched the sun go down. Those restaurants with nice views typically have windows from floor to ceiling (or close to it) and Highlands Inn was the same. Because of the strong wind advisory, they were actually securing the windows so they wouldn't break that night. We heard a week ago one of the windows did break and it blew glass throughout the lounge (as well as debris from the trees because of the wind). When we hiked later that week in our honeymoon, we could see the Highlands Inn and (we assume) all the window broke because it was covered with tarp!

The sunset was nice although, for some reason, I thought it would be better because it was the actual west coast. West coast, CA and west coast, FL - it looks the same!

Cannery Row - Fisherman's Wharf

One of the great things about the inn where we are staying is that they serve breakfast each morning to our room. We went to bed early, exhausted from the time change, and slept late as well. After waking up, I sat on our balcony overlooking the ocean and watched the fishing boats and others head out for their day's work.

After enjoying a relaxing breakfast on the balcony with my husband, we got ready to explore Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf. We went down Cannery Row looking at various stores which consisted mostly of souvenir shops, restaurants, and wine tasting rooms. I wish I could say I know my history better but this area was a large sardine/fish canning place in the 1920's and 1930's (if I read the historical plaque correctly). John Steinbeck named the place Cannery Row and it's a popular tourist place. It has a lot of art/culture with several local artists shops as well.

We ended up eating lunch at Fish Hopper on the row. It's a restaurant that extends out over the ocean with gorgeous views. The view is what you pay for; the food wasn't that great. I had a bread bowl clam chowder for lunch and although it wasn't made by Campbell's, it only had a few clams in the soup. Otherwise, it could have been a nice carrot soup.

After lunch, we got in the car and drove around to see what else was in the area. We plan to visit the Monterey Aquarium a later date so we ended up taking a spontaneous drive on the coast. My husband was determined to see the ocean (versus the bay we overlook). It was a windy road that reminded me of the knuckles on a fist. You would round one point, thinking it was the tip, and then curve back around again.

We ended up driving into Pacific Grove, which is literally 5 minutes away. I had heard about Lover's Point which was suppose to be a good place to watch the sunset. It was a nice view of the coastline but it was only one other knuckle versus the actual tip. The ocean is different than Florida because it has rocks that jut out of it with water crashing over it. Unlike Florida's straight coastline, this one curves and winds around like the road.

I stopped to take a lot pictures. Oddly the weather changed quickly, a wind advisory is in effect until Wednesday AM. Gray clouds blew in low across the sky. We decided to head back to Monterey to see Fisherman's Wharf before the weather got really bad.

I had been to the San Francisco wharf once, many years ago. This one is much smaller and really not the worth the time. It was a single pier with restaurants and tourist stores. We were really looking for the place where the seal lions sun themselves. We heard them barking but had a hard time finding them. This wharf is really a marina so sailboats lined the place. We ended up finding a group of about 5 of them trying to sun themselves in the cloudy sky.

That night we ate an early dinner at Bistro Moulin. We read about it on tripadvisor.com and it was highly recommended. It's a cute little place that looked like it use to be a house. I had the mussels and my husband got the fish special, which was halibut with spinach and mushrooms. Very good restaurant!

Introduction

This short-term blog is to tell the story of our honeymoon in Monterey, CA (and surrounding areas we visit). We were married on Saturday, October 24, 2009!

I think Monterey was selected because the nearby Pebble Beach Golf Course was a major attraction for my husband. I told him he could play the $500 round of golf as long as he bought me something equivalent, which meant a round of golf at Pebble Beach was really going to cost $1000.

In the end, it was selected because of the opportunity to not only visit Pebble Beach Golf Course but also the numerous photo opportunities because of the scenario with 17 Mile Drive, Point Lobos State Reserve, and other beautiful scenic areas.

My husband tells me he really wanted to visit Monterey because it was a place we could visit every year for our anniversary compared to an island resort!

This is our Monterey Honeymoon!

Arriving in Monterey

I guess I could consider this Day 2 but Day 1 was really traveling across the continental US from Tampa to San Francisco. After a long flight to CA, we arrived CA time around 4:00 pm due to a flight delay.

We got our rental car and headed toward Monterey, CA. From what I understand, Corey selected Monterey from a work colleague who strongly recommend it. It's a beautiful part of the U.S. We have an ocean view room at the Monterey Bay Inn and was told it had sunset views.

It took us about an hour and a half to drive to Monterey after flying into San Francisco. This Inn is right on Cannery Row, a tourist area, but next to the San Carlos Beach, which is popular with surfers and divers. It's right next to a bicycle/running path that runs from one end of Monterey County to the other. It was beautiful as we pulled up!

We got in around 5:30 PM (PT) and learned that the sun set between 6:00-6:30 pm (from the front desk clerk). As we sat on our balcony that overlooked the ocean, we quickly realized that there was no way the sunset over the ocean at Monterey Bay, let alone from the view on our balcony. Although we are on the west coast, our bay actually faces east!


In talking with people, the definitions of sunset vary. Our definition of sunset was to actually watch the sun set over the ocean. Some people think of it as the sun simply setting (ocean view or not). Regardless, the view from our hotel room is gorgeous! You can hear the ocean waves as they come ashore.

We walked Cannery Row with no plans of where to eat and ended up at Paradiso next to the window overlooking an ocean view. It is an Italian/Seafood restaurant, which was very good. I decided I wanted as much seafood as possible considering our location to the beach. I ended up ordering butterflied king crab legs over a bed of pasta with a lemon, cream sauce. My husband had butterflied salmon stuffed with spinach and artichokes and topped with hollandaise sauce. Both were delicious!

As we ate our dinners, we watched overlooked a small beach, which apparently isn't safe to swim in. The waves crashed on small groups of rocks, seaweed floated back and forth with the current, and we watched seals swim in the water.

The sea otters were amusing to watch. They seemed to tease the numerous birds who floated in the water. They would float, belly side up, and wait for the birds to get close. As the birds got closer, they would flip over into the water and resurface a few yards away, waiting for the birds to approach again before the game continued.


Because of the time difference, we were exhausted by 7:00 PM (PT), which was 10:00 pm (EST). We had general ideas of what we wanted to do during the week but decided not to confirm anything so that we had some flexibility.

Day 0 - was a good start!