Big Sur, Butano, and San Francisco

Big Sur, Pescadero and San Francisco

Hello again! I know I’ve been slacking, but Ive been busy playing :)

This last week marked exactly one month since we sold our house and started this fun adventure!  So far we have had a great time, so much so that we we’ve had to ask ourselves if this is real at times.  Kyle asked me the other day if we had ever spent this much time together in the 10 years that we have known each other, and quite frankly, no.  NO we have not.  The longest amount of time that we have spent together in the past was two weeks.  So with that being said, I think that we are both incredibly grateful that we really do get along as well as we do.  I don't think this trip would be nearly as much fun if we argued and bickered all the time. So far we are blessed to say that we are still enjoying each others company and look forward to every new adventure we embark upon..  

Speaking of adventures! This last week was full of amazing adventures! First of all we were lucky enough to spend most of the last week with our dear friends the Hinck’s, who traveled down from San Francisco to visit us at San Simeon, and took us on a guided tour of Big Sur, so to speak.  They made it down to San Simeon last Saturday morning, and rest of the weekend with us.  Saturday we took them to Cayucous State Beach.  We had a blast looking for shells, running up and down the beach, and just spending time together and catching up.  After the beach we went to the Brown Butter Cookie Company, unlike me, Jill had actually heard of these cookies and was also very excited to check it out.  After stocking up on delicious cookies, we checked out one of the coolest antique stores I’ve ever been in before heading back to camp to cook some dinner and do some more visiting.. 

Cayucous State Beach

Sail Jelly Fish - these are all over the beaches here, and my dogs act like they are cherry flavored pez candy.

Sunday we got up, had some amazing breakfast burritos, courtesy of Jill, and then loaded up the cars to head to Big Sur.  On the way up the coast toward Big Sur was an elephant seal rookery.  It was incredible to see the amount of seals that hang out in one place, especially considering that at sea, elephant seals are solitary animals.  The only place that they are together are in these rookeries… These animals are HUGE!! Just to give you an idea, the babies are born weighting anywhere from 60-80 lbs and will quadruple their weight within the first month..  Most of the animals were lounging on the beach in giant piles of seal, but some males could be found quarreling in the water, or just hanging out and squawking in the water.  I found it very entertaining to watch them try to move around the beach.  They would move maybe 4-5 feet at a time and then stop in rest.  I imagine moving that much weight has got to be difficult especially when you ain’t got no legs Lieutenant Dan!

Now when Kyle and I decided to take this adventure, our goal was to be on Highway 1, the entire way up the coast.  A goal that we were going to try to achieve with and with out the trailer.  Ten minutes into our Big Sur adventure, I knew this was going to be a very hard goal to stick to while pulling the trailer.  In blissful state of ignorance about California, I always thought that Big Sur was just a town with its own coastline, much like all of the other towns we’d been in, but no. Big Sur is a 60 mile section of windy roads surrounded by groves of redwood trees, and bordered with dramatic coastline, that continues to ahh around every corner.  The average speed on this road section of highway is about 35mph as you wind your way up and down the coast.  Something that would be obnoxious to do with a 4000 pound trailer, I knew after the first two switch backs that we would be finding an alternative route to go to our next destination. 

Back to this beautiful highway though, I can not say enough how beautiful this place is.  I honestly think that driving this section of the coast should be on everyones bucket list.  If I were a more water savy person, I would think that Kayaking up the coast would be an absolutely wonderful way to see it.  There are areas that can only be reached by kayak because the cliffs are too steep to traverse down to the beaches.  I would, however, highly recommend that you are fueled up before you start this adventure.  While there is opportunity to get gas along the way, you will definitely pay for it.  The one place we stopped so that Ryan could get gas was $6.49 a gallon.  Insane!   Luckily this place is beautiful and almost worth it.  There are several pullouts along the way where you can stop and take in the beauty or snap some photos.  I honestly got a point where I didn't even want to take pictures anymore, you almost got tired of how pretty it was, and the pictures will never do it justice anyway.  

