California
From Carlsbad we drove on to Tucson, saw the smoke from a couple of good sized fires, but no flames. The desert is pretty in its own weird way, lots of cactus. Spent the night and drove on to San Diego. I hooked up with an old college buddy, Jesse Haugh. Had some good laughs and talk over dinner. Thursday I drove us up through Los Angeles to a little town on the coast called Morro Bay. I now remember why I never want to drive in LA again. What a miserable drive. On the other hand, Morro Bay was a cute little town with a wharf front walk kind of like a mini fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco.
Friday we did the Pacific Coast Highway drive. The weather was only so-so. Cloudy and foggy for the first third or so, then on and off sun peeking out. It was still an impressive drive with rugged coastline vistas and hillsides of flowers and colors along with the cliffs. Today my leg is sore from constantly pushing the imaginary brake pedal while Bill drove the blind corners a wee bit too fast, and all I could imagine was the bicycle rider just around the bend and the choice of kill him or take the cliff! We had a nice lunch in Carmel-By-The-Sea. An artsy-fartsy community of the beautiful people. Bill and I figured we could add some balance to that. Where else would the street clocks be Rolex? I paid the $9.50 to drive the famous 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach. It was very picturesque, but I can’t imagine I would like to live where the tourists drive in droves.
Now I have a couple of days in the Bay area visiting friends and am surprised how chilly and grey it is here. Sunny California has been the least perfect (I can’t say worst) weather of the whole trip.
Tags: Travel
James