California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 4) – Monterey Bay and Carmel

For our fifth wedding anniversary we did a road trip to Big Sur and beyond to revisit some places we visited in 2012, Big Sur and Carmel California – Wedding, Hiking, Dining, and Driving (July 2-5 2012) and some new places. On Day 4 we stayed in Pacific Grove and explored Monterey Bay and Carmel. I took a picture of the bay from our window in the early morning. It was pretty gray outside, so we decided to have a slow start.

After having a late breakfast at Green Gables Inn we got ready to walk down to Monterey’s Cannery Row. This would be our last day before hitting the road to Russian River Valley to visit some wineries, and we decided to take it pretty easy. After doing Big Sur hikes two days in a row a half mile walk to Cannery Row sounded like taking it easy! While Jenny finished getting ready I took a few more pictures out our window at the inn. The slow start had paid off the skies and water were now blue as can be.

After crossing the street, I decided to get a picture of Green Gable Inn that showed our room. We were in a Gable room on the second floor that included a ladder in the room to climb up into the 3rd floor of the gable just to the left of the chimney.

Although it was a short walk it was gorgeous and interesting. The first bit of land that jutted out from the road had what looked like a bunker behind some rocks. I little research found it was the Hopkins Marine Station a research station for Stanford University.

Most people know of Cannery Row because of a few iconic images. The series of walkway/bridges for multiple historic canneries…

and the bronze Cannery Row Monument.

They also have an aquarium, shops, and restaurants worth checking out. We wandered through the shops for an hour or so, walked past the small beach area at the end of Cannery Row to the Sister City Park near the marina. There we found a nice grassy area under some shady trees to have a seat and rest.

It seemed like a great place to relax, and enjoy watching the people stroll and bike by.

Resting turned into a short nap opportunity, what lazy day doesn’t need a nap under a shade tree. By the time we finished our naps it was time for lunch. We walked back to Cannery Row and stopped at the first restaurant above the small beach The Fish Hopper.

We got a table by a window so we could enjoy the view of Monterey Bay while we ate. We certainly did not rush eating our lunch. We had Sailboats, sightseeing boats, paddleboards, and kayaks pass by while we ate.

But the coolest part of the view was the Seagull nest including a couple furry chicks, right outside the window.

For my sister Erin, who cares deeply about food, sorry I neither remember what we ate nor took pictures of it. I’m sure it was good though. I will try to make taking pictures of our food part of my routine. I will also try to catch up on my blogging so there might be a chance I remember what it tasted like!

After lunch we got more ambitious and walked back to the Inn, collected our car and took a drive to the South end of Carmel to drive along the Scenic Drive along the coast and through some spectacular neighborhoods. We parked in some diagonal parking near 8th Street on Scenic drive to take more time enjoying the view. We are used to beautiful ocean views in San Diego in La Jolla and Sunset Cliffs area, but this location is just spectacular.

Although it looks overcast in this picture, it was still a very nice day. We had the top down on the BMW and were really enjoying the drive.

What I don’t remember putting together in my head at the time, was how close we were to Pebble Beach golf course at this point. We had always come in to Pebble Beach on 17 mile drive from the Pacific Grove side and drove back the same way. But here on 8th Street and Scenic Drive in Carmel we were only 4 blocks from end of the Pebble Beach course. Not putting that together at the time, we drove back to Highway 1 and then back to Pacific Grove following the directions of Google Maps no doubt.

We watched the fireworks from Lover’s Point Park in Pacific Grove, then headed home for one more night in the Green Gable Inn before heading north toward San Francisco on Day 5 of our anniversary road trip.

More to come in the next couple posts including a nice long hike in Muir Woods on day 5 and a fun day wine tasting in Russian River Valley on Day 6.

California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 3) – Big Sur Drive

We decided to start day 3 with a drive down the Big Sur coast from Carmel to as far as we could go until we came to a road closure. Due to bridge damage and a landslide it would be impossible in 2017 to drive the length of Big Sur the way we did in 2012.

We stopped for coffee and breakfast at the Big Sur River Inn. We had not visited here in 2012 so this was a new experience.  We sat on the back patio with a view of the Big Sur River.   While we waited for our breakfast to arrive a Stellar’s Jay flew on to the rail next to our table.  It’s likely that the possibility of a free meal was the attraction.

While sitting on the back patio we noticed some lounge chairs in the river below us.  After eating we went down to check this out.

There are several different groups of chairs in the river and plenty of rocks to step on if you don’t want to get your feet wet.  We decided to get a picture lounging in the river as we relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful morning in Big Sur

Then it was time to continue our way down the road.   The Big Sur coastal drive is beautiful for many reasons, the mixture of colorful hills, some blue sky, and fog are just some of them.

Add the beaches and water for even more beauty.

Finally add in the rocky shoreline and bridges to complete the picture.

We turned around not too far north of the Bixby bridge and then stopped on the way back at the Garrapata State Park Bluff Trail for a 1.5 mile hike with great views.  We parked along the road and hiked the north part of the trail first to a look out point.  We took a few pictures here with good views of the water, beach, and trails.

Then we headed back along the coastal trail.  

The trail turns back toward the road so you can cross a bridge over an ocean inlet and waterfall to get to the southern trails.

On the other side of the bridge the trail starts to remind us of the scenery we saw a couple days earlier at Point Lobos.

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We continued on the trail until we came to a group of trees, then headed back to our car to head back to the Carmel area.  There we drove through the 17 Mile Drive again, revisiting some favorites like the Pebble Beach golf course…

and the lone tree.

