Monterey, California Coast

Cannery Row, MontereyTsunami Warning near Cannery Row
Newsagent/Coffee Stop

One of Numerous Artichoke Fields

Huge Artichoke Crop

Historic Sixteen Mile House

Today after a continental breakfast in our Monterey hotel, we drove up to Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck's novel. The area is very touristy now, but in a lovely location right on the water. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the tsunami warning though, just to remind you of the weather hazards over here.

We continued our trip north following the ocean on HWY 1 en route to San Francisco. We passed a lot of strawberry fields (they are ripe now) and fields of artichokes. They looked so healthy and quite large too. We called into a fruit & veg stall and bought some bananas (69c/lb)and some red seedless grapes and an apple all for $1.50 USD.

Tomorrow we drop the rental car off at the San Francisco airport, so I deliberately found a hotel that is a 6 minute drive away and booked it on Expedia. After a freshen up we headed out to dinner at 6pm and on recommendation from the desk, we dined at a restaurant called Sixteen Mile House. It was originally built as a hotel in 1872 and later acquired by Wells Fargo, whose stages ran from San Francisco to Kansas City. Over the years, the original building was used as a hotel with a parlor and a saloon, and then a general store. Later on, it became a speakeasy, house of ill fame and a gambling hall. Provisions and good water always seemed available and at the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, a small tent city sprang up around the building. They served a great rib steak for us tonight.

Hearst Castle & Pebble Beach, California

Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle Pool

Big Sur Scenic Route

Big Sur Looking South Elephant Seals on Beach
Pebble Beach 18th Hole

Today we awoke to a perfect spring day. Friends Marie & Eric from Sacramento strongly suggested that we shouldn't miss a visit to Hearst Castle, the 56 bedroom mansion that William Randolph Hearst (newspaper magnate) built in the 1920's. It is located on 250,000 acres on a hilside in San Simeon overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The town of Cambria where we stayed last night was only 10 minutes down the road, so we pulled into the property and jumped on the tour bus. After Hearst's death, the family donated the estate and most of it's furniture and fittings to the State of California, and it was subsequently opened up to the public. What a fabulous 1.45 hours we had taking a tour of the property. It is hard to believe the wealth of furnishings and historical artifacts that are maintained within the buildings. The gardens were magnificent; even the orange trees were laden with golden orbs.

We left Hearst Castle after a bite to eat for lunch, then drove north on Highway 1 along the Big Sur. That is the name given to the 90 miles (145 km) of road along the Pacific Ocean north of San Simeon and up to Carmel (south of Monterey). The road snakes along the cliffs of the Santa Lucia mountains and each turn exposes a magnificent view of the ocean. On one beach we saw ugly elephant seals sunning themselves.

En route we passed through the picturesque city of Carmel-by-the-Sea where Clint Eastwood was Governor from 1986-1988. He still has a property there including a restaurant, on the south side of Carmel. A drive in this area wouldn't be complete without completing the 17 mile scenic drive through Pebble Beach, also on the Pacific Ocean. It is also the home of several renowned golf courses. We called into Pebble Beach Golf Club where the 2010 PGA is to be held. The view from the Lodge over the 18th hole to the ocean was spectacular. Our last task of the day was to find somewhere to have an early dinner before checking into our hotel. Surprise, surprise, we ended up at the Monterey Harbour where we found a delightful restaurant on the docks, and from our table we could look out the window and see the Cannery Row of John Steinbeck's novel. More on that tomorrow...

California Arrival

Red Rental Car at our Cambria Inn

Sunset at Cambria

Our 12 hr 40 min Qantas flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles was very smooth and had us touching down on time at 7am Sunday 29th March. We both enjoyed watching some good movies - I saw The Changeling with Angelina Jolie, and The Secret Life of Bees with Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifa. We were in the first line getting through customs, and our luggage was already on the carousel when we left customs, less than 20 mins after we landed. Then we reached immigration and with a quick tick of our forms, we walked straight out into the beautiful sunshine and picked up a hire car. Before we knew it, we were on the road heading north out of Los Angeles. We couldn't believe we saw a deer on our first day back in the country! Although we both got a few hours sleep on the plane, by lunchtime our eyes felt like we had sand in them, so we pulled over and had a catnap before driving on. Our first sunset at Cambria, a small seaside village about one-third of the way up from LA to San Francisco, was beautiful.

St Patrick's Day

Shelly's Beach on St Patrick's Day

Aunts Kath & Dympna
Ryall's Red Range Store near Glen Innes

To be sure, to be sure, this great day comes 'round but once a year! My Aunt and I celebrated with a skinny flat white and special fruit & nut toast overlooking the rolling waves. We then took our shoes off and walked in the sea and along the beach. Pity Murray was up on the Gold Coast getting two new airconditioners fitted to our house up there. He will be back in time to join us for a special roast chicken dinner at my sister Gemma's tonight - I kid you not, her chicken dinners are the meal I miss most when I am RVing over in America.

