Wednesday morning we had homemade fruit muffins and nut
bread, coffee and juice at the hotel before starting out for our next stop at Avila Beach, almost
two hundred miles away.
We drove north
on the east side of the coastal mountains until we reached the Los Angeles
basin. Michael’s plan was to avoid
downtown L.A. and its killer traffic by making a semi-circle around it. This mostly worked. We were slowed by only two traffic snarls and
the Nuvi GPS unit guided us around one of them saving at least half an hour. I did see the outskirts of Los Angeles from
the highway and caught a glimpse or two of the downtown from highway 101 as it
skirted the hill.
Once Michael and drove north of Los
Angeles the landscape began to change.
We were not far from the coast and in the heart of the central California vineyards. On the way to Pismo Beach we passed miles of
grape vines and signs for obscure (to me) wineries. We turned off the main highway onto a side
road that lead to Avila Beach and our next hotel, the Avila Beach Lighthouse.
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| Avila Beach |
Avila Beach is a very small beach town, well off the beaten
path. It is about two streets long by
three streets wide. It boasts four or five hotels, seven or eight restaurants
and six wine tasting rooms. The beach is
beautiful though the water is cold.
There is a quarter mile long fishing pier and an anchorage for small
boats.
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| Avila Beach from the Pier |
We arrived in late afternoon with time to check out the
town, explore the pier and attend a wine tasting courtesy of the hotel. The
winery’s sole retail outlet was Avila Beach yet the wine was unexpectedly good.
We watched the sunset from the balcony of our hotel suite (two rooms: we never
used the living room) and chose a new seafood place for dinner. We met the chef on our late afternoon’s
exploration of the town and he impressed us positively. We had an elegant, white tablecloth dinner
and walked on the sidewalk adjacent to the beach. It was wonderful to relax after a long day’s
drive.
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| Wine tasting at Alapay Cellars |
We
arrived there shortly at eight AM as the visitor center opened. We saw the explanatory movie, took the tour
and headed north along highway one toward Monterrey.
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| Hearst Castle Entrance |
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| Outdoor Pool Hearst Castle |
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| View toward the Ocean |
Hearst Castle is worth seeing. The property is a testament to the excesses
in architecture a wealthy man can afford.
William Randolph Hearst built himself a replica of a Spanish cathedral
and turned it into an elaborate residence.
The castle was especially interesting as Michael and I had recently been
in real, historic French and English cathedrals.
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| Dining Rom Hearst Castle |
|
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| Billiard Room Hearst Castle |
 | | | |
| South of Monterrey |
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| Big Sur Coast |
Michael and I spent most of the rest of the day driving
north on California route 1 along the beautifully rugged California coast. The Big Sur country was marvelous. After Monterrey, we passed through twenty
miles or so of agricultural fields. The
biggest town was Watsonville that calls itself the artichoke capitol of the
world. Indeed, we saw roadside stands
selling artichokes, Brussels sprouts and chili peppers.
At Santa Cruz, we crossed over the mountains to Mountain
View and the Hotel Avanti, our destination for the day. Hotel Avanti definitely catered to the geek
population visiting Silicon Valley on business.
The desk in our room had glass windows in the top so we could see into
the drawers. One had the usual paper,
pens, tape and a stapler. The other held
an octagonal Rubik’s Cube and other plastic puzzles and a small book of Sudoku.
It was an interesting place to be on Halloween night.
We had dinner with Michael’s nephew David and his wife Vali
at a restaurant called Gravity in Palo Alto.
As is usually the case when we see David and Vali, the meal was superb.
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