After the drive down memory lane we headed back to the Green Gable Inn to get some pictures there, including a few at the park across the street where we got married.  Five years earlier we had seen this inn across the street and mentioned how cool it would be to stay there next time we visited.  In addition to being a very cool looking place…

the location and views from our room were great.

We could also walk across the street to the park where we got married.  We found the tree we were married under and waited for someone to come along to get our picture.

We didn’t remember the bench, but thought they had added it since 2012.  After we got the picture, we pulled up the picture from 5 years earlier to compare it.

Then we realized they had not added a bench, we were taking a picture under the wrong tree!  We found the “right tree” and another willing photographer and got the picture we came for!

For the final memory of the day/night we returned to Casanovas restaurant for a nostalgic dinner.  It is a very cool restaurant with great food and ambiance.  My memory of what I had eaten before was not on the menu and the waiter who had been there for over 10 years did not remember a dish like that every being on the menu.  It’s funny how memories get twisted like that.  Anyway, we loved the food and refreshing, and maybe even correcting our wedding day memories.  

We stayed one more day and night in Pacific grove so we could enjoy the Green Gable inn, Pacific Grove and Monterey on the 4th of July. I’ll put the details for that day in another post (eventually)!

California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 2) – Point Lobos

Day two of our 5th Anniversary Coastal Road Trip was a big disappointment from a planning point of view.  We would be driving north from Solvang to Pacific Grove California, but could not drive up the Big Sur Coast!  There was a bridge out and a major landslide that closed California Highway 1 in 2 places for more than a year.  But we made lemonade out of lemons by driving the fastest route to the north end of Big Sur and then visiting one of the coolest places on the California Coast, Point Lobos Nature Preserve.  We took our time getting up and going on in no small part due to our day 1 wine tasting fun the night before in Solvang. Once we got going we took the fast route up California 101 for about 3 and a half hours. I’m fairly sure we ate something on the way, but that is a blur to me. No top down for most of this part of the trip until we got to the coast and turned south again. The goal was to avoid the day being a waste by getting to Point Lobos with plenty of time to explore. We ended up walking around Point Lobos for around 3 hours before heading for dinner, so mission accomplished.

We parked on the road outside Point Lobos and walked in a short distance then turned on the Carmelo Meadow trail which is a shortcut to Whaler’s Cove.

Point Lobos is a mix of tree lined trails and coastal views. At the end of the Carmelo Meadow Trail the coastal views started as we turned north on the Granite Point Trail.

Point Lobos is a historic place as well as a scenic location. Commercial whalers launched from here and brought back their catches. There were some lecture opportunities while we were there,but we were most interested in the scenic beauty for this visit. We could see the Whaler’s Museum across Whaler’s cove as we walked along the Granite Point Trail toward the south end of Point Lobos.

It was a great day for this hike with some clouds but the sun peaked out occasionally later in the day. The flowers in full bloom here, even in July. The climate is much wetter and cooler than in San Diego. Although like San Diego, it is drier and hotter as you go inland.

Jenny and I got a picture at the end of Coal Chute Point. We tried a couple by using the timer and putting the camera on a rock, but luckily another couple came along and offered to take our picture. It came out much better!

Point Lobos is all about walking over the next rise, or around the next corner and seeing a new view. As we came over the low rocky hill that dominate Granite Point, we could see Moss Cove and the larger Carmel Bay open up along the coast. There were a few more people here, but we hung around long enough to enjoy the view. You can see Monastery Beach, just north of Point Lobos…

and if you look close, or zoom in, you can get a good view of the Monastary as well.

Although there is a trail leading down to Monastary Beach, we decided to head back toward the south and the more rugged coastline we saw there. We followed the Granite Point Trail back to the Whalers Museum, then along the road to the parking area leading to the Point Lobos and North Shore Trails. The North Shore trail heads south through what I think is the prettiest part of Point Lobos. It least it was the pretties part we saw.

You climb quickly on along the rocky shore. If you look back to the North you’ll see one more view Granite Point all the way to the Monastery.

Around a bend and back down the hill a bit we got a new view. These trees remind me of the Lone Tree not far up the coast.

Then the trail turned a little away from the coast. The trees here look like they are full of moss, but it is actually lace lichen.

Then back to the coast and a view of Blue Fish Cove and Guillemot Island.

The waters surrounding Point Lobos are filled with giant kelp. This supports a large amount of fish and other sea creatures. As we moved around Bluefish Cove, I looked back and saw this gray spotted harbor seal as it tried to climb out onto the rocky shore.

You can see Carmel as part of many of the views as it is just north of Point Lobos across Carmel Bay. The clouds were also clearing which gave us even better views.

Then we headed back up on the south end of Bluefish Cove and into some strange looking obviously windswept trees.

Getting a good picture here was tough as the lighting was unusual. Bright skies and shaded tree areas. I took a very dark picture here…

and removed the shadows later.

It’s not exactly what it looked like, but it is closer/better than the pictures that were washed out by too much light.

We continued along the trail and I got another view of Carmel beyond these same trees a little further down the trail.

By this point we started to wish we had brought food/snacks with us on the hike. We had lunch on the drive, but now it was after 5 pm. We frequently bring a subway sandwich or some other good hiking food along, but we had been so anxious to get to hiking that we skipped grabbing food. It wasn’t a food emergency, but we decided to skip Cypress Grove, and Sea Lion Point to head along the lower rocky shore on the south side of Point Lobos.

There were lots of people exploring this area. There was more parking here and it was very accessible with beautiful views of the rocky shoreline and water.

The most interesting rocks had a formation called concretion, I looked this up later. I had other clearer shots of this but wanted to leave the somewhat blurry people in the shot to show how large these formations were.

After exploring a bit further along the coast line…

We took one last look to the south…

and took a trail that cut as straight as possible back across Point Lobos and to our car.