Yesterday was a nice lead in to St Patrick's Day - my sister Gemma and my aunt drove up to the Gold Coast where we saw my mum, and met up with my other two sisters, Rose & Loretta for lunch. Aunty Dympna and I also had time to have morning tea with another Aunt Kath, and her husband Tom. We saw some great old family photos, such as the family hardware store at Red Range before it was pulled down, and it was lovely to see them looking so well.

Hope you are all celebrating the day by wearing something green!!

My Eldest Son

Breakfast at Shelly's

Dinner Party

Yudian, me & Pete in Limo

Moonlight at Shelly's

Like most mothers, my kids light up my life. On Thursday night my eldest son Benn flew into the Gold Coast for a lightning visit to Ballina. I met his plane, then we had a lovely hour catching up as we drove south to Ballina. It was already dark, so he was unable to see the beauty of the drive - it really is spectacular with the rolling green hills, beautiful blue ocean, macadamia and banana plantations...he would get to see it on his return trip though.

On Saturday Benn & I picked up my sister Gemma, her husband Bill, and our Aunt Dympna, and had breakfast together at Shelly Beach Cafe overlooking the ocean. After that Benn & I took a drive in Gem & Bill's car (Murray had ours up north on his fishing trip) up to Byron Bay, 30 mins north. We had a late lunch in the Beach Hotel on the sea (I am guessing by now that you know I love a water view), before returning to Ballina. A few hours later my brother Tony and his wife Yudian had arrived to stay at the motel across the road, and rang to say the wine was chilled and invited us over for a drink. Benn & I walked across the road, and joined them in the motel room until Yudian and I left the guys chatting about the share market while we returned to the B&B to look at beads & knitting. An hour later we got a phone call from my sister Ret to say that her and her husband Peter were now also at the motel, and they invited us over for a drink. I could get very used to this...

Before we knew it, the time had come to leave for our dinner date - we had reserved a round table for 9 people at our favourite Chinese Restaurant. The six of us met Gem, Bill & Dympna there and had a very enjoyable evening - good company, good food, and fine wines. A white limousine spirited us away at the end of the evening, and rather than taking us straight home, he took us out to view the full moon shining over the waves at Shelly's Beach - none of us were immune to the beauty of the scene before us where the moon made the waves all silver and tThe Southern Cross twinkled in the night sky. Another treasured evening to remember.

Sadly, the morning came too soon, and it was time for our goodbyes. Benn hopped into Pete's car and they dropped him off at the airport on their way home. He is now heading for a new adventure walking the Inca trail in South America with a group of his mates, then meeting Daina for a holiday in Italy where they will attend a wedding and take a cooking class in Tuscany. If my own life wasn't so wonderful I could almost envy them....

Beautiful Wedding

Sarah arrives from stretch Hummer...

Murray with his 3 children and the Bride

Last weekend Murray and I flew to Melbourne to attend the wedding of his eldest son Jeremy (30 yrs). He met his lady love Sarah, a nurse, almost 9 years ago, and they celebrated their marriage in a well-orchestrated garden wedding in Daylesford, Victoria. Sarah was a radiant bride and was attended by 3 bridesmaids - they all arrived in a stretch black Hummer. The bridesmaids included one of her nursing friends, Murray's only daughter Stephanie, and his other son's (Adrian) wife of two years, Danielle. The dresses looked fantastic (although not much protection from the chilly wind) and they shimmied as they danced. have no doubt they will come in handy at parties and other events. The Groom looked very dashing, as did his 3 groomsmen.

The wedding was held in Daylesford, about 1.5 hours NW of Melbourne. Bushfires have been burning there in recent weeks, and we saw a treed area of bushland badly burnt at a property on the way to the wedding venue. The countryside is tinder dry, so the fires would not need much encouragement to get started. On the day of the wedding there was a biting, cold, brisk wind and fortunately no sign of the scorching temperatures they had experienced recently.

On Friday night we stayed with a friend I knew back when my youngest was born almost 25 years ago. She now lives near Ballarat, where it is sad to see all the gardens brown and dusty. They have not been able to water gardens for several years now, due to the drought conditions. The day after the wedding we enjoyed catching up with another friend Pam from my Air Force days along with her husband Dennis. There were other colleagues from my Air Force days in town that I would have loved to catch up with, but time was tight, and before we knew it, we were flying back to green, warm Ballina.