Parentals and I stayed overnight in Monrovia on Sunday after dinner with dad's friend and left for Pacific Palisades Monday morning. Palisades is just west of LA and we went to visit some friends of my parents whom they know from Venasque, France (but who are Americans). They live a block away from Palisades Bluff and have an incredible view just down the street.
Santa Monica Boulevard! (To the tune of All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow)
View from Palisades Bluff
Alan, Debby, Mama Ku, Papa Ku
Alan on his nifty bike!
Alan, Debby, Papa Ku, and Mama Ku
The drive north up 101. Beautiful sunset.
We stopped at Paso Robles for the night to break up the driving and had dinner. Went to a local, organic place with very interesting food. Unfortunately, we were unimpressed by the wine, which is supposed to be great in this area (we have become European wine snobs :-\). But it was nice and we appreciated the meal after a long day of driving (LA traffic extends outside of LA quite a bit and suckkkkksss).
We left Tuesday morning (New Year's Eve!) to head to Palo Alto where my aunt and cousin live.
Neat tall trees on the highways, Mama Ku thinks they are a type of eucalyptus tree.
Crops
Huge cutouts of people farming. These were all over and were enormous!
Stopped in Monterey and saw this bird tightly oscillating his wings back and forth for a LONG time! We thought for sure he'd get tired, but he just kept doin it! We think he was either 1) Doing some kind of mating dance, 2) Trying to attract fish, or 3) Meditating :)
Pond opposite the coast in Monterey. Nice reflection.
Papa Ku
Duck!
Coast of Monterey. We could hear seals barking!! Couldn't see them though.
There was a heart in the sand. Love is everywhere!
Kelp pod. There was lots of kelp washed up on this beach and it certainly smelled like it! This beach seemed dirty, although it really wasn't. Just lots of kelp and an unpleasant odor.
Climbin trees!
Went down to Carmel, just south of Monterey and it had a whole different feel. Monterey is large with an aquarium, naval base, universities, etc. Carmel is quite small with lots of residential neighborhoods and a small, hilly downtown area with lots of little shops. Judging by the types of shops and the beauty of the houses, this is an extremely expensive place to live. But boy was it gorgeous. If I lived in Monterey, the 10 minute drive south to Carmel is worth the difference in quality of beaches. We thought it was a bit chilly, but there were tons of people out in bikinis and with their dogs and in the water with their surfboards (equipped with wetsuits). I can understand the appeal of living in a place with such beautiful weather and scenery, but I'm not nearly the beach bum others are.
Look at this little guy!
Look at this cute cottage with a warpy roof
Had a charming jaggy chimney too, you can see it on the right. All of the houses here had a ton of personality and each was unique.
View from the car. This is how close you could park, and it was free!
Stopped at a roadside produce stand. With deals like this, how could you not?!
I certainly did get 7 avocados for $1! Can't wait to make guacamole :)
More tall trees on the way to Capitola
Capitola Ave! Stopped here because my dear friend Jillian has always spoken wonderfully of Capitola so we went here for lunch and went to Gayle's Bakery. They have fantastic bread, delicious sandwiches, and a huge variety of yummy dishes. Thanks, Hertzies!
Made it to Palo Alto for New Year's Eve dinner for my very favorite meal, hot pot!!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I am at my destination for the time being and will be in northern California for the next few weeks! Glad to be settled for a bit before making the journey back by myself. I plan on doing some hiking and sightseeing while I'm here so I'll still be blogging to post pictures :) Thank you all for joining me on this adventure! Let's make 2014 a year to remember!!
You have such an eye for photo taking. Your photos are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tiffany! It helps to have wonderful scenery :-D
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