We headed out food and then to the Bed and Breakfast we would be staying at in Pacific Grove for the next couple nights. This place was right across from the small park where we were married, so we would be able to walk down memory lane on our fifth anniversary! Here’s the post for our wedding trip 5 years ago:
Big Sur and Carmel California – Wedding, Hiking, Dining, and Driving (July 2-5 2012)

Point Lobos has the prettiest coastal trails I’ve been on in California. The trees, rocks, and water together create a scenic masterpiece that you should not miss!

California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 1)

For our 5th anniversary we decided to take a coastal drive from Los Angeles to just past San Francisco. This took us back to some of the same places we went to for our wedding and honeymoon and allowed us to explore them better. For our wedding trip we had rented a Volvo convertible for the drive up the coast. We loved it!

That inspired us to look for a hardtop convertible a couple years later when it was time to replace Jenny’s car. We were thinking of getting a Volvo since we had loved it so much. Our kids talked us in to checking out the BMW’s too. There was no comparison. The BMW’s finishes inside and the way it handled were both in a different class. So we got the BMW. And we loved that car even more than the Volvo.

With that car came a plan to do a coastal drive similar to our wedding/honeymoon. We had done several coastal trips between San Diego and Los Angeles and a little further up the coast, but in 2017 it was time to do it or give up on our plan. We were not going to keep the car forever. In fact we sold it recently, about 18 months after this trip.

So at the beginning of January 2017 I came up with a plan for a coastal road trip from Los Angeles to the northern border of California – Planning a California Coastal Road Trip Los Angles to Crescent City via Big Sur. That turned out to be too ambitious. Although part of the plan was to drive the coast, we didn’t want to drive for hours every day. Between January and June we discussed the plan, revised it and in June 2017 I finalized the plan for the trip – Updated Planning for a California Coastal Road Trip (2017 Revised Big Sur Plan).

We spent the night before the trip with family just north of Los Angeles. This would be the perfect place to start the trip as we wanted the first day our trip spent visiting places from Jenny’s memories of growing up in San Fernando Valley. We started with the two houses she lived in as a kid. They were close to each other, the first in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Canoga Park and the second in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. I love visiting places from my past because they bring up great memories. The same happened for Jenny, from her Mom’s whistle to call her in to dinner, to friends she grew up with. Then we took the route she frequently took in the summer to the beaches nearby. The drive down Topanga Canyon Road to Highway 1 at Topanga Beach had it’s own set of memories. We did not have time to visit all the beaches Jenny used to visit, but she would share some of the memories she had of these places as we drove by Malibu, Point Dume State Beach and the cove around the corner, Zuma Beach, and El Matador State Beach. We did stop at one of her favorites, Leo Carrillo Beach. We checked out the nearby campgrounds for a future trip, and then hung out on the beach for a while.

After Leo Carrillo Beach we got serious about the driving part of a road trip. The weather was perfect and the coast beautiful. The traffic on Saturday, 1 July took a turn for the worst before Santa Barbara. We took an ill advised (I think) detour up into the foothills based on advice from Google maps. By the time we got back to the coast and past most of the traffic we were running later than we had expected. We considered stopping in Santa Barbara as we had on a few past trips, but decided to continue on to see more of the coast during daylight and get to Solvang and our first hotel early enough to enjoy some sightseeing and some wine tasting rooms!

We stayed at the Krongborg Inn, which was just OK as a hotel, but very walkable to downtown Solvang and it’s countless wine tasting rooms. We got some good advice at the hotel, and started our early evening at the Wandering Dog Wine Bar. This is not a tasting room associated with a winery, but was a great place to start and had some very good wine tasting options and tasty cheese platters too. We left here with a couple of bottles our favorite wines. That started a trend that would continue throughout the vacation and allow us to revisit our favorites for months after we returned to San Diego. In fact we have one special bottle, the last of our take from this trip, we are planning to take with us on our 60th birthday trip next summer.
The Succulent Cafe almost derailed our wine tasting walk with it’s awesome smelling food and fun vibe, but we stayed with our plan to try out some more wines. The next tasting room we came too as we walked down the street was the Lucky Dog winery. Having had such luck at the Wandering Dog we decided to try this place out. We were not lucky at the Lucky Dog. Our tastings were not tasty! We also did not pickup any more wines. We had time for one more tasting before dinner so with great hope we walked into Casa Cassara for one more set of wines to taste! We had much better luck in this place, or possibly our taste buds were getting friendlier as we drank. The bottle we took with us tasted just fine later in the week, so I think we were still “discriminating” wine tasters at number 3!  For dinner we found another tasting room that also served food, Sevtap Winery Tasting room. We slowed things down, had some food and got a second wind. There was live music so we lingered after dinner and had a couple more glasses of wine. I don’t think we picked any bottles up here and we were happy to be able to walk back to the Hotel for a good night’s sleep after Sevtap. We would have a long ride the next day as we had to drive around Big Sur’s bridge and landslide issues and enter the area from the north.  But more on that in the next post!

Playa Del Carmen – March 2017 (Xel Ha)

A couple of days after our shopping trip in Playa del Carmen we made a trip to Xel Ha. This was the first thing we planned when we decided on Playa Del Carmen. We also had a visit to an ancient Mayan ruin, Tulum, scheduled, but our transportation to the ruin and then the park was a couple of hours late, so we decided to skip Tulum in order to have more time in Xel Ha. That was definitely a good decision. Xel Ha means mixing of the waters in the Mayan language. The park is spring fed fresh water lagoon with an outlet to the ocean that has been blocked. It is a great place to spend the day snorkeling. The buffet was pretty decent too.

