Jun 7, 2013 - Monterey, CA - Monterey Pines FamCamp

It was an uneventful 178 miles from Groveland to Monterey, CA. The first 10 miles was a trip down that 7-8% downgrade I mentioned earlier and the last 10 miles was on traffic laden CA 1, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). The 158 miles in between was down one mountain range and then across lots of farm land in the valley before crossing another small range between the valley and the coast. While in the valley we did manage to find a great fruit stand and we loaded up on great-tasting cherries, blackberries, blueberries, plums...

Apr 11, 2013 - The City by the Bay - San Francisco

Days 35-38 of the Big Trip On April 8, we drove from Monterey to Freemont, CA, where we would be staying for our time in the Bay Area. The Elks Lodge, has a very nice RV area, with electric and water and we were set. On the 9th, Clark had to fly to Portland, for a VA hearing, so the Andersons and I had a catch-up day. On the 10th, we certainly made up for the lack of activity the day before. We were up and going, early. Freemont has a BART station, which was only about five minutes from the Elks Lodge and we were on the 9:07 train for San...

Apr 7, 2013 - Monterey Bike Ride

Before we went to church, Clark put the bikes on the back of the car, so we would be prepared to do a bike ride along the trail through Monterey. We attended a great church service and left church to find a good parking spot at an entrance to the bike path. The path was busy with walkers and bikers, so it was challenging to ride - felt like we were on an obstacle course. We'd stop frequently and take at look at what was around us. Because the path was right on the edge of the bay, we had good views of boats and sea life. We rode for about...

Apr 6, 2013 - Monterey Aquarium

A very strong suggestion would be not to visit the Monterey Aquarium on a weekend. I've never seen so many babies and toddlers who would rather be anywhere else, but where they were. There were hundreds of people, which made it hard to view a lot of the exhibits. But, we waited our turn and saw almost everything. The place is amazing. Everywhere one turns, there is something new and wonderful to see. My favorite exhibit is still the jelly fish, with a close second being the sea horses. The volunteers were always helpful. Several were...

Apr 5, 2013 - Coastline South of Monterey - Big Sur and Point Lobos

Finally the fog along the coast south of Monterey lifted. We drove to Big Sur and on to Lucia. The coastline is beautiful with a cool winding road, cliffs and pretty beaches. The redwood trees around Big Sur were amazing and I look forward to seeing the trees up north that are supposed to be even taller and wider. Visit My Big Sur Images Photo Album Visit My Point Lobos Images Photo Album

Apr 5, 2013 - Driving to Big Sur

The 32nd day of our big trek and we headed south out of Monterey, to drive along the coastal highway. We didn't want to do it in the motor homes and did it in a car, instead. The whole route is magnificent. The scenery would need someone with an immense vocabulary to describe the sights we saw. Fortunately, there are turnouts all along the highway, so we could pull off, frequently, and spend all the time we needed to see whatever we wanted to see. At one stop, there was a man who was loaded with good, expensive cameras. He pointed out a...

Apr 4, 2013 - Monterey, CA

Day 31 of our Big Adventure and this travel day started with a challenge - the electric jack on the trailer wouldn't work. So, we had to learn how to hand crank it and that worked, so we were on the road. We've become quite spoiled with our 70-80 miles to travel from one destination to the next. This day, we had about 150 miles to go and Clark complained. The shorter route would have been up CA 1, but that is not an RV friendly road. We drove from San Luis Obispo to Monterey on US101, which is mostly a freeway, through the Salinas Valley -...

Apr 3, 2013 - Coastline North of Monterey - Santa Cruz

Drove all the way up to Half-Moon Bay, about 100 miles up the coast. As I got closer to HMB it got very cloudy and cold. The shoreline was fogged in and I was told that is typical for there. As I started driving back down the coast it got very nice and sunny. Buddy and I enjoyed many vista points including the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. When we got to Santa Cruz it was really nice out and the main road along the ocean offered ample free parking to use the walkway/bike path. Buddy and I got some much needed exercise and chatted with many...

Mar 31, 2013 - Easter Sunday Hike in Carmel

Today was Easter Sunday. I chatted with my family and Buddy and I went for a nice long hike in a huge park in Carmel. I have to say I was deeply disappointed with the people we walked by. Hardly anyone there would respond at all to me saying hello or good afternoon. My guess is they are snooty locals. I thought about contacting the old mayor of Carmel, Clint Eastwood, and getting his spin on the snootiness but I decided that would probably give Clint a heart attack… not the snootiness but the fact that there would suddenly be a physical...

Mar 31, 2013 - Back to the happiest place on Earth...... Fresno... yea..

Well we left the hotel first thing in the morning. We got home alot earlier than expected. We didn't have any problems with the car like we hoped. Yea school starts in two days. William and I might want to prepare for work and other things. Overall, this was a pretty fun vacation. I might want to go back out over the summer vacation. But next time, we are not eating clams. For planning this project, we first gathered the total cost of the car and the hotel for over 8 days. We then had $348 dollars to spend on excursions. We had to estimate...

Mar 31, 2013 - Time to get home

Well we got home rather early. I had fun in Monterey. Nehemiah and I have school in two days so we had to get back early enough to prepare for that. We returned the car with no problems. I'm glad I got to go on this trip. it really was a nice vacation. I don't want to eat any more clams though. For planning this project, we first gathered the total cost of the car and the hotel for over 8 days. We then had around $348 dollars to spend on excursions. We had to estimate the cost of gas for each day. The Monterey bay aquarium tickets cost us...

Mar 30, 2013 - Lazy Day

Today was by far our laziest day. Which is good. Lazy is free, or at least cheap. We just stayed in and played Xbox. We packed and everything so that we could leave first thing in the morning. I learned that I am not nearly as good at Halo as Nehemiah is.