Sunday 26 April 2015

Monterey, 17 MILE DRIVE, Lone CyprusTree, Carmel, Pebble Beach

The day out with Cub was awesome. 

Stressy Adolf was prepared to wait all of 2 minutes for Cub to arrive at our pick up point, he was seriously prepared to leave him behind, but after the most ridiculous FAFF of trying to collect people from their hotels in the middle of rush hour with trams hurtling towards us, we were finally on our way to Monterey, a town made famous by the author John Steinbeck. Oh and Monterey Jack cheese.


The main attraction here is the world famous aquarium, but we chose to amble along the front with a cup of tea-to-go, (where DOES my boy get that from?) and along Cannery Row, which, in its heyday was busy with sardine canners.







Monterey had a BEAR FLAG BUILDING :)








It was lovely.

After lunch (yes, today we had lunch) we continued our drive with a much less Stressy Adolf (he'd obviously had a good lunch too) and paid the toll to drive along 17 MILE DRIVE stopping at BIRD ROCK where there was no plank, just good fun prancing about on the rocks that had not been christened by bird deposits.









By paying to drive along 17 MILE DRIVE  we were able to see the most photographed tree in North America, a 250 year old Lone Cypress Tree that has not only survived the elements but also fire. It is now the corporate logo and trademark of Pebble Beach company.

These trees only grow naturally in Pebble Beach and Pt Lobos, near Carmel.





We could see Pebble Beach Golf Course from the bus.
"Perfectly manicured greens" said the Husb.




Carmel-by-the-sea was delightful, we walked down the hill past tempting teashops and fairytale cottages ...



...to the beach. 
Carmel is voted as one of the top ten places to visit in the US every year  and ...
oh woop it just so happens, we have visited it :)  YAY.










You can just see the golf course bunkers of PEBBLE BEACH golf course where all the superstar golfers play.


Then we realised we could shimmy up the sand bit on to the course. 
Let's face it, if the golfer was rubbish and hit the ball over the edge on to the beach, HE would have to shimmy down and back up again to retrieve his ball wouldn't he?



Do we look nonchalant here? 
We were trying to look cool and casual...
while golfers who had paid hundreds of dollars were having a game.





Quick photo by the flag and then we scuttled back down to the beach feeling like naughty school children but also very smug. 
OMG OMG Pebble Beach Golf Course!

What a day!
And there was MORE!
(Did I write that yesterday too?)

We sweet-talked Stressy Adolf into dropping us off by the baseball ground, the AT&T Stadium because we had tickets for the GIANTS pre season warm up game v Oakland Athletic.
It was a local derby!
GO GIANTS!!!




Just look at the setting. 
Shiny moon, sparkly sea, a boat coming in, what a place for a ball game. 



WE ARE SF WE ARE GIANTS


It was an exhibition game v Athletics and we won 4-0 ("we") (!)
WE ARE SF WE ARE GIANTS


I loved it.





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