Moving to Seattle | Day 2 | Carmel to Mendocino

Day 2: Carmel to Mendocino

We did SO MUCH on Day 2 that it's a wonder we ever got anywhere! We were all exhausted, so it was a bit of a slow morning, but we were treated to this adorable little breakfast in the morning, which was wonderful.

The Carmel Lodge pool was a bit unavailable, but is was so bizarre that I had to take a photo of it.

So, we spent the morning walking the busy streets of Carmel. We had some wonderful lunch, Milo barked at everyone, and I stumbled upon the Weston Gallery and saw a bunch of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams prints, which was a perfect surprise.

Since Jason had spent so much time in Carmel as a kid, it was fun to learn about everything and what he and his sisters would do when they went to visit their grandparents there. Big on the list was the Cottage of Sweets, which is basically the smallest room possible, filled with the most candy possible. We bought a lot of stuff we didn't need (hey, sometimes you need candy), with special thanks to the lady working at the candy shop--- when you told her what you wanted and she handed it to you, she would ask "And what else?" So, thanks, Cottage of Sweets lady, we fell for your candy ploy and bought $20 worth of delicious gummy candy and chocolate that we ate in rapid succession in the car.

Milo spend the majority of the car ride on the floor in front of the passenger seat, snoozing the day away, occasionally popping up like a gigantic meerkat throughout the drive. And yes, he does look bewildered here, but that's just his face. He was so well-behaved while we were in the car--- we can't decide if he loved the car and the little guy just couldn't resist the movement lulling him to sleep like a baby (or my sister in any moving vehicle), or if he was absolutely terrified out of his mind and the trauma was just compounded by each passing hour in the car. We'll just say he tolerated it.

Before we truly got on the road, we embarked on the journey down 17-Mile Drive in Monterey, the scenic route that goes through the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course and surrounding beaches. 

At Point Joe, we were greeted by waves crashing on huge rock formations. We learned that when European explorers were first traveling the coast of California, they would often crash into the rocks at Point Joe because they mistook it for Monterey Bay. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to see anything given the fog and the waves and the hidden rocks in the ocean.

The next few photos are from the series I call "Sand Plants," since I have absolutely no idea what they are and I couldn't possibly think of a more boring name for them.

The Lone Cypress has been standing in this spot for nearly 250 years and is often said to be the most photographed tree in America! You can only admire it from afar (very afar, that is), given its precarious perch and that fact that there are certain visitors who lack respect for shared spaces and trees and beautiful things (some horrible people had already set it on fire about 30 years ago). In any event, it's an incredibly old tree growing out of a rock on a cliff, and it has survived against all odds. Apparently, it has a little help from support wires and it looks like there is a small retaining wall at the bottom of the trunk, but maybe that's just what it needs to stay around for another 100 years.

We exited 17 Mile Drive and immediately ran into awful traffic. Milo and I used this as an opportunity to nap, while Jason ate his weight in gigantic gummy frogs. Not pictured are all the photos Jason took of me asleep with my mouth open, looking like a sad Muppet, while we were stuck in traffic. I'll settle for one of just Milo sleeping instead. I'm awake, but my arm is not.

It was also really interesting how quickly the landscape changed, and how at some points, there were fields on one side of the highway and craggy, rocky beaches on the other.

Given the traffic, we drove for a very long time very slowly, so we didn't get to San Francisco until just about sunset. And, gosh, what did we learn about congratulating ourselves about our impeccable timing and how wonderful it will be to see a landmark at sunset? That if you do this, you will most certainly spend the rest of the night driving through a pitch-black forest in the dead of night with no phone service or other cars, in complete silence, because the slightest noise will distract you from the ridiculous curved road you have to drive on for the next 53 miles.

But I think it was worth it.*

*Now. I think it was worth it now.  I did not, however, think it was worth it as we navigated through a redwood forest brimming with wildlife just waiting to jump in front of our car. There were deer on the side of the road. There were deer in a field. There was a deer walking as slow as possible across the road. There was a scampering fox. Basically, the forest was so incredibly scary, I was certain one of the following scenarios would play out:

1. The animals were part of an elaborate trap made by a band of California redwood forest murderers, where the animals would run across the road, we would hit one, we would have to stop, the forest people would come out of the trees, and they would steal us from the car and we would never be seen again. Our story would be reenacted on the History Channel and no one would ever know what happened to us.

2. We would experience mysterious radio interference, the lights inside the car would flicker and dim, and the car would come to a complete stop in the middle of the road. We would  then see strange lights in the sky/ deep within the forest, and then the redwood forest aliens would come and steal one or more of us, and possibly just Milo because they have always wanted a tiny Earth-dog. (This X-Files-inspired scenario was brought to you by Middle School Rachel. You're welcome.)

Eventually, I absolutely couldn't drive anymore--- I was so concerned about avoiding wayward wildlife (and the resultant murderers/ forest aliens) that I started to see things moving that weren't actually there. Jason offered to drive, so I decided to pull over at the nearest turnout so we could switch. I found one and stopped, and as we sat there in darkness for maybe 1 second, I started yelling at Jason to hurry up and switch places with me. But he didn't have shoes on (who takes their shoes off in a murder forest???), so he couldn't trade places with me yet, to which I responded by driving off very quickly because I wasn't in the mood to become inspiration for an episode of Dateline.

Anyway, long story short (but not really at all), we eventually found our way to Mendocino, which at night looked like we were still driving in the middle of nowhere, but we would later find out was one of the most stunning places we would stop on our trip.