Pacific Coastal Highway 1 - 29 October

Today the Captain had awarded me the power to make it my day, I got to decide where we went and what we did, the target was San Francisco, we were flying out of the airport at midnight.  I used my new gained power for good and not evil, mostly.  I opted to go to Carmel-By-The-Sea, a celebrity hang out and shopping Mecca.  Although we didn’t see anyone in the celebrity genre I dragged Justin (who was really good natured about dipping in and out of shops – what a team player) down 5 blocks of shops and up the other side of the street.  Carmel is a quaint town with eclectic shops.

After Carmel I opted for us to drive up Pacific Coastal Highway 1 (PCH1) to San Francisco.

As we set out on PCH1 I saw a sign for deep fried artichokes, being an artichoke fan and having never eaten deep fried artichokes I had to stop and try some.

What do French Fried Artichoke Hearts taste like?

They taste like fried, there is no artichoke flavour in them, so much so that Justin, who doesn't care for artichokes, shared the fried with me.

Back in the car and onto stop number 2, we hit Santa Cruz, a hippy capital with a lot of homeless people one of them yelling at us 'I like the giants, do you like the giants? I like the giants' no new buildings are allowed to be erected and despite terrible traffic they won't expand their roads due to these by laws.  We walked along the beach front and then out on the pier.

If you look closely at this slab of cement you'll see images of sea horses and shells and fish.  These cement slabs line the board walk on the pier.

At the end of the pier we stopped to enjoy the sun and beautiful summer sunshine, to re-introduce you to my fear of heights, which we will revisit in San Francisco, you'll realise how awkwardly I'm standing next to the edge of the pier.

Seals take up residence under the pier, you can see them lounging on the beams and hear them barking.  Justin is fluent in seal and can speak to them and translate, please note how he is demonstrating the way you should position your lips in order to make your seal call audible to the seals under water.

Saying good bye, to the seals I wanted to head to the light house we could see across the bay.  But enroute I had to stop at a store that sold everything from chocolate covered bacon to homemade fudge. 

With a fence keeping us from the edge of the cliff

and the warning sign headed.,

we chose life and not to be next - wise choice, and enjoyed the California summer sunshine and ocean air from behind the fence.

Leaving Santa Cruz and to fulfill a mission Justin's been on since before the trip, we got Slushies from the Seven Eleven.  As Justin brought them out he forewarned  me that we would be sporting red and blue tongues.

With a blue tongue and red tongue, I preferred the blue raspberry and Justin the cherry flavour, we stopped to take photos of yet another light house, I believe this one is the logo of a film production company, I tried to search and can't find it.

When stopping for scenery photos its an opportunity for people photos.

The scenery on either side of the drive is amazing weather you're looking out to sea

ahead at the road

or inland

A pumpkin patch, with maizes and kids in Halloween garb

the scenery is beautiful.

Having achieved something on my bucket list we pulled into San Francisco for me to accomplish another bucket list task - walk out to the first tower of the bridge.