The Pacific Highway
Spent the last two days travelling along the Pacific Highway from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. It takes more time than the freeway but is a magnitude more enjoyable. On the first day we had a just a short drive to Carmel. Carmel is a small town of 4,000 and is probably most famous for having elected Clint Eastwood Mayor. It is a very nice area.
We ate at Anton and Michel’s restaurant, which had a lovely decor as you can see from the photo above. The food was first class and I highly recommend it.
Most of the trip we had been eating cheaply, but decided that such a good restaurant needed good wine also. The bill ended up at US$100 a head, but hey well worth it.
We stayed at the Best Western Mission Inn. What cracked me up was this plaque at the lobby. Not exactly welcoming. I suspect their lawyers have told them they need to have it up.
A typical view from the Pacific Coast Highway.
An isolated hill or rock.
As we were driving along, we got curious as to why every km or so there were some locals sitting out on the roadside in chairs watching the road. We finally got curious enough to ask one of them, and the people we asked said there was a vintage car rally on, and it was around two minutes behind us, and that this in fact is the turnabout point. So we quickly pulled over and got to see over 100 vintage cars.
And more cars!
A view from the middle of the beautiful Big Sur region.
Hearst Castle is the second most visited tourist attraction in California. It cost William Randolph Hearst around $400 million in today’s dollars to build. But it got donated to the State in exchange for wiping off tax due. We didn’t have time to go up to the castle itself, but this is a very bad photo of it taken with a 30x zoom from the road.
And finally got to Santa Barbara. Staying at the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort which stretches over 24 acres. You can see my room, which isn’t too claustrophobic.
San Francisco was warmish weather but down in Santa Barbara it is noticeably hotter. Even the sea is lovely.