Our second day in the Monterey area started with going to Cannery Row. At one time there were numerous sardine canneries along this seaside. John Steinbeck wrote a novel about this area during the era of the Great Depression. No longer canneries these buildings now have specialty shops located in them. We went into a candy shop that had a huge variety of individually wrapped candies (taffies, mints, other hard candies) that you could go about selecting. We selected a fairly small amount but when we were going to pay the tab was over $18.00. Knocked our socks off- and we promptly said “no thanks”. The price of the candy was not posted anywhere.
We then drove to the “17-Mile Drive” entrance gate and paid $9.75 to take this drive on Pebble Beach. This drive is along the Pacific Coast which is quite rocky and picturesque and through Del Monte Forest that has pine and cypress trees. There are also golf courses- Pebble Beach, The Links at Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill and a par 3 Peter Hay Golf Links.>
A huge rock in the Spanish Bay is called Bird Rock. As the name implies birds congregate on this rock but there are also harbor seals and sea lions lounging on the rock. Before seeing the seals, we could hear them “barking” so loud that we could hear them over the roar of the ocean. A couple areas are closed off from viewing from April 1 to June 1 as this is the harbor seal pupping season.
We had lunch at the Spyglass Hill Grille. The entrance fee ($9.75) is refunded at restaurants if the bill is more than $30.00. The drive limits access to the residential areas although the residences we did pass looked like the houses in magazines- nice but not in our price range.
Leaving Monterey we drove north of Marina on Freeway-1. This drive took us along vegetable growing areas. We passed fields that were unfamiliar to us but looking closer we realized this was artichokes.
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| From 2013-04-15 Artichokes |
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| From 2013-04-15 Artichokes |
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| From 2013-04-15 Artichokes |
Today has been a cool day in the upper 50’s most of the day and windy with gusts 30-35mph. We were glad to get back to the motorhome and out of the wind. Tomorrow we will move away from the coast.