We decided to head right to the far end of the park to start our snorkeling by floating down river. We road bikes to the launch point of the river, checked out snorkeling gear there, and then got in the water. The river is a channel of very clear water through very thick mangroves.

It is a relaxing float swim through this area. The water source that feeds this river is from a nearby spring.

At the end of this float you come out into the main bay area. The water here is brackish a mix of fresh water and salt water.  There is plenty of sea life, and some fun things along the shore including cliff jumping and short ziplines into the water.

We had 3 brave souls who jumped from the cliff…

I barely had time to turn on my camera to catch Nicole’s jump.  Good form, no water up the nose on this jump.

 

Jenny didn’t hesitate a second and got a good strong jump. You can see the anticipation on her face as she is about to hit the water. Nice form and not too big of a splash. Hopefully not too much water up her nose.

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My brother Tracy jumped with the most enthusiasm and of course the biggest splash!

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We all did one of the zip lines. Unlike the previous zip lines I’ve been on this is not a harness ride as you have to jump off at the end… or at least that is the way it is supposed to go. You have a choice to sit on a swing like seat, or to grab a bar and hold on for the trip down the zip line. The seat seemed like a little less fun, and the bar definitely seemed more manly, so I went on the bar.

I was a little behind everyone else in line, so I was last up. Ran the 2-3 steps to the edge of the platform and jumped forward to get some good speed. What I was not expecting is that the cable had quite a bit of slack, so I shot off the platform then fell down 4-5 feet before hitting the bottom of the slack. Then my hands slipped of the bar and straight down I went. Luckily I missed the concrete footing the platform was set on. Embarrassing and not much fun. A couple of months ago there was a video of a very large guy doing a similar if not the same zipline and the same thing happened to him. Lots of unkind comments on that video!

I could not let that be my only memory of ziplining at Xel-ha so I swam around and took a second shot at it. Same bar, different technique! I walk to the edge with as much weight on the line as I could put by “pulling up” on the bar. This time there was no big drop, and I zipped down the line…

and into the water.

Not a huge thrill, but much more satisfying!

After this we swam over to where the buffet was and had a great meal. Less fancy than our resort, but it was really good. After lunch we went right back in for more snorkeling.

My underwater camera (a GoPro knockoff) was new and I had not used it before. My brother had a snorkel mask with a mount on the mask, and his GoPro (the real one) was acting up – battery would not charge, so he loaned the mask to me. Unfortunately I either put the camera on tipped up too much or adjusted it that way in the water. The idea is that where you look the camera looks too. So at the end of the day I thought I had a couple good videos of a ray passing under me and plenty of fish. Instead I had a few videos of the water in front of my head, with partial glimpses of what I was seeing. After this trip, I got a floating handle to hook the camera too. I’ve used this setup several times since then, and it works pretty well for me. I like being able to see what I’m capturing.

I can’t believe that I am still working on posts for our vacation we went on 19 months ago. I’ve been very busy, but really no excuse for how long it took to get this post. I still have one more post for our trip to Cozumel – one of our favorite days in Playa del Carmen. Then I have a lot of other things I need to post about. I better get on it!

Playa Del Carmen – March 2017 (5th Avenue Shopping)

Eight Days and seven nights at an all inclusive resort can definitely lead to over indulgence in all the “included” stuff.  Enjoy some great food, alcohol, relax around the pool, get some sleep then repeat!  We knew going in that “for our health” we needed to get out and about at least a few times.  Our stay at Ocean Riviera Paradise was an awesome vacation and the excursions definitely added to our fun. We planned 3 day trips during our week in Playa Del Carmen, a shopping trip a snorkeling trip to Xel Ha, and a ferry ride to Cozumel.

Our first excursion was a shopping trip into Playa Del Carmen’s Fifth Avenue shopping district. The resort arranged our ride to the shopping area, and for the same taxi to pick us up at a prearranged time. This is the place to go to for a vintage Mexican shopping experience. Fifth Avenue is long, walking only street, with shops lining both sides of the street. Never pay the first price, part of the fun is the negotiation. Only negotiate if you are serious about buying though, otherwise, what’s the fun in it that!

Do beware as a shopper though. I don’t think there is an intention to rip you off but be sure your expectations are realistic. I bought a single hammock while I was there. They also offered a double size hammock, but I thought a single would be fine. My expectation was that it would be like the single hammocks at the resort.

That when I got into the hammock it would envelop me and I could nap with no fear of falling off the hammock. But the reality was the single hammock was much narrower.

It might envelope a small bird, say a humming-bird, but not me…

To be fair, the hammock may get better if I stretch it out in the middle, but out of the bag it was only about 16 inches across with weight on it.

We started walking around 40th Street, which is the beginning of the pedestrian only part of 5th Avenue. About halfway to our turnaround point was a small traffic circle in the middle of a wider boulevard (Constitution Ave). We stopped there for a couple of pictures. I like this one of Jenny and Chris.

Although we were rarely together during the walk down Fifth Avenue, at a certain point we all got thirsty and a bit hungry at the same time. Although it felt to me that I was walking toward the beach the whole time, we were actually walking parallel about a block from the beach. We walked over that block and found a nice restaurant patio/deck on the beach (La Tarraya) and had a couple of drinks and some appetizers.

I don’t remember if it was before we had a couple of drinks or after, but my brother Tracy passed by a dive shop and just could not resist a prop on their patio. Not an Academy Award performance, but fairly convincing for only being in the jaws of a cut out shark!

By the time we finished our refreshments it was close to the halfway point to our pickup time so we slowly headed back toward our starting point. We got a little more serious about shopping on the way back, but still got back to our pickup point about 5 minutes early. The taxi was right on time and we headed back to the resort for dinner, a couple of drinks, and a good night’s sleep.

