gurdymonkey | Nov. 28th, 2009

11/28/09
Raging like wild beasts,
They throw themselves hungrily
Against the pale sand
Such roaring surf can hardly
Have earned the name "Pacific."

I woke up this morning and decided it looked way too nice outside to stay inside dutifully cutting out fabric for Twelfth Night. Feeling somewhat jealous of didjiman's recent photos from Point Lobos, I gassed up and decided to drive south. Evidently I was not the only one, because the lot at Point Lobos was full and the overflow was parked up and down the road for some distance in each direction on both sides.

I did pull over a couple of times along Highway 1, In fact I found a trail leading away from one overlook that nobody else was bothering to walk down and got some shots there.

I stopped in Big Sur, mostly to use a rest room and get a cold drink at a place called the Big Sur River Inn. I did check out the gift shop mostly for leg stretching purposes. I really don't need bad watercolors or clothing I haven't tie dyed myself. However, I heard two little boys oohing over something behind me and discovered they had some polished orthoceras fossils. I got one each for my nephews and succumbed to once of my vices: soaps (lemon poppyseed and lime basil, both smelling heavenly).

I decided that was a good point to start heading back north. Finally hungry, I stopped for lunch at the Moss Landing Cafe. I had a yummy open faced crab salad sandwich on a toasted roll with avocado, lettuce and tomato and a side of perfectly steamed asparagus. My waiter was a doll too. Shot this out the truck window as I was trying to find a place to turn around and get back on 1 North. I think of Steinbeck when I'm down that away:

Instead of slogging back over 17, I decided to stay on 1 through Santa Cruz. Got another out-the-window shot of the lighthouse at Pigeon Point ,

I wound up on a very nice beach in Half Moon Bay at about 4 PM, so I played around with both the "natural light" and the "sunset" modes on my camera.

I cannot decide which of these is more awesome though.