We made three different stops along the way.  The first stop was at McWay Falls.. I had seen pictures of this before but had no idea this is where it was, and just like I had said before the pictures do not do it justice.  At the bottom of the waterfall was a beautiful secluded beach, with teal blue, clear water surrounding it, and the waterfall hits right onto the sand.  The beach was completely untouched, because it is accessible by kayak only.  It was really nice to realize that it was difficult to get to, it means that it will stay nice longer.  It was here at this waterfall that Kyle and I realized that we really do want to live on the coast somewhere.  It is very a soothing and calming effect for both of us to be by the water.  There were quite a lot of people on the trial that over looked the water fall, which made it a little less serene, but it was still a stunning view.  

The next stop was in the actual town of Big Sur for a quick bite to eat.  We had tried to go to the pizza place there, but were told they couldn't serve us, because they were closing in 30 minutes and there was no way that they could get us sat and fed before that point.  So we went just down the street to the little deli.  This experience was quite entertaining for me.  They provided you with a menu of sandwiches they offered, but really didn't have even a 1/3 of what was on the menu.  Ryan and his family tried to order three different times, and were told that they didn't have any of that, so pick something else.  Then when he ordered a meatball sandwich, he got a meatloaf sandwich.  All in all, it was really quite comical. I was grateful that we had all had snacks before this point, because I am not sure it would have gone well having 7 hangry people trying to order food without any success..  

After lunch we headed over to Pfeiffer State Beach.  The beach with the pink sand.  The road to the beach is kind of hidden and is about two miles down a one way, but heavily trafficked road.  There is a $10 day use fee, which is always nice to avoid, but we were assured that this beach was worth it.  After parking you walk down a tree covered sandy path for about 100 yards before it opens up to a stunning, dramatic beach, lined by cliffs and huge rocks in the water.  The rocks were very cool because some had coves that could be explored.  I’ve grown to  love to watch the tide strike the rocks and create big sprays that I feel like I’ve only seen in the movies.  There was also a fresh water stream that flowed to the beach that would come in very handy to rinse the salt water off of the pups when we left.  And yes, there really is Pink sand on the beach.  It was almost a magenta color. This sand didn't cover the whole beach but had little sections here and there throughout the beach.  We had a great time exploring all of the rocks and the little tide pools.  There was one rock that we could climb to the top of and get a better view of the ocean beyond the bay that we were in.  Jonah, Trigger and I ventured out there at the same time. We just sat up there gazing into the great blue yonder, enjoying to listening to the tide crash against the rock,  it is honestly one of the most relaxing sounds to me.  We were all three enjoying the serenity when a huge wave came in and crashed into the rocks right in front of us, and almost drenched Jonah and I.  Jonah’s eyes were huge as he looked any me and said “I’m outta here!” It was pretty funny.  So we climbed down off the rock and went back to join the group.  At which point Kyle handed over the two boy’s leashes to me so that he could go check out the view.  I was laughing at him as I watched him tip-toe bare footed up to rock.  No idea why he wasn’t wearing shoes.  When he got back to us he said that “the view was great for the soul, but terrible for the feet.” Dork.  

We spent about two hours at this beach, and then it was time for the Hinck’s to head back to San Francisco.  We parted ways and they headed up the coast toward Monterey and we headed back down to San Simeon.  Kyle and I debated just going into Monterey with them, but didn't know how far it was and knew that we still had about an hour drive back to camp.  It was days like this that I kick myself for forgetting the atlas at camp, because we were only like 20 miles from Monterey and it totally would have been worth to finish the drive, but maybe next time.  

Tuesday was moving day again, and we headed back up Hwy 101 instead of Hwy 1, because of the winding road in Big Sur.  This section of Hwy 101 takes you through Salinas, which is beautiful strawberry country.   We LOVE strawberries, so imagine our disappointment that we never once saw a strawberry stand..  For 90 miles of driving through farm country, not one single strawberry stand!!! Plus it was right around lunch time, which only makes matters worse.. I knew that we would be at our next campsite soon so I just relax, or tried to.  After Santa Cruz, we were back on Hwy 1 along the coast.  I honestly just cant get over how pretty the coastline is here.  It honestly just leaves me breathless a lot of the time.   Our next campsite was in Butano State Park outside of Pescadero, CA, which is a little farming community that we apparently lived in when I was maybe 2.  Another thing that Kyle and I have learned on this journey, is that Apple Maps is a TERRIBLE app, and Siri is terrible at giving directions. Some of the roads we have ended up on because of this app are just down right ridiculous.  Today’s directions were really no better, and at one point in time, had us questioning what the blazes we were doing trying to pull a trailer on the road.  As we got close to our destination, we were told by Siri, to turn right on Gazos Creek Rd to get to Butano from Hwy 1.  Well, Gazos Creek Rd was probably the worst road we could have taken.  It was about 4 miles of incredibly winding, and narrow, one lane road.  We just prayed that we didn't run in to another car coming the opposite direction because there is no way that we could pull over to let them by.  We had honestly started wondering what we were getting ourselves in to with this campsite.  We knew that Jill and the kids would be meeting us there, and thought surely she would call us if she thought that the camper wouldn't make it up the road. Then quickly realized that there was no cell service so she couldn't let us know anyway, so we forged onward.  About 500 yards before the turn off to the state park, the road opened up to a full two lane highway.  A fact that had us cursing Siri again, because surely she realizes that it would have been better the long way!

Butano State Park is nestled in a beautiful Redwood forest just outside of Pescadero. We pull in to the park, drive up to the attendants booth, only to find that it was empty, but did have our name on the board to say that we were checking in that day.  Most of the time I could care less if the attendant was there, but after we started driving up to the campground, we realized that it would have been really nice to have a heads up about what was coming up..  About 0.25 miles in, you are deep into the redwoods on a super narrow road again.  You are headed up what feels like a never ending hill, going over one lane bridges, and even driving through a section where you have to honk to warn on coming traffic that you are coming.. The trees are so dense that its almost dark, and there is very little wiggle room for a trailer our size.  This was the first time that we thought that we had totally screwed ourselves by booking something on the internet without seeing it in person.  We finally get to the road that the campground is on, and start heading up the hill, a little concerned about whether or not we will be able to get out of here in one piece.  There were plenty of campsites, but it didn't seem at first that there were many spots that would fit a camper our size.  Then we saw the camp host’s 5th wheel knew we’d probably be fine, but still wondered how in the heck he got that thing up here.  

We were in campsite 16, and as we rounded the loop, we saw one of the rangers working near the restrooms.  She stopped us and asked us which site we were headed to.  We informed her which one, and she said that the people that had camped there the night before were still there but were in the process of moving their camp.  I giggled at that fact that I am typically never on time, let alone early for anything.  So of course there would still be someone in our site.  We pulled up to 16 and saw a tent but there were no people in site, and now we are blocking the entire road with our trailer.. We were just about to just pull in anyway, when they came walking back over, apparently they just wanted to move their car to their new campsite.  They were a very nice couple from Oakland, and they come to this campsite often. They informed us that we got the best campsite in the campground.  I’d had to agree with them, it was beautiful.  We were completely surrounded by Redwoods, there is a little fence that went around the back of the campsite and we had no direct neighbors.. It was the most peaceful campsite we’ve had yet.

Jill and the kiddos showed up shortly after we finished setting up camp, and spent the evening with us again.  We spent the afternoon checking out the campsite and just relaxing.  The kids did a little bit of exploring, and even found a few newts in the pond next to us. 

On Wednesday we got up and made some amazing bagel breakfast sandwiches over the campfire, then set out toward Pescadero to check out the little town a bit.  We had been told by the couple in our campsite before us, that there was a bakery in town that made delicious fresh baked bread. So we checked that out as we researched for a waterfall that we could hike to.  The bakery was really a little market that has been in business since 1929.  The bread was probably some of the best bread that I’ve ever had.  First of all it was sourdough, my favorite, then it also had roasted garlic and artichoke hearts inside the bread!! Oh my heavens! Amazing, we sat there and pretty much ate the entire loaf before we left the store.  It was so good for the soul, but absolutely terrible for the waistline :-/ Good thing we finally found a waterfall to go hike to.  Jonah was on a mission to hike to a waterfall, as Miles said, he’s got a thing for waterfalls.  The one we read about was on the beach bluffs south of Ana Nuevos State Park. 

