Continued from Cali Coast Day 4 Part 1.

Our legs are sore from that hike. Let’s take it easy for the rest of the day.

Still foggy.

Oh, a little glimpse of blue ocean.

Must be awesome to ride along the coast like this. Also scary, I’d imagine with the cars being so close to you around blind tight corners. Plus, you are really far from the hospital, and there’s always the possibility that you’d fall off the cliff.

I’m gonna!

There are so few stops along this stretch of the road. We pulled over, to see if we can grab a bite to eat. Well, there was no one in the entire restaurant, so I didn’t get a good feeling about it. We got back in the car and kept on driving on. The search for lunch continues.

That’s a shitload of shit.

There were multiple instances where the road goes into one lane road due to construction.

Looks like you can go down closer to the water over ahead.

Yup, we drove down a ramp and found bathrooms and picnic area.

Pretty sweet view from the picnic area…it’s really just a couple of rocks to sit on and two bathrooms.

My picnic/lunch. This is the apricot muffin from Linn’s. Yum. This will probably be my lunch. We’ll probably just soldier on until we get into Monterey later today.

KL points.

KL points. Apparently, every time RH gets the camera, she always gets photos of me pointing at things.

Back on the road. I bet this area gets a lot of rock slides, that’s why they built that tunnel.

Rocks, please don’t fall down and hit my rental.

I talked to some other travelers along the turnouts, and it seems like the waterfall we are looking for is in Julie Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We arrived at the park, and saw a bunch of cars parked in this area. This must be the waterfall.

Yup, I think this is it. It looks like the photos that I saw on the internet, minus the fog.

This is more like it. This is what I expected the trail to be like when we took our earlier accidental hike down the mountain.

There it is, the McWay Fall.

The fog clears up for a split second for this more clear shot. This spot was very popular with the tourists.

Back on the road. People actually live along this stretch of the highway. It would be pretty amazing to wake up to this scenery everyday. But then again, it would suck to have to drive 30 minutes just to get groceries. Plus no cell service, etc.

Ahhh, how relaxing. The reality is that I am sitting here because we had to pull over and stop the car. RH was getting car sick, so I am enjoying the view while she is trying not to puke everywhere. For the record, she held on and didn’t puke.

Love the red colored ground covering vegetation

The famous and often photographed Bixby Bridge in Big Sur. It’s easy to see why it’s often photographed.

Strange erosion patterns.

Drove out of the Big Sur area and headed into Monterey. I am super excited about visiting Monterey. I love John Steinbeck and I love his book Cannery Row. The book is set in Monterey, so I am just excited to see all the references from the book!!! Monterey also has an excellent aquarium, and they’ve got sunfish on display!. I am super excited about that as well since I’ve never seen one.

Reached hotel.

So, most of the hotel is in a separate building, but there are two unique rooms upstairs, above the lobby, in this old Victorian house. Well, as luck would have it, I got randomly assigned one of the unique rooms right above the lobby.

Unfortunately, it is also one of two rooms in the entire complex without an elevator.

The room is spacious and has an unique floor plan. I am sure none of the other rooms look like this!

It comes with a giant terrace!!!!

Private walk way from terrace to street level.

I look so funny in the photo.

View from the terrace.

Has not one, but two desks!!! I don’t know why I am excited about this one.

Oh….interesting.

Yup, at a flip of a switch, the fire comes on. Pimp. So, the best part about the room is that it costs the same price as all the other rooms in the complex. Lucky.

It’s been such a long day of driving, hiking, and sightseeing already. We are both pretty beat. We are only a few blocks from cannery row, so we figured we’d walk by and then grab some dinner afterwards. Dinner will be good as it’ll be the only full meal I’ll be having today.

Ocean is just right there.

Ed Ricketts’ bust. Steinbeck based his fictional character Doc on the real life marine biologist Ed Ricketts. Unfortunately, this bust is here because there used to be a railroad that ran through the town, and it is here that he died in the accident when his car got hit by the train.

I am holding the starfish in his hand. If you compare this photo to the one above, you’ll see that there is a backpack in the previous photo. Well, a crazy bum was camped out right next to this, and when I went to stand next to the statue to take a photo, he quickly moved all of his stuff out of the way. I thought that was nice, until he started talking about how he didn’t want to get blamed for the airplane crashing recently in SFO. And that the people who died in that crash got what was coming to them. Then he started just going off on a rant…etc. etc. It was pretty disturbing….and we had to hightail it out of there quickly.

Monterey Bay.

Cannery Row!!!! I am so excited to see this. I know that it’s now basically just a tourist trap, but I am still really excited.

Apparently, sock shops are all the rave here in California tourists spots.

All the buildings in Cannery Row are renovated and newish looking, except for this one small building. This is where Ed Ricketts lived and operated his lab. I am so excited to see this!!!!!

I was the only person to take a photo with it. Apparently, America doesn’t read anymore because everyone walked right by this building, and no one bothered to give it a second look. Do they even know who John Steinbeck is? What’s this bound block of paper with ink in it?

The back side of Ed Ricketts lab. All those concrete bins are used to store specimen that he collects from the sea.

No one but me and RH read this little info plaque. I am so sad that not a single person knew or cared for the significance of this building. Sigh.

The tide pools right behind Ed Ricketts’ lab. Cool bird with a bright red beak.

RH thinks a vine must have grown there before. Really cool how it left a shadow of itself.

At the end of Cannery Row is the aquarium. It is housed in an ex-cannery building.

Time to look for some dinner. Goodbye Pacific Biological Labs. Hopefully someone tomorrow will snap a photo with you.

This place got decent reviews, it’s away from the touristy Cannery Row. Let’s give it a try.

It’s a seafood market/restaurant, much like Quality Seafood in Austin.

Ah yes, I am cooking fish tonight. Well, I’ll just break out my fish cutting board to cut up my fish.

Clam Chowder. So, so good and creamy. So so bad for you.

Shrimp and crab cocktails. And of course, oysters on the half shell. The oysters were awesome. The shrimp cocktails were decent. The crab cocktails, honestly, were kind of flavorless. It was a little disappointing.

Dinner special for the night, sable fish. This was very good. Overall, a very good dining experience. Love eating seafood by the sea.

Went back to the hotel room, and of course, common in this region, there is no AC. I opened the window as much as possible to get some airflow. At one point, it felt a little chilly, so I flipped the switch and turned on the fireplace. Yeah!!! Fell asleep, then woke up to a burning hot room!!! Oh NO!!! It took several hours for the room to cool back down to a decent temp. That was a mistake…

To be continued at Cali Coast Day 5 Part 1.