California Vacation Synopsis: Day 3-4
Monday, we got off to a little bit of a late start out of San Francisco. (Honestly, we were pretty worn out from the first two days.) We left the hotel at 10:15 a.m. and started down State Route 1 or Highway 1.
We got into Santa Cruz around noon, got a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell and stopped off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the only major seaside amusement park on the West Coast. We walked the boardwalk, and then Waverly got on the sixth oldest roller coaster in America, The Giant Dipper. Admission to the park is free, but the Giant Dipper cost $4.50 to ride one time. (A gallon of gas goes longer than that!)
We left Santa Cruz and drove down to Monterey, but we didn't have time to stop at the Monterey Bay Aquariam. We did do the 17 Mile Drive, which is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California. One of the stops was the Pebble Beach Golf Links - the No. 1 Public Course in America.
After leaving the area and getting back on to Highway 1, with plans to go past Big Sur before finding a place to head east to cut over to Interstate 5, there was a portable flashing sign that said that Highway 1 was closed 30 miles south. (The permanent mileage sign said 'Big Sur 27'.) What I should have done was look at the map, but I didn't.
We drove south and stopped a place or two to take some pictures. But once we started to roll into Big Sur (not reaching the very large scenic bridge that runners cross during the Big Sur International Marathon, we were soon turned back by the California Highway Patrol.
Well ... looks are certainly deceiving. Checking the course information on the Big Sur web site, we really did cross the bridge that is in all of the pictures. And it is much smaller than what I expected. Don't get me wrong, the entire course is very scenic. However, the bridge that you see in pictures isn't as big as some others that you might run across.
Anyway, we had to drive 30 miles north back to Monterey.
We went east to Salinas and went south on Highway 101. Down Highway 101 around San Lucas, we went east again on Highway 198 for nearly 50 miles to Coalinga. At that point, we got on Interstate 5 to Interstate 210 and then on in to Pasadena.
It was a very long day, and we got into bed at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning Pacific time.
This morning, we ate breakfast at Russell's on N. Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena before heading out to Hollywood.
Let me say this, Hollywood and Beverly Hills are overrated.
They're nice to say that you went and visited once, but beyond that Waverly and I weren't overly impressed by either.
Hollywood has the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, the home of the Academy Awards. We took a tour of the Kodak Theatre and Waverly sat in the same seat that Miley Cyrus set in - as a presenter for the Academy Awards (left section, row C, seat 3.)
Later, we drove over and down to Beverly Hills and walked around Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, but there wasn't really anything that made us stop and say "Wow!"
We came back to the hotel after fighting a little afternoon traffic, ate dinner at Manny's Pizzeria on N. Fair Oaks Avenue and then walked for about an hour and a half seeing Pasadena City Hall (with a great architechtural feel), a memorial for Mack and Jackie Robinson (the latter broke baseball's color line and both were from Pasadena), and then the Tournament House -- the headquarters of the Tournament of Roses Association on Orange Grove Drive.
We got into Santa Cruz around noon, got a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell and stopped off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the only major seaside amusement park on the West Coast. We walked the boardwalk, and then Waverly got on the sixth oldest roller coaster in America, The Giant Dipper. Admission to the park is free, but the Giant Dipper cost $4.50 to ride one time. (A gallon of gas goes longer than that!)
We left Santa Cruz and drove down to Monterey, but we didn't have time to stop at the Monterey Bay Aquariam. We did do the 17 Mile Drive, which is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California. One of the stops was the Pebble Beach Golf Links - the No. 1 Public Course in America.
After leaving the area and getting back on to Highway 1, with plans to go past Big Sur before finding a place to head east to cut over to Interstate 5, there was a portable flashing sign that said that Highway 1 was closed 30 miles south. (The permanent mileage sign said 'Big Sur 27'.) What I should have done was look at the map, but I didn't.
We drove south and stopped a place or two to take some pictures. But once we started to roll into Big Sur (not reaching the very large scenic bridge that runners cross during the Big Sur International Marathon, we were soon turned back by the California Highway Patrol.
Well ... looks are certainly deceiving. Checking the course information on the Big Sur web site, we really did cross the bridge that is in all of the pictures. And it is much smaller than what I expected. Don't get me wrong, the entire course is very scenic. However, the bridge that you see in pictures isn't as big as some others that you might run across.
Anyway, we had to drive 30 miles north back to Monterey.
We went east to Salinas and went south on Highway 101. Down Highway 101 around San Lucas, we went east again on Highway 198 for nearly 50 miles to Coalinga. At that point, we got on Interstate 5 to Interstate 210 and then on in to Pasadena.
It was a very long day, and we got into bed at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning Pacific time.
This morning, we ate breakfast at Russell's on N. Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena before heading out to Hollywood.
Let me say this, Hollywood and Beverly Hills are overrated.
They're nice to say that you went and visited once, but beyond that Waverly and I weren't overly impressed by either.
Hollywood has the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, the home of the Academy Awards. We took a tour of the Kodak Theatre and Waverly sat in the same seat that Miley Cyrus set in - as a presenter for the Academy Awards (left section, row C, seat 3.)
Later, we drove over and down to Beverly Hills and walked around Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, but there wasn't really anything that made us stop and say "Wow!"
We came back to the hotel after fighting a little afternoon traffic, ate dinner at Manny's Pizzeria on N. Fair Oaks Avenue and then walked for about an hour and a half seeing Pasadena City Hall (with a great architechtural feel), a memorial for Mack and Jackie Robinson (the latter broke baseball's color line and both were from Pasadena), and then the Tournament House -- the headquarters of the Tournament of Roses Association on Orange Grove Drive.
posted by WalkSports.com | 9:55 PM
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