The following day we were back to enjoying the sand, the ocean, and the “all-inclusive” indulgences at Ocean Riviera Paradise. One useful purchase on 5th Avenue were 2 very large insulated cups. Those came in very handy as we lay in the shade by the beach. They held just enough margarita or pina colada to last until the next waiter showed up!

I’ll follow up soon with another post or two on the other excursions we took while in Playa Del Carmen.

To see all the Playa Del Carmen Post, and all of our tropical paradise trips, see my list of posts for Tropical Vacation Posts.

Playa Del Carmen March 2017 (Ocean Riviera Paradise)

We were home in Iowa in October 2016 and overheard my brother, Tracy, talking about a trip to the Caribbean, possibly Jamaica the following spring. My wife, Jenny, and I had talked many times about tagging along on one of Tracy’s vacations. We thought it would probably be a Caribbean cruise (one of their favorites), but an all-inclusive resort sounded even better. Around the end of November Tracy called to work out the details. They had found a brand new all-inclusive resort near Playa Del Carmen Mexico and thought it was a good deal for a great looking resort. The resort would open in December and we would be there in March. We were all in!

There were some initial so-so reviews when they first opened in December/January, but we figured they would work the kinks out before we got there.  We did some last-minute planning including a couple of excursions, and scheduling the shuttle from the Airport to the resort about a month before the trip.

Our flights were terrible.  I’m used to red-eye flights to Europe, and have done a couple to the East Coast for business, but I don’t plan to do that again for a vacation on the East Coast.  The only benefit is we got to the resort early and got to enjoy the “all-inclusive” stuff for several hours before check-in.  My brother his wife Chris, and the other couple joining us Eric and Nicole got in very late about the time we were ready to crash for the night.

I’m going to do this post a little different from most I’ve done.  In this first post I’m going to describe the resort and our stay.  In a couple other posts I’m going describe the 3 trips we took out in to the local area for fun.

Ocean Riviera Paradise opened just a few months before our visit.  The resort was shiny and new, but had most of the bugs worked out.  I guess the first thing to describe is food!

There was one central buffet for dining for any meal, but for breakfast we also had a separate restaurant, based on the part of the resort we were in to have a full service breakfast.  The full service breakfast was good and the wait staff very friendly and helpful.  Jenny asked for salsa with her omelet, and they said they did not have any, but the waiter said he would make some fresh salsa just for her.  It was great.  With service like that we could have gone back every morning.  The only thing that stopped us was that the breakfast buffet was amazing.  It is hard to describe all the options available.  Self serve mimosa bar, cook to order eggs, tons of fresh fruit, pastries (my weakness), European style breakfast meat and cheese station and more.   We did the full service breakfast a couple of times, but we were at the buffet the other 5-6 mornings.

For lunch there were a couple of options, the main buffet again, and the beach club also had a lunch buffet and there was another BBQ style buffet near the beach pool.   Full disclosure, on the days we stayed at the resort we took full advantage of the beach, pool, and unlimited drinks! I think every day that we stayed at the resort we ate at the beach club or BBQ style buffet near the beach pool, except maybe one visit to the main buffet for lunch. Staking out a seat in the shade by the beach was a daily routine when we spent the day at the resort.

These lounge chairs were in an awesome location to enjoy the beach, pool, and the beach club food and drink, but there were not very many of them.  Don’t forget your water shoes as the beach is very rocky soon after entering the water.

The pool was beautiful and the location great.  Be sure to bring plenty of waterproof sunscreen!  If you go out to stake out locations early be sure to bring your camera as the morning is a great time to photograph the pool.  No one will be in it and the morning sky can be gorgeous.

The funnest time we had in the pool by our building, the El Beso, was on Thursday during the “don’t miss” foam party.  It’s a big pool and gets very foamed up for the party.

Also plenty of party music and drinks and the pool bar.

It’s a good time for a group picture… this is the group minus one.

For dinners we hit all the restaurants.  My favorite was the Italian Restaurant across from our rooms, the least favorite was the only one we needed reservations for, Sakura a Japanese Hibachi style restaurant.  Even that was pretty good.  The service overall throughout the resort was great.  Being new, the buildings and grounds were terrific.  We loved the vacation, and would consider an all-inclusive resort on another trip in the future.  Here are a few more pictures of our favorite location at the resort, the beach!

Ocean Riviera Paradise beach club

Pelicans over the roof of the Ocean Riviera Paradise beach club

Sunrise from the beach at Ocean Riviera Paradise

Swim-out pool outside our room

Full moon at the Ocean Riviera Paradise

We did a few excursions during the week so I will follow-up with one of more posts about those.

To see all our Tropical Vacation Posts go to our Tropical Vacation Posts page.

Yosemite (September 8-10 2016 – Day 2)

On our second day in Yosemite, we got going at a reasonable time. It was still pretty cold in the morning until the sun had a chance to warm the place up a bit. Bridal Veil Creek Campground is at an elevation of 7000 feet so expect it to be a little colder than some of the campgrounds at lower elevation. We had coffee and a warm breakfast to help us warm up though.

The plan for day two was to head down into the valley to explore and to do the short hike up to the bridge below Vernal Falls. This would be our only full day in Yosemite for this quick car camping trip so we wanted to make the best of it. Our first stop on the way down to the valley was at the iconic Tunnel View stop. Don’t pass this parking lot up if you are coming in to Yosemite from the south. If you are not drive up here anyway. No visit to Yosemite is complete without seeing the valley from this angle!

