Beach lumps - New Year's Drive day 2/part 1

So overnight on NYE we stayed at the Ragged Point Inn. It was pleasant, not cheap mind, but pleasant. We dined at the associated restaurant, again quite pleasant but I had not dressed for the occasion (mind you I was not naked either but sweat pants, aka trakky dax, are not exactly classy). We did not make it to midnight - I had done some hard driving and DH had done some hard sitting.


Can you see the little road halfway up the hill?




(southwards)
The motel has great views on either side of the point, as I discovered when I went for an "early" morning walk at 9am...




(northwards)


(outwards)


These aloes are very popular in the area. I guess it is hard to find things that grow. Also given their prickles, they may resist being removed...


Cypress and the hill inland from the motel complex.

I was lucky to get those pics when I did as only a few minutes later, fog began blowing up from the ocean. It was like it had been set on fire or something. Within a couple of minutes of returning to our motel room, the view out the window went from



to



DH never saw the views in person, only in the pics I took.

So we drove onwards, ever onwards. It was all very Scottish according to DH - the hills were moving away from the road and there were flattish spots and all was draped in mist. We passed a LOT of cyclists over the next 20 miles - they were all going the other way. Good luck chaps - not too much in the way of bike lanes are marked along the coast road!

Occasionally we saw views like this



and this:


The coast seemed less rugged in some ways - a precipitous hill no longer fell straight into the ocean but it was pretty darned rocky. I wouldn't want to be landing a boat on it. I'm guessing that the lighthouses were/are absolutely necessary given the fog that benights this coast.



At one point we drove past a very popular car park. "Seals" pronounced DH. Whatever, I've seen seals before. "Elephant seals." On go the brakes and around we go - of course I checked the traffic before chucking a U-ey.

Yes, indeed elephant seals.


There are some youngsters in that pic and some mums-to-be as well from their shape. I have a video of one calf trying to work out where to get some tucker. Mum's flipper wasn't the go, nor her ?elbow? ?wrist? