Monterey and Frogs

So here’s the update I’ve been putting off until the pics were up. Over the weekend, Jarrod and I went up to go see Hearst castle in San Simeon. We got up there and realized San Simeon is a one road town, and had only a few motels and dinky restaurants. We decided to push on.

From there, the road was pitch black dark. It was curvy. There was absolutely no signal on our cell phones. And there were remnants of recent mudslides on both sides of the road in the form of boulders, smaller rocks, and mud. We had no idea how high up we were and had to use our brights to even see enough to navigate the turns. Finally, we got up to Big Sur and we stopped at a tiny restaurant/inn called the Whale Watcher’s Inn. We got some decent food and found out to our dismay that Monterey would be completely filled for the weekend, since it was the AT&T invitational pro/am golf thingie at Pebble Beach. Oy! So we figured we’d stay somewhere on the way up there, in Big Sur itself. So we found a little inn that was full, but they sent us over to a state park.. which had 61 cottages inside as a motel. They charged me $211, which i figured was a deal since all the places around us were full.

I was wrong.

There was no bathtub, no telephone, no television, and worst of all.. no heat. The sheets and blankets were so cold it felt like they were wet. We tried to call the front desk but we still had no signal. We thought about driving back up front but we were both so exhausted we went to bed. I piled two sets of blankets and duvets on me, and curled up to sleep in a fetal ball.

In the morning, I awoke with the feeling someone was staring at me. I was right, and Jarrod was staring at me.. with a look on his face like.. “guess what.” I looked up at the skylight which was pouring awakening light at 7 30 am… and it was raining. Pouring. Here’s the problem with that. We were in mudslide country, and the only road out was the mudslide danger area! Plus, I had wanted to go whale watching, and that was clearly out.

So we went to the lodge house and ate breakfast as I tried very hard to sit close to the wood-burning stove. I refused to stay in that hell another day, regardless of the redwood trees all around us. So we decided to take our chances, having asked around and everyone said the mudslides were less common up north. We left Big Sur and soon reached Carmel, where we stopped at the beach to finally call people when we got signal back to let them know we were alive.

The rain had rolled back in a bit, but it was still overcast. We decided to push on to Monterey. I have no pictures from there because we decided not to take pictures of the Aquarium and Cannery Row (which I assure you, did not look as nice as that picture.) The aquarium had otters and penguins.. and it was small, but pretty.

It was fun, and we ate at Bubba Gump’s for lunch, which happened to be right on the water. I looked out on the bay.. and there, lo and behold, were two otters playing! The waiter lived on a boat on the water and said that they were a momma and baby and were there all week. It made … well, my life! (I also nailed the Forrest Gump trivia. Don’t ask me how.)

We stayed in a Mariott. I refused to stay in a no-name place after the fiasco in the woods. It was actually _cheaper_. We looked at the movies and they sucked, so we went to dinner on Fisherman’s Wharf. Then we went home, stayed up watching bad tv and went to bed. In the morning, we headed out back down to San Simeon. The castle was incredible – ugly inside, great views, beautiful pool area and lovely guesthouses. We finally wrapped up the day by having dinner in Pismo Beach, headed home and saw the kitties, who were both very angry with us.

Anyway, the frogs part is on the way up, we could hear froggies singing every time we slowed down (as well as smell wild sage blowing in the wind…). It made me think of Spot.. and if you read the next post, you’ll know he was VERY MUCH on my mind!