It was a hazy fall day, so the valley features are blurred, but if every picture I took from this place was under the same conditions it would be a bit boring. So I love this picture as much as any I have taken from Tunnel View. Also take note of the yellow/dead trees in the foreground. Although the main Yosemite Valley area was mostly unaffected by the bark beetle when we visited in September 2016, the surrounding areas were affected and some areas you could see from the high roads leading into the park from the south were absolutely devastated. As I write this there is a huge fire, the 2017 Detwiler fire is raging west of Yosemite. Although I fear this fire could easily rage through these areas damaged by the bark beetle I have mixed feelings about it. Some area have 50% or more dead trees and so I don’t know what else could clear this many dead trees. I feel for the residents in this area who may lose their homes and I hope everyone involved stays safe, but unfortunately large fires in California are inevitable over the next several years until these large swaths of dead trees are cleared.

Our plan for our only full day in Yosemite was to hike up the John Muir/Mist Trail to at least the bridge below Vernal Falls. This part of the trail is fairly easy and paved to the bridge. It does have some steep parts, but walking up through the rocks and trees is worth it.

We came down at the end of our 2010 Panorama Trail hike in 2010. I thought back to that hike when I saw Dave walking backward up the trail.

In 2010 we had not done much training to prepare for the Panorama Trail hike, and we were really feeling it in our calves by this part of the trail. The youngsters (Sean and Matthew) were doing fine, but Dave, Richard, and I were feeling it. I don’t have pictures of us lower on the trail to Vernal, but I do have a picture of the 3 old guys on the Mist Trail just below Vernal Falls.

We would not go that high on the trail on this trip, and there would be much less water on Vernal, but this is a beautiful trail no matter what the conditions are. This time there would only be a trickle of water coming over Vernal Falls and even that was barely visible from the bridge.

We had our lunch on the rocks just past the bridge. As usual the squirrels, and birds were very interested in our food. We headed back down from this point and back to where we parked at Curry Village. Yeah I know they renamed it to Half Dome Village, but I’m not interested in what it says on the signs! It will always be Curry Village to me.

We did some souvenir shopping at Curry Village and the Main Yosemite Village stores, and then decided to get Pizza. It was fortune for us that the Pizza Parlor at the Yosemite Village was closed, because that lead us back to Curry Village to the Pizza place there. The pizza was good, but the real win was the lighting on the canyon walls when we got ready to leave. We stopped on the side of the road just outside Curry Village. From there we saw quite a show. Half Dome and North Dome were lit to a Golden Glow.

A deer was grazing on grass just a little ways off the road.

And the moon was just about to set behind Glacier Point.

With a little zoom, it was much more impressive…

As much as I love those pictures, my favorite picture of the trip would be a drive by picture at Tunnel View on our way back to Bridal Veil campgrounds. It was getting late and we still had a ways to go to get back to our campsite, so no one really wanted to get out to look take a second look. I snapped this picture from the car.

Normally I try to get up to the wall and leave everyone out of this picture. What I like so much about this picture is the people. The smiles, the families… this is really what I love most about Yosemite, sharing it with family and friends.

The lighting was great though, so I parked and ran up for one more picture, without the people.

Beautiful, but I like the first one better. We got back to camp, started a campfire and braved the cold for a few hours of visiting. Unfortunately we would be breaking down camp in the morning and heading home. It was a short, but fun trip, and we are always glad to hang with Dave and Wendy! We will definitely be back to Yosemite and I would love to stay at Bridal Veil Campgrounds again. I think our next visit is likely to be a back-country trip though. The High Sierra Camps most likely (just added that to the Bucket List not long ago). All the joys of a backpack trip without the backpack!

Updated Planning for a California Coastal Road Trip (2017 Revised Big Sur Plan)

In January 2017 I planned a road trip up most of the coast of California, including Big Sur. We wanted to enjoy another “top-down” road trip up the coast again for our 5th anniversary. Five years ago we rented a Volvo convertible for a trip up the coast through Big Sur. I loved the plan I came up with, but long needed, but “too much all at once” rains made the plan impossible to follow. Highway 1 through Big Sur will be closed this summer due to a collapsed bridge and landslides. There is no telling when it will open again.

Since we can’t do the original plan, I’ve decided to do more than just adjust the route, I’m going to make changes to the goals. First we will still be visiting some of Big Sur, but only what we can get to by driving back south from the north. Second, we will not be going all the way to Crescent City (northern most point of California). We’ll still enjoy plenty of driving up the coast, but we’ll spend more time in a couple of places and only go just past San Francisco to wine country.

Like the original plan we will drive up to LA the evening before the road trip starts. So day one will be the drive from Los Angeles to the Santa Barbara wine country.

Day 1.

Driving Time:  2.5 Hours
Places to explore:
Beaches from Malibu to Point Magu State Park
Ventura
Santa Barbara
Solvang

Although the original plan had us staying near the southern entrance to Big Sur, I now don’t see a good reason to drive past Solvang. This will make the drive shorter and give us more time to explore the beaches of my wife’s childhood. I’m really looking forward to more stories that being there will bring to her mind. Also it will make going past Solvang unnecessary so we will be able to enjoy the wineries in that area without having to worry about driving on to Moro Bay. We will likely do lunch in Santa Barbara now, but still plan to get to Solvang early enough to check out some of the wineries like in the original plan. Some of the best rated (on Yelp) wineries/tasting rooms in the Solvang area are: Carivintas Winery (they donate profits to animal charity, so part of the rating may be animal lovers), Shoestring Winery, Bella Cavalli Farms & Vineyard, or Cali Love Wine.  There are lots of other choices, but these are the ones that jumped out at me when looking at the reviews for the original plan.

Day 2.

