Whenever I travel, I always look for what I like to call "my house someday." And I found it during this leg of the drive...overlooking the wild ocean, waves crashing below, clinging to the edge of the rocks along the cliffs of Big Sur. My house someday.
I was looking forward to this next photo ever since I started researching our trip. I admire beautiful design and the Bixby Bridge is a wonderful site to see. I am thankful there are architects out there (like my brother *smile*) who know what they are doing and they do it well so that structures like this can stand the test of time and very rough winds. I love how the curves of the bridge flow gently into the jagged rocks along the coast. It feels like it belongs there.
We tried to wake up early to make it to Pebble beach earlier in the morning so that we could drive the 17-mile drive in peace without a ton of cars. And we were really lucky to hardly see anyone along the way...
The lone cypress tree is around 250 years old. If it could speak I wonder what stories it would tell...
10 minutes down the road from 17-mile drive is Monterey, the site of one of my Dad's favorite Steinbeck novels, Cannery Row. I'm a fan of East of Eden myself, but have a few favorite scenes from that novel. A photo for my Dad as promised...
Steinbeck is a storyteller and while Monterey has become a bit touristy, I think I can imagine what kind of place it was when he lived here from his description..."Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses." - John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
And my all time favorite scene from the book happens with Mack is desperately trying to help Doc by going frogging...
"There were frogs there all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed love songs and challenges." - John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
We had lunch along Fisherman's Warf and Ryan was so happy to get his bread bowl clam chowder. I tried it. It was warm and yummy.
Our next stop was completely unplanned and unexpected. And it might be my favorite memory (I think I might say that a lot while I describe the trip--but that's because we had so much fun!). We pulled our car off to the side of the road because we noticed a path leading out to the cliffs along the ocean. I'm so glad we did this, because at the end of the journey was a beautiful beach.
And no one else was there! I don't think I've ever been on a beach all by myself before. It was breathtaking.
The scenery changed as we got closer to San Francisco and the cliffs weren't as jagged and the mountains weren't as high. But it was still beautiful in it's own way.
It was long and by the end of the day I think we both had enough of driving. But looking back, it was worth it. I think I might even do it again someday.Next stop: Bike Ride in San Francisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment