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Published: October 14th 2006
Our last few days in California took us back to the coast with our starting point at Monterey, (home of the world renowned ‘Jazz Festival’ which we missed by a mere two days…bollocks!) and from there working our way down to Santa Barbara just north of Los Angeles along the amazing Highway 1.
From our base at the Comfort Inn Monterey… we explored the historic and extremely affluent seaside port of Monterey, home of the California state capitol until the 1850’s and at one time the most important sea port on the West coast. In more recent years the town boasted one of the largest sardine fleets in the world until for some unknown reason the catch dried up and the town reinvented itself into its current incarnation, as a wealthy seaside resort. The old fisheries and warehouses have been converted into an exclusive retail district called Cannery Row, with art galleries, jewelry stores and restaurants replacing the fish packers of years gone by. Monterey had a nice buzz about it, it felt young, vibrant and bohemian, we were disappointed to have missed the Jazz Festival as we had enjoyed the open air concerts in Chicago so much, however, it
does give us a good reason to return!
Our first port of call around the Monterey area was the Carmel Mission Basilica, situated just on the outskirts of the coastal town of Carmel, the second oldest and most impressive of all the California Missions. Originally built in 1771, the mission has been carefully restored to its former glory after nearly being destroyed by fire and neglect, and for a small fee you can walk through its landscaped courtyards, gardens and many other buildings including a gorgeous chapel and some informative museums. It was well worth the visit and despite the strong religious undertones we were quick to agree that the Mission is a beautiful place in its own right.
Our route into the town of Carmel took us past the Laguna Seca Raceway, seeing this place was a huge surprise as I didn’t realize that it was located near Carmel, in many respects it felt very familiar having spent umpteen hours trying to master this notorious track on just about every racing game ever written…It felt strangely rewarding to finally see it in person…definitely the geek in me rearing its ugly head again!
Next up we headed
into the center of Carmel, famous for at one time being the home of Clint Eastwood and supposedly owing its existence to a huge influx of artisans in the latter part of the nineteenth century…It is clear that Clint Eastwood had a certain fondness for Carmel as he was also the town Mayor there for many years. It is easy to see why Clint liked it so much, Carmel is truly idyllic, it is situated on a gorgeous white sandy beach, with glorious architect designed housing and a beautiful historic downtown area…one more thing…it’s also filthy rich! We are talking Chelsea and Mayfair rich, every other car is a Mercedes, Ferrari or Porsche, every woman you see has a little toy dog in her handbag and everyone is wearing ‘Chanel Darling’. It really will blow your mind!
So, feeling curious, we decided to do the decent thing and have a good nose around. Firstly, we sighed at the many shops along the high street that we could not afford to go into...and then we drove around and gawked at all of the amazing houses...we stopped, took some pictures and pretty much invaded their privacy, fantastic! Seriously though, there are
some glorious houses in Carmel; we are talking all the beauty of San Francisco only much bigger and with perfectly manicured gardens. Those with an ocean view appeared to be the most impressive, though we would have been happy to own any of them. The variety and diversity of the styles is incredible, everything from thatch-roofed English country cottages to Japanese-style temples, Carmel has got it. Very impressive indeed, although you just can’t help but think that some of the people living there have got more money than they know what to do with.
Leaving Carmel behind, we headed to the Monterey Peninsula and the scenic ’17 mile drive’ located within the grounds of a private gated development. As expected, the main focus of the scenic drive is not the ten miles of un-spoilt Pacific coastline…although it was very nice…no, the true focus is the astonishing array of private mansions surrounding the five internationally renowned golf courses. As interesting as it was, it felt like a very strange place indeed, it appeared that everyone who had a house there lived in some kind of security protected goldfish bowl, almost as if every resident was and active participant in the
‘Truman Show’. The only natural point of interest was the ‘Lone Cypress Tree’, a dramatically windswept and contorted Cypress perched atop a small ragged rock just off the coastline…..it was a welcome break from the superficial capitalism evident elsewhere throughout the development, although ashamedly an image of the tree has become the business logo for one of the golf courses.
Day two on the coast took us down one of the most famous roads in the USA, Highway 1. Not only a fantastically scenic journey, precariously hugging the Pacific coast cliff-tops, but also an engineering masterpiece with slender long span bridges and dramatic cuttings tearing through the ancient bedrock. The highway meanders and undulates through numerous quaint coastal towns and villages, but it’s the scenery that takes pride of place on this highway. You are never more than a stones throw from the crashing waves of the Pacific, endlessly battering the California coastline. The journey down to Santa Barbara, although only 180 miles, took us over 5 hours as the numerous vista’s demanded to be enjoyed and explored. A truly fabulous journey and arguably like no other road on earth.