Driving Time:  4 Hours (Most of this drive will be away from the coast as Highway 1 is not open all the way to Big Sur River Inn)
Places to Explore:

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve
Hurricane Point View
Bixby Creek Bridge
Rocky Creek Bridge
Point Sur State Historic Park

Changing the Day 2 plan is the biggest disappointment of the revised plan. I was really looking forward to this day of the original plan. Now instead of driving through Big Sur we will be driving up Highway 101, an inland route. We’ll definitely have to make up for this change on other parts of the trip. The day is not a waste though as we will still drive along the coast from Carmel to Big Sur River Inn. It will give us a chance to explore some of the areas that we originally planned for Day 3 on Day 2. We’ll get a second chance to explore these same areas on the drive back to Carmel on Day 3, but will not spend as much time exploring Big Sur as in the original plan.

Day 3 & 4.

Driving Time:1 hr
Places to Explore:

Second chance for the list from Day 2
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Berwick Park
Casanova Restaurant Carmel by the Sea

As part of the changes to the overall distance we are covering on this trip we will now be staying in the Pacific Grove for 2 nights and have one full day to revisit some of the places we enjoyed 5 years ago, and plenty of time to get to know the area even better. One of the options in the original plan was a bike ride along the Monterrey Bay Coastal Trail. That was pretty high on our list, but is now off the list as I injured my arm and will not be able to ride a bike this summer. We’ll have to save that for next time!

Day 5.

Driving Time:  3 Hours
Places to Explore:

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Natural Beach State Park
Coast Dairies State Park
Shark Fin Cove
Pescadero State Beach
Half Moon Bay State Beach
San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge
Sausalito
Muir Woods
Wineries near Santa Rosa and Sebastopol

(Day 5 is unchanged!)Leaving the Monterrey area it would be nice to drive along the coast as far as possible, stopping in Santa Cruz for breakfast, but if we sleep in we’ll probably take the fastest route past San Francisco to Muir Woods just north of San Francisco to explore. This has been on my list for a while, and I would love to be able to hike some (or all – it’s only about 6 miles) of the trails in Muir Woods. We had lunch in Half Moon Bay five years ago and really liked the vibe of the place. But then there are lots of cool places around here. Sausalito was another favorite on that trip and during our later visit to San Francisco when we bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Either place would work for lunch before hiking in Muir Woods.

Then the second big change in our trip happens. Instead of a quick drive through visit to the Russian River wine country, we will be spending a couple of nights and one full day. The original plan was to stay in Sebastopol, but on the advise of our friend Eleanor, who has visited this are many times, we will be staying in Windsor.

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Day 6.

Driving Time:  0 Hours
Places to Explore:

Russian River Area Wineries (Lynmar Estate, Iron Horse, Gary Farrell Winery, Korbel Winery, and others)

Day 6 will be the last full day of our trip before the drive home. We plan to take a driving tour of several wineries. The details of that are not worked out, but we will not be driving ourselves. Our first choice is a private sedan tour of the area. Then we’ll end the day with a nice dinner near our hotel. After all the wine tasting, a good dark beer at a nearby Irish pub sounds great!

Day 7-8

Driving Time:  5-6 Hours to LA on Day 7, and another 2.5 hours home on Day 8

The next day the top would go up for a long drive on I-5 to Los Angeles. Then the next day we’ll head the rest of the to San Diego.

I did not like deleting the section of the trip above the Russian River area, but we wanted to drive less and enjoy a couple of areas for longer times. We will look to do another trip that takes us the rest of the way up the coast from San Francisco another time. Since there are lots of camping options up there, maybe we’ll take the Wrangler instead. Still a great vehicle for a drive along the coast.

Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (9 Aug 2016) – Old Faithful Area

We woke up early in Jackson, Wy on the last full day of our Yellowstone and Grand Tetons vacation. It had been a quick 3 day visit, but we had seen a lot. We had both visited the geysers and pools on previous trips to Yellowstone, so we spent the first two days checking out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River area and taking a great hike on the Garnet Trail in the midst of the Tetons.

We really enjoyed Jackson Wyoming and hope to visit this area again soon. Our cabin at the Cowboy Village Resort, was comfortable and authentic. It reminded me quite a bit of the cabin we stayed at that the North Rim Lodge at the Grand Canyon.

It is a single room, and has a few more modern conveniences, but still a true log cabin.

We were ready to head back to Yellowstone and have a relaxing day hanging out at the Old Faithful area. We would be driving through Grand Tetons National Park again, and we knew we would be stopping along the way to check out the sights. Because we wanted to see things from a different angle we headed west out of Jackson and turned north on highway 390. This goes by the Teton’s ski area, Teton Village and eventually connects with Teton Park Road. Although we loved the panoramic views we got of the Grand Tetons on our way to Jackson Wyoming, we were hoping to get a closer look than we had coming in on US 191 the first day. We weren’t disappointed. The mountains were definitely closer and in more detail as we drove into the park.

Every bend in the road gave a different look at these magnificent peaks. All of the views were spectacular, but some were a bit overwhelming.

We were just one car of many winding our way toward the Grand Tetons that day.

Our first stop would be Jenny Lake. The views across this lake are well work the stop and a bit of scrambling to get down to the water.

We spent a little more time and had lunch at our next stop, the Jackson Lake Lodge. This lodge was built in 1955 and is very impressive. The view out the lobby windows alone was worth the stop!

We would definitely consider staying at this lodge on a future visit. It was a beautiful day, but for some reason not many of our pictures really captured the feeling. This one panorama shows a 360 degree plus view and comes closest to what we experienced.

