A weird start to the day - Spanish radio as our clock alarm at 7am in the morning!! We drove straight to the Monterey Peninsula’s main attraction - the 17-mile scenic drive and home of Pebble Beach Golf Course. It was unbelievable standing on the 1st tee watching the golfers tee off. There was even an official starter for casual Saturday morning golf. That was only topped by the scenery on the 18th green. Amazing!! We also dropped into the numerous golf shops (they even have a shop entirely for merchandise for next year’s 2010 U.S Open to be played at [View Full Entry]

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October 12, 2009 What a day! We went into San Francisco to go to Alcatraz and what a treat! First we had lunch in a restaurant on the pier, Butterfly. The meal was wonderful…the best we’ve had in a long time. Then we got on the boat to go out to Alcatraz. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from the boat. This tour is so well done! It turned out to be one of the best experiences yet! There is an audio tour that is narrated by 4 ex-guards and 4 ex-inmates. The tape has background noises…cell doors slamming, inmates [View Full Entry]

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Enjoyed a nice May afternoon along the California coast (Big Sur). Here are some pictures from this very beautiful part of the country. Coming up in future posts: Table Rock Lake, MO; Wichita Mountains, OK; Bridger-Teton National Forest, WY; Two Harbors, MN. [View Full Entry]

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Today has been a mix of everything and every kilometer has been worked hard for. Started out in the fog with a head wind, then the wind died away and was replaced by winding road along the coastline with lots and lots and lots of hills, think that’s going to be the theme of the next part of the trip somehow. Anyway after a while the sun decided to intermittently burn off enough fog to shine through and warm me up enough to keep going. I cycled 70km before lunch today as I didn't have any food to eat. So I [View Full Entry]

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Down to the supermarket for more breakfast bars. We stumble across Nob Hill, which turns out to be the local supermarket that Penny used whilst living in Pacific Grove for a year. It's only a few streets away from her place in fact! After another breakfast-in-a-packet we headed out to find Penny's old place, a blue house near the sea. After some confusion we found it - and according to Penny who saw our photos yersterday, it looks exactly the same. We wandered over to the water but there were no seals around today. Still, I can imagine it would be [View Full Entry]

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I started climbing and taking the ubersharp turns out of Big Sur town just having fun with my newfound love of countersteering and I guess something went wrong. I looked up and had arrived in Moto Heaven. But I´m only 23, I thought. I´ve only just begun! Sigur Ros came on the pod and I just went with it, turning around to do it agian and take pictures. I realized though that I hadn´t died. The proof: The Henry Miller museum was closed! I stayed relatively close to Big sur, knowing then that I just had to stay another night. So [View Full Entry]

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After visiting Point Lobos today, I decided to make the 30 mile or so drive to Big Sur to experience that stretch of Highway 1 that I have not yet seen. Turns out Big Sur is mostly a camping community, and is not right on the coast. However, most of the road leading to Big Sur from Carmel is right along the ocean. [View Full Entry]

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The highway 1 runs directly along the Pacific coastline while the main traffic takes the faster inland Highway 101 or the Interstate 5 in the central valley. So after Santa Barbara the highway is hardly used. We prepared our first camping breakfast at one of the benches with nice views on the beach and left late morning to drive to the Big Sur State Park 100 miles South of San Francisco. A camping neighbor had recommended us to stop by at famous Hearst castle. We never had heard of it, but since it was on the way we decided to have [View Full Entry]

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March 8, 2009 Carmel has to be one of the most charming towns in the country. I believe the shops and homes on the hilly tree-lined streets have jumped out of some fairy tale. We had breakfast with Frank and Gloria and Frank’s Fresno high school buddies at the popular Katy’s Place. Joe and I shared the Swedish pancakes (crepes filled with berries) and if we would be so lucky to live here, we’d become Katy’s regulars. We all went back to the beautiful house where the Fresno gang was staying for an hour, then Joe and I headed south down [View Full Entry]

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Tout le monde parle de Big Sur, mais en réalité il n’y a pas d’endroit spécifique qui s’appelle ainsi. C’est un peu comme si tout le monde en parlait et que personne ne sait vraiment de quoi ils parlent. C’est une région qui offre un paysage côtier magnifique mais pour la traverser il ne faut pas avoir peur des petites routes sinueuses et de ses multiples obstacles. On passe sur un grand pont qui fût construit par des prisonniers qui effectuaient des travaux pour réduire leur peine. La région du Big Sur c’est un lieu qui plaît aux artistes qui aiment [View Full Entry]

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