Samstag, 5. Juli 2014

Monterey -> Santa Cruz -> Carmel-by-the-Sea -> Big Sur -> Santa Barbara, Day 7, Friday

Today began like apparently most days in Cali begin, foggy and not really warm. And like on every other day so far, it cleared up around midday and got warm and sunny. We were happy to leave the dirty place where we had spent the last two nights and started today's jouney with a short stop at the lighthouse in Santa Cruz. Aftwr having a quick look there, we entered the 17 mile drive which begins right behind Monterey. It was a lovely park, we took several foto stops where we even saw a few sea lions.

For lunch we stopped in Carmel-by-the-Sea which is a lovely and quiete little town. We took a short stroll, bought the obligatory magnets and left again to start the most exciting part of today, the Big Sur coast. The coast is spectacular and sometimes left me almost breathless. I have hardly ever seen such a breathtaking view. The sun had come out and we took lots of fotos. After each curve a new amazing view appeared, whenever we thought it couldn't get any better, there was an even more gorgeous view. The Highway 1 got higher and higher up the mountains, below us was the blue sea, above us a bright blue sky and the sun. I have already said it but it was spectacular!

The only problem was that with all the foto stops we had to hurry up a bit at the end because we didn't want to miss the fireworks at our destination in Santa Barbara. So we couldn't make a stop at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo  which I really wanted to see and also we couldn't stop at the numerous vista points when the route led us away from the sea and into the mountains.

We made it almost in time to our place for the night which is located in the hills of Santa Barbara. It's lovely here, clean l (thank god!) and the landlady is a nice elderly lady who gave is a warm welcome. When we arrived the hills were half covered in fog, it was an almost mystical atmosphere. After we checked in, we went into Santa Barbara again. We missed the beginning of the fireworks but still managed to see a good deal of it. It was quite interesting to finally experience the 4th of July in the US. Many houses were decorated and lots of people wore shirts with the US flag.

We ended the day with a meal at a Mexican restaurant and now it's time to go to bed and get some sleep. It's really hot in here, we've finally reached southern California. 

I hope everyone had a nice holiday today, good night! LA tomorrow!

Lighthouse in Santa Cruz

View from the 17 mile drive

Beach in Carmel

Spectacular view at the Big Sur coast

It got even better...

..and better...


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