We have discovered along this journey that you have to be ok with really having no idea what you are getting yourself into and just go with it a lot of the time.  Today was no different.  The Siri directions led us to a random pull off next to New Years Creek Rd, or something like that.  Well it wasn't a road that we had to walk down, it was a paved path that was barely visible through the over growth of poison oak on both sides of the path.  I was happy that today I was smart enough to finally dress warm enough to go to the beach and had jeans and a sweatshirt on, last thing we need right now is one of us to get poison oak.  The path lead to an old abandoned cement bridge that went over a tiny little creek.  Just past the bridge was the path down the hill to the beach.  Once on the beach, Kyle did his normal to us, but random to new people, run as fast as he can to the water routine, all the while waving his hands in the air and yelling funny things as he ran in a zig-zag pattern.  The kids just looked at him like he was crazy, which he is.  The beach here was just as empty as the overgrown path would suggest it would be.  It was neat to be the only people on the beach for a change, well at least we were until had to jinx us by saying something about being the only people on the beach.  Luckily it was just two other people who walked onto the beach behind us, and they went in the opposite direction, so for the most part we still had the beach to ourselves.  

We headed south down the beach to look for our waterfall.  I started to notice layers of white within the bluff walls, and upon further investigation noticed that they were actually a layer of shell fossils.  I had never seen such a thing and was fascinated! I had flash backs to my college days and my geology loving roommate Lyndsay and our friend Mesha talking about rocks all the time. It was a trip, so of course I had to send them pictures of the rocks.  We found our waterfall a few hundred yards down the beach.  It wasn't a huge waterfall, but it was big enough to stand under and leave a little bit of a stream to the ocean, so it was fun.  After our hike, Jill and the kids had to head back to San Fran, but we were excited that we would be seeing them again in two days when we go to stay at their house.  

That afternoon we decided to take the pups for a little bit of adventure since they had pretty much just been cooped up for the last two days.  Dogs were not allowed on any of the trails in the park that we were in, but they  could be walked on leash on the fire roads, which were basically trails anyway.  So we set off on our hike through the beautiful redwoods.  These forests are so cool.  I find that I spend a lot of time not knowing what direction to look in because there is so much to see.  So many different worlds around you.  Its like an enchanted forest, I started to feel like I was in the movie Ferngully, one of my favorites from when i was a kid.  If this little majestic forest in the Butano State Park fascinates us this much, I can not wait to see how we are when we get to Redwoods National Park!  

When I first started talking about going on this adventure, one of the places that we were told we had to go was Duarte’s in Pescadero.  Tonight was the perfect night to go.  Duarte’s is a little bar and restaurant that has a lot of history behind it.  When you walk up to the front door you get to read a brief history of the restaurant and the family that started it, and the descendants that still run it.  The restaurant started in 1894, when a gentleman named Frank, bought a barrel of whiskey from Santa Cruz, and set it on the same bar that you’ll see today, and started selling it.  It was a cool little place and you could tell that it was a locals favorite.  Like with many small towns everyone was greeted by their first name as they walked into the joint.  It was a gentle reminder of what I love about small towns. Of course I was trying to be good, and I did not bring in my phone to take any pictures of the place, but we did definitely enjoy it. 

On Thursday, we decided to try to go back to the same beach that we were at yesterday.  On our way down the highway we drove into the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Museum to take a look around.  I have always had a thing for lighthouses and was kind of disappointed when I realized that we couldn't go into the lighthouse because it is closed for restoration right now. This light house is the tallest light house on the west coast and is still used as a navigational aid to the coast guard.  The original Fresnal lens has been replaced by an LED light, but the original lens is on display in one of the buildings at the museum.  It was fascinating how big the original lens was, and that it was carried down by crane one section at a time when they started restoring the light house.  

I found this to be absolutely hilarious! 

We have seen so many pay phones in Cali.

