Our day began in LA with multiple car repairs in the jewish quarter. (we had been the victims of a hit and run in flagstaff which left us crawling over the passenger seat to drive for about a week). As well as an oil change seeing as how we'd driven nearly 4000 miles at this point. We didn't get out of LA until around 2 pm, and continued along our scenic drive on pacific coast highway. It was beautiful until the sun set and we were still climbing treacherous winding roads, cliffs on one side ocean on the other. When we [View Full Entry]

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After reading so many of Steinbeck’s novels it is finally realized to me to be driving through the Salinas Valley. The clouds are low and giant towers—not skyscrapers, not complexes, but giant storage cylinders—disappear into them. The air smells sometimes of growing strawberries and sometimes of burning deadwood. Sunlight is diffused evenly over all the visible earth as if we are trapped in the outer fold of some giant paper lantern. The array of sand and sage and dead grass and sparse trees is comparable to Idaho’s foothills, but there is still a nearness to the ocean emanating from the flora [View Full Entry]

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Today we left the relatively isolated Big Sur area to go to the Monterey Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive, more sheer cliffs and rugged coastline and more traffic as we got closer to Carmel. Our first stop was Lobos Point, which is a wildlife refuge and supposed to be beautiful. We were refused entry because no dogs are allowed. It was a disappointment, but what can you do? We traveled on to Pacific Grove Marine Park. Pacific Grove is north of Carmel not as touristy a town and full of old Victorian homes. I liked the area. We walked the [View Full Entry]

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posted by Onaxthiel: Monterey is a very nice place to wake up. This was the day that we planned on seeing Big Sur, which was a requested stop for us to make for an old social studies teacher of ours. As she was an exceptional teacher, and doesn't think think she will have the opportunity to make the drive herself, we decide to see some of the area for her. Really, the scenery begins getting impressive already at Monterey. Our first stop was at an old Spanish mission just off highway one. The monastery looks like it would have been [View Full Entry]

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Jodi drove me south down the Pacific Highway on Sunday January 6th. We stopped in Monterey to check out the aquarium and then headed another hour south to Big Sur where I checked into Esalen for my 5 day yoga workshop. [View Full Entry]

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We celebrated New Years at First Night Monterey, downtown, which to our delight is only a few blocks from our Christmas-light-bedecked-doorstep. We ran into good friends while watching truly wonderful performances by talented local artists at various locations, then we all convened on the Plaza downtown...where the main stage was and the soon to be count-down was to occur. I ate samosas from India's Clay Oven booth, and Raj, the owner and my friend and Massage client, offered me some steaming chai, which was warm, sweet and thoughtful. After a week with my family visiting us here in Monterey for a [View Full Entry]

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We cracked. We are in a hotel right now. The Seaside Inn... We were driving from Yosemite and it got too dark and there were no nice brown signs on the side of the highway for camping. so we are in our first hotel. Since we last "blogged," we have travelled down the coast. We saw the Redwoods in northern California and they were HUGE. Then we headed towards San Francisco. We stayed with Allison's friends Mary and Jim Shiff in their cute home in Sebastopol, CA. We spent several nights in the area, exploring the little towns near Sebastopol as [View Full Entry]

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We decided to stay book another night in the smelly room rather than moving on. Besides, we're really close to the peninsular and the 17-Mile Drive. I saw a rather disconcerting notice near our room this morning, stating there are cancer-causing chemicals present at the facility! So, it's not really a 20-year old carpet smell at all, it's noxious gases permeating the building and killing us all. I asked the receptionist and she said the State requires businesses to provide warnings prior to exposing visitors to chemicals known to cause cancer; it's probably because of the hot tub chemicals they use. [View Full Entry]

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It's about 21:30 hrs here and Steve is doing serious zzzed's after driving from SF airport. We're in a VERY smelly motel room in Monterey, just along the coast down from SF (when I say just, I mean about 100 miles away... but that's peanuts-driving in America (don't tell Steve I said that). I've opened all the windows but nothing's going to get rid of this 20-year-old-carpet smell... This morning we were up again early doors and we were pleasantly surprised to see several cafe's open along Chestnut Street, so we grabbed a bite to eat to start the day. Across [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone, I hope for those of you who are down in the southern hemisphere that things aren’t too cold yet. I’ve just got back from my summer holiday and will cover the goings on in my next 2 blogs (they wont be too far apart). But since im a bit of a slacker at updating this blog ill bring you up to speed as to what happened before I left in “Matt’s Super Fun Summer Vacation - Part 1” It must be about 6 weeks or so ago now, but Jesse scored some tickets to one of our local baseball [View Full Entry]

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