After a glorious drive down Highway 1, we
reached our final Californian destination, the pristine city of Santa Barbara. Initially the only reason that we chose to visit Santa Barbara was to visit an old high school friend of Jen’s, however we soon discovered that this city has much more to offer and we truly intend to make a return visit in the near future. The old high school buddy, Chris Sewell, just happens to run a cool and funky motel with his girlfriend Kenny. They very generously offered us a room for the duration of our stay in Santa Barbara and we graciously accepted their kind offer. The Presidio Motel is situated in a fantastic location at the top of State Street, the main retail thoroughfare running through the historic downtown area of Santa Barbara. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity, make sure you spend the night at The Presidio, also try and secure room number 7, as it has a truly remarkable mobile with colourful origami butterflies suspended from the ceiling! If my word is not sufficient…check out the fantastic reviews on tripadvisor.com
After checking in, we took a quick stroll down State Street in search of a hearty meal, the choice was
overwhelming and even in twilight the downtown area looked fabulous…we were keen to go out the following morning and see the place in full daylight. The following day, a very busy Saturday, we joined the masses of other tourists and walked the full length of State Street checking out all of the beautiful, but extortionately expensive shops along the way. The city of Santa Barbara was pretty much leveled after a rather large earthquake in the early 1900’s and subsequently rebuilt in its entirety using the distinctive Mexican/ Spanish Mission style. Thereafter, the town council put in place strict building regulations insisting that every building must keep to the historic mission style so that nothing would look out of place. Today this means that you don’t see any high rises, modern architecture or bright neon signs, commonplace in most American cities. Every building is in keeping with same traditional style, all exquisitely harmonious and very clean. Santa Barbara is an idyllic Southern Californian city that is certainly worth a few days of your time.
After a long day window shopping, we headed back to the welcoming hospitality of the Presidio Motel. Prior to our arrival Chris Sewell had told
us that the motel was hosting a fundraising event for a local artist on the Saturday night, it was a fantastic cause and we were keen to offer any possible assistance. A well respected local artist by the name of Lou Genise has tragically been diagnosed with a life threatening cancer; unfortunately he does not possess sufficient medical insurance to cover the expenses for his treatment. The artist community in and around Santa Barbara are all very close, so all were keen to help one of their own in a time of need. One of the artists, a fantastic chap by the name of Jo Shay (apologies if we spelt your name wrong!) now resident in Los Angeles had previously organized several art events...with a great deal of help from many fellow artisans, and the kind hospitality of The Presidio, they organized a very cool and memorable fundraising event.
To sum it up…The Presidio was turned into a very funky venue for a massive art show; live mural painting and DJ led outdoor party, most excellent! Many local artists donated fantastic pieces of work to be sold off on the night, a local brewery dropped off some kegs and
other local people kindly donated cases of wine, music Cd’s, t-shirts and most significantly their own time and effort. All of the money raised from the sale of the artwork, the refreshments and other bits and bobs would go to help Lou. The whole event went down really well…the DJ had great music playing while local artists and other party goers painted the giant mural. As hoped, our services were required and Jen and I excitedly took care of one of the bars for the night, we felt right at home! We had a fantastic time, got to know loads of people including the lovely mummy of Lou who stole the show with a truly heartfelt speech towards the end of the night. The whole event was a huge success, just about all the artwork was sold, the bars were drank dry and at the end of the night just over $9,000 was raised to help Lou with his ongoing battle.
As a parting note, it was great to be a part of something so selfless and worthwhile, we had a fantastic time in Santa Barbara and would like to thank Chris & Kenny for their fantastic hospitality and Jo for his kind gift. We hope to see you all again soon.
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chris sewell
non-member comment
Thanks Again
Thanks for your help and thanks for coming to see me.It was nice to meet Chris and I am happy you found someone so cool-it is all too often I find that when I meet a old high school friend -I usually don't vibe well with their significant other.Anyways-miss yall (like we say in n.c.) and hope you are enjoying the rest of the trip.I enjoyed the travelblog info. about the Presido and the event-take care guys and stay in touch-chris and ken