After stopping at Jackson Lake Lodge it was time to make some good time and make it to the Old Faithful area while we would still have some time to explore. We arrived around 3pm and headed straight to the main show. We grabbed a spot on the edge of the wooden viewing platform and waited for Old Faithful to do what Old Faithful does. After plenty of steam and anticipation, we were not disappointed!

It was too early for dinner, but just about right for a snack so we headed over to the cafeteria. We just beat the majority of the crowd to line up at the ice cream shop! I took my ice cream out on to the patio facing Old Faithful and Jenny went in to look around and check out the gift shop. She planned to be back in time to see the next big show. We enjoyed the slightly different angle kicked back on a couple of rocking chairs on the Cafeteria’s porch!

After the second show we got a little more ambitious and decided to tour the pools and geysers of the upper geyser basin. You cross the Firehole River first. It is obvious that this is not a hospitable place right away!

It was a partially cloudy, breezy day. A sunny calm day would be the best to get clear pictures that show the pool colors. But I’m not really complaining, we enjoyed the stroll around the pools and geysers, and got plenty of nice pictures. I found the beehive geyser to be pretty interesting.

I would love to see it erupt, but we only got to see steam. We didn’t feel the need to stick around the 10 hours to 5 days necessary to see the geyser erupt.

give yourself plenty of time for this walk. The placards get lots of interesting information about what you are looking at. Although this place is visually interesting, the story behind the formations is even more interesting. Before we headed off Geyser hill to take in more of the trail, I zoomed in to get a picture of this formation.

We commented that it looked like a castle. I guess we were not the first to think so, as this is called the Castle Geyser. We would pass right by the other side of this geyser near the end of our walk through the pools and geysers.

The first pool we came to after walking off Geyser Hill was liberty pool. We agreed this, like most of the area, was not beautiful in the traditional sense, but it was eye-catching. I like the way I got the reflection of the tree line in the picture.

The next feature was the Sawmill Geyser. It was erupting as we passed by. It does not go high, but it puts out a lot of steam and makes quite a bit of noise. You feel a bit concerned passing so close to it as it erupts (although Jenny doesn’t look too concerned here).

Then comes the Spazmodic Geyser, which is much more calm, but it has two small pools and some interesting ground formations.

There are a few other smaller pools along the way. This is one of my favorite, although I don’t have its name.

The last two we checked out before turning back toward the bridge over to the Castle Geyser and the path back to the lodge were the Beauty Pool…

and the Chromatic pool.

I assume these pools change over time, although my pictures don’t do them justice, I’m not sure this was their best day either!

We planned to have dinner at the Lake Lodge and then check in to our room so we felt we needed to start heading back toward the lodge and the car rather than continuing down the pathway even further. There was a shortcut bridge that takes a path past the Castle Geyser. Although I think my zoomed in picture taken earlier from geyser hill looked the most like a castle of any angle, the formation formed by the Castle Geyser was still impressive up close.

Last pool we passed as we approached a paved path back to the Inn was the crested pool. I liked the way this pool looked.

It was an easy walk back to the Old Faithful Inn from the Castle Geyser area. This lodge is very unique, with a very large and impressive log lobby area.

It is even more impressive on the inside.

There are stairs to platforms around the lobby, unfortunately an earthquake in 1959 destabilized the structure of these stairs and other parts of the lobby, so you can no longer climb above the second level.

We decided to have a beer out on the second level deck above Old Faithful and managed to walk out onto the deck just in time to catch a third Old Faithful eruption from yet another angle.

The drive to the Lake Village area is long, and after dark it is slow. The speed limits go down at night to prevent accidental wildlife strikes. Although we found the slower drive a bit tedious, we soon found out why it was necessary when we came upon several cars stopped in the road. A very large Elk was grazing on the side of the road. I stayed well back from him, and it was very low light, so the picture is not great, but you can tell that this was one big guy!

After a few minutes enjoying the beverage and the view we headed back to our car and drove to the Lake Lodge. Unfortunately when we arrived we found that my memory (or understanding) of where our rooms were was faulty. Our reservations were actually on the other side of the lake at Grant Village. We decided to have dinner at the Lake Lodge, which was awesome, then head to Grant Village.

We would have much rather stayed at the Lake Lodge, it is a beautiful and historic hotel. We also were not looking forward to another long slow drive after dark. We arrived at Grant Village very late. There was no parking near the building our room was in so I had to make several long walks. After getting to our room we were even more disappointed that we were not staying at the Lake Lodge. The rooms at Grant Village appear to be very quickly and cheaply built. It is fairly low quality but reasonably priced. We are unlikely to stay there again or to recommend it. We did not spend any time in the area, so there may be good reason to stay here, but for just an overnight, it was uninspiring.

The next morning we had to head back to Bozeman to catch a flight back to San Diego. We decided to see something new, so we headed toward Yellowstone’s north entrance/exit. Not far before the exit is Mammoth Hot Springs. We stopped near the top of the Hot Springs and walked most of the way around the formation. Like many things in Yellowstone, this place is interesting, and somewhere between ugly and beautiful. The water flow moves around so some parts of the formation are dry and crumbling.

The parts with water flowing were the freshest and most attractive.

The view from the lower southeast corner of the Hot Springs was the most impressive, at least this year. The water was flowing fairly steadily and the pools and falls were in impeccable condition.

After the drive out of the mountains the rest of the drive to Bozeman is pretty ordinary. It is worth it to go this way to see Mammoth Hot Springs, but if that is your main interest you may want to find out how much water is flowing for that year/season.

This 3 day trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons had been a quick visit, but we saw a lot. Each day had incredibly different sites to see. I hope we find the time to visit again, especially the Jackson Wyoming and Grand Tetons area. There are so many other things to see though, so I guess only time will tell. If this was our last visit to these areas, I feel like we made the most of it!