Touring Monterey & Big Sur

Please check out our SLIDE SHOW below showing our post wedding destinations!

We set our auto pilot on Monterey and Big Sur just a short hop down the California coast.  Along the way was the farming community of Salinas, home of the John Steinbeck Center and the best breakfast place imaginable, First Awakenings.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Steinbeck Center with its fascinating exhibits of the Steinbeck's works and historical accounts of the downtrodden laborers who grew the fruits and vegetables that fed our nation.


Next we checked into Monterrey's Jabberwock B&B.  Jabberwock is a poem in one of Lewis Carroll's books, Through the Looking Glass.  In Monterey it's a lovely B and B with gorgeous grounds overlooking Monterey Bay.  We loved the yummy appetizers, homemade cookies and delicious breakfasts. We walked to most everything in the town.  We particularly enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Mass at the oldest church in America (built in 1770 founded by Father Junipero Serra), San Carlos Cathedral.
    
We traversed the gorgeous 17 Mile Drive  through Pebble Beach's pricey real estate and lovely scenic shores stopping along the way to snap photos of the crashing waves along the rock strewn shores.  Finally, we reached Big Sur and checked into Big Sur Lodge.   The name "Big Sur" is from Spanish meaning "the big country of the south" referring to it's location south on the Monterey Peninsula.  It offers stunning views and the windy roads are fun to drive since the mountains are so close to the coast.  We donned our 'serious tredded' shoes and hiked to Pfeiffer Falls a challenging one-mile treck from the lodge.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Nepenthe Cafe which is perched way up up there overlooking the gorgeous valley.  We hiked a ways to view the beautiful 80 ft. McWay Waterfalls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park - McWay Waterfalls- very rugged for us Floridians!

Have you ever stayed in a YURT?  We hadn't - - so we took this opportunity to stay at Treebones Resort.  Our yurt was a 23 ft. diameter tent complete with a comfy queen-sized bed - check out the picture below!  The tent was located close to the edge of a cliff and we could hear the seals barking in the distance.

We hiked down to Sand Dollar Beach, Redwood Gulch and to Salmon Creek Waterfall.  On the way back to the airport, we couldn't resist stopping to see the Elephant Seal Rookery .  The seals were endangered up to a few years ago  -  and now are coming back in many areas along the coast.  They are really fun to watch. 

On the way back, we had a connecting flight through John Wayne Airport where we snapped a photo with the Duke.  What a great trip!  Hope you get to go there, too!

See Richard's video of jelly fish and seahorses at the Monterey Aquarium by clicking:
Jelly Fish Video.