Due to a perfect storm of unsuitable sleeping temperature, snoring dorm-mates, and catching a cold I hardly slept a wink last night. One advantage to not being able to get to sleep is when 8am rolls around you are already up. I sought out a french bakery and treated myself to ham and cheese croissant and headed over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The main attraction- their gajillion gallon tank- was closed for renovations as well as the jellyfish exhibit so it didn't take long to see everything else. I happened to catch feeding time at the Kelp Forest in the photo above. I would have been ok with the brevity had I not paid $30 for admission. That seemed a little lame.
Since I had some time I decided to head down to Napenthe restaurant in Big Sur for lunch on Briana's recommendation. This would have been on my way if not for the fact that a landslide took out Hwy 1 about 20 miles ahead of my destination. So instead I ventured 35 miles down the coast and then backtracked to Salinas and down 101 to San Simeon. Lunch was nice, I was seated next to a couple from Connecticut who are roadtripping to many of the same places as me but just a few days off. We'll apparently be in Sarasota at the same time though. The photo is from one of the many turnouts along the highway. Oh and I got held up a bit for a film crew filming some vintage cars driving along the coast. Couldn't see if I recognized the actors....
On my way back up I stopped at Point Lobos to see the baby seal pups. They were totally cute although not quite close enough to get a great view.
I ended up hiking 3 of the park trails and took tons of pictures, the place is very photogenic. While I have sneezed more today than most of the last decade because of my cold, I'm actually not sneezing in this photo, just blinded by the sun.
It doesn't really come through in this photo but the rocks on this beach were cool mixtures of rounded river rock and sandstone, a bit like rock filled concrete. I also thought it was cool I could get my shadow in there. So by the time I closed out the state park and continued to backtracking to 101 it was dark. This was my first several hour stretch of night time driving this trip. I think I might want to avoid it in the future. I'm glad I got to do so much today but am a little bummed I didn't get to my hotel until after 11 because I sprung for a fancy schmancy place but will only experience it through closed eyes. I have a non-refundable tour at 10am tomorrow morning! It's been a long day....Tommorrow: Hearst Castle, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, and Santa Barbara
No comments:
Post a Comment