Day 12: September 29, 2001
Driving the Pacific coast to Bay Area

Today was our last day, we were driving home. It's only about 4 hours or so from Bakersfield to the Bay Area, but instead of just blitzing home, we decided to cut over to the Pacific coast and drive up Route 1. We haven't seen the Big Sur coastline for a while, and Walendo also wanted to stop in a store in Cambria. He remembered seeing some interesting kinetic sculptures made out of wood and was thinking he'd like to try making something like that sometime. So we figured we'd stop in Cambria to find that store, and then continue on up the coast.

Libby wants to romp!

We had a nice complementary breakfast at the Best Western Hotel. Then we stocked up on gas and headed out. (Gas was only $1.39 gallon, which is amazingly cheap considering it's California. We wondered if gas prices really came down that much while we were away or if Bakersfield is just much cheaper. Turned out it's the latter.) We cut over from Route 99 (which runs North-South through the middle of the state) on route 46, which goes due west and hits Highway 1 just four miles south of Cambria. That drive is pretty dry and boring for most of the way (except for the usual excitement of passing cars on a 2-lane road), but then after you cross Route 101 it starts to look a little like the Napa area with lots of vineyards along rolling hills. We started to listen to the beginning of "The Prince of Tides," the other book we'd brought on the tape. Walendo didn't like the voice of the guy reading it, but I thought he was pretty good. Maybe we'll listen to the book on our next trip.

Kinetic sculptures Cambria, CA

We rolled into Cambria at around 12:30 or so. I had a strong memory of the location of the store that had the kinetic sculptures, so we parked near there and sure enough, there it was. (Walendo was impressed.) The artist's name is David C. Roy. Walendo checked them out for a while and got a sheet from the sales woman showing a number of his pieces. Apparently, he also has a website, so Walendo was psyched to check it out. He sells his sculptures for about $1,000 and we wondered how well they sell. (According to his website, he sells quite a few, so he must do okay for himself.)

Patriotic antique store display Cambria, CA

It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the streets of Cambria were busy with tourists. We were glad to see it. One of the shop keepers said business had been doing well. Maybe people are travelling locally rather than flying abroad, who knows? It's good to know. Walendo wandered into a gallery selling glassware and he loved some of the colorful vases and plates. I took some nice shots of flags and some interesting store displays featuring flags and American history paraphernalia. He showed me later after lunch, and they were quite nice, but a bit expensive. We'd had our fill of buying art for this trip.

Patriotic man with kids

Anyway, I remembered a good restaurant/bakery we had eaten at when we were last here, so we walked over there, and it was packed too. It's a place called Linn's, and they serve homemade chicken pot pies (which I love) and fruit pies, with a lot of raspberry things. I had the pot pie (I think I had it last time) and it was delicious. Walendo had a fish sandwich that he liked too. I tried their ice cream for dessert (which they said was close to homemade) but it wasn't anything special.) We got some chicken pot pies to go and I signed up to receive their catalog. Yum. Oh, in the restaurant I saw a man wearing a patriotic t-shirt and I wanted to take his picture, but it was awkward. LAter, when I went to the bathroom, I saw him out back with his two kids and asked if I could. He was very friendly and said it was fine. In fact, a few days before his kids were wearing the flag shirt too. Oh well. Still, it was nice to make the conection.

Libby romping in Pacific Ocean

After wandering around the town some more, we drove on and stopped on the other side of Route 1, along the coast. I wanted to let Libby romp in the ocean (which she loves), even though Walendo was eager to keep going. He agreed, and then later was glad he did. We threw the ball into the ocean and Libby romped after it, but the second time she got caught in the waves and had a hard time finding it. Walendo called her back for fear that there was too strong an undertoe. Libby was quite distressed! A little later a man walked by with his dog and he said he didn't think the tide was that bad, so I threw a rock in near the ball and Libby went after it, happily recovering her ball. After that, we threw the ball along the wet sand so she wouldn't have to cross any waves. She was quite happy, as always when fetching a ball in the water. After a while, we made her dry off a bit and then went back to the car. I had the thought that maybe we could spend new year's eve down here, so we drove along the road to see if we could find a hotel that takes dogs. According to one hotel owner, there was only one, the Cambria Shores Inn, so we drove there and Walendo made reservations. It was indeed a dog friendly place, which is nice. It's a bit expensive at $150/night (especially since it looks like a pretty standard motel), but we made reservations and we'll decide later if we want to go.

After that, we continued on up the coast. It was such a beautiful day for a drive, and a lot of people were out (almost all of them with California license plates). The coast was shimmering in the sun. Still, we didn't get stuck behind any really slow drivers so it was a very pleasant drive. Walendo snoozed during part of it, but I checked out as much of the scenery as I could while still keeping my eyes on the road. The coastline near Big Sur really is the most spectacular, although it's quite nice all the way down to Cambria. Maybe we should stay in this area at New Year's rather than going all the way south to Cambria. Who knows? Anyway, after driving for about 100 miles or so, we came to Monterey, and it felt like enough coastal driving. We agreed to pick up 156 out 101 and head home. Traffic was light, amazingly enough, so it was an easy ride home. Once we got into our town, we snapped a few more pictures of flags for the collection, and that was the end of the trip. Sigh, it's sad that it's over.

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