From the light house we continued south to try to find a beach again. We came to a parking lot up on a bluff that over looked the water.  The path from the parking lot to the beach was incredible steep, but at least it wasn't over grown with poison oak! The place for the most part was pretty empty, but there were two different groups with dogs there, so we tried to find a place to keep to ourselves.  We did a little exploring on the top of a rock hill on the edge of the beach, that gave a phenomenal view of the beach or the ocean which ever direction you decided to turn.  I had to laugh at Kyle as I was watching him at the top of the hill. Apparently I snapped a picture of him, as he was snapping a selfie.   

the picture of him taking a selfie

the selfie

After watching the two different groups with dogs we forged our path to go to a place to let the pups run.  We chose to go toward the south end of the beach because the water seemed less intense, and quite frankly the lady that had dogs on that side, seemed to have hers under control. So we knew that we could very easily avoid any type of confrontation.  As we made our way in her direction, she happened to leash her dogs up and head out, which left us with the entire south end of this beach all to our selves.  This was honestly the most pleasant experience that we have had at a beach yet.  The dogs were able to run free, Kyle and I could just sit, watch, and relax while they romped around.  I tend to have a hard time just sitting so I spent a lot of time running around with the pups.  We did a little bit of exploring of the rocks that jutted out into the tide, but then the dogs started freaking me out. They kept running to the edge of the rocks like they were going to just jump in, only to be met by a sure fate of getting swept away by a riptide.  So at this point I made them sit while I set out to explore and make sure it was safe.  Overall, this beach experience was amazing. The only unfortunate thing that happened was the amount of water that Trigger decided to drink today.  Something that really didn’t seem like a huge issue until we got back to the parking lot and gave them water.  Trigger probably drank two bowls of water herself, and then came over to me sitting on the ground, and just rested her head against my chest as I sat there.  As I decided to get up, Trigger decided to unexpectedly start vomiting.  It was so close to a disaster!  She was so close to puking all over my lap as I stood up, that Kyle said at first he couldn't tell if I’d peed my pants or if she had puked.  5 seconds later on my part and it would have been game over for me.  It was already game over for her.  She ended up only getting sick one more time, but due to the amount of water that she drank, she unfortunately ended up peeing in her kennel.  It was crazy.  Then the rest of the day she had to go every three minutes it seemed like, thats a lot of salt water she drank apparently.  I’m just happy that she really didn't get sick like Frank did, that would have been awful to deal with again..

After leaving the beach we found a little strawberry stand, where you could either pick your own or just buy some already packaged up.  We decided to just go for the ones already packaged up, but we took full advantage of the picnic tables they had to sit on and enjoy.  We probably sat here for almost an hour enjoying our delicious strawberries and plotting out the rest of our day.  On our way back to camp we saw a bunch of kite-surfers, so we stopped to watch for a minute. To date, this had been one of the most relaxing days.  

Friday morning we loaded up the trailer early.  In an effort to get down the scary one lane road before any of the Memorial Day traffic started heading in to camp.  We had left Ryan and Jill know that we would probably be at their house around 9, but we ended up leaving so early that we were there at 8. Which luckily everyone on their street had pretty much left for work already, so we were able to get the trailer parked in front of their house with out any issues.  We spent the rest of the weekend  hanging out with the Hinck’s, and Ryan’s mom was also in town for the weekend so we got to spend some time catching up with her and her husband as well.  We did some tide pool exploring on Saturday morning.  Apparently it was a record low tide, so the pools were very easily accessible and revealed many treasures.  I am so grateful that we were there with the Hinck’s to experience this.  Both Jill and Ryan are very knowledgeable about the sea life and why they behave the way they do, it made it that much more fun to actually know what we are looking at, and where to look for different sea life. Jill was on a hunt to see an octopus, but we did not succeed in this, just saw several sea stars, a few fish, and mussels and sand crabs everywhere. 

Purple sea urchin

 Sea duck, unfortunately he was injured and didn't make it

this things are crazy

more purple sea urchins

The rest of the weekend we just hung out at the house, playing cards, baking cookies, and just visiting. Gaylan cooked a trout boil for us on saturday night.  Something that I was not super excited about at first, because I am not a huge fish fan, at all.  But I was pleasantly surprised that it was delicious! Then Sunday night Ryan made us a seafood boil with crab legs, mussels, clams and shrimp.  It was delicious!  We had such a great time with our friends, and had to admit that we were actually very happy to be out of the camper for a few days..  

I know I am a little behind on keeping y'all filled in on our adventures so I promise to post again sooner, rather than later about what we’ve been up to this last week..   Thank you again for checking in on us, and we’ll chat soon! Have a blessed weekend everyone!