Saturday, 10/1 - Highway 1 and Monterey


We stopped at the Rookery again on our way north to Monterey.











Then it was up Highway 1 to Monterey.  It was quite the drive, mostly cloudy, but definitely scenic.  There is not much development all the way to Big Sur, but there was a lot more traffic, especially from Big Sur north.  It was funny - all of us had been to Big Sur before, but we had very different memories of what it was.  Mary thought it was known for its surfing (most of it is pretty far from the ocean).  I remembered it as having a little more development than the rest of the coast, but not that much.  None of us remembered the redwood forest or the art galleries. And there didn't seem to be too much development (as one might expect over 40 years) - maybe it was off the road somewhere.....

Anyway, we got near Monterey and took a little detour to Pacific Grove to check out a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary (did you know that Pacific Grove is known as the Butterfly Town, USA??)  but, alas, the butterflies weren't there yet, expected in November. 

We did notice some deer at the sanctuary (and wandering around the neighborhood).



We then had lunch (at Baskins-Robbins) and checked out Cannery Row.  It is the new development along the waterfront in Monterey where they've reclaimed a number of buildings that were fish canneries and converted them to shops and restaurants.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium is the anchor of the development, but the rest didn't seem that special to us.  I guess I expected it to be a little more historical after reading so much John Steinbeck.  (But it was Saturday and pretty crowded with other tourists).

We then found our hotel (the rebooked one) and wandered down to an area with a bunch of restaurants and ended up at a BrewPub (surprise..) for dinner.

Link to next post:  10/2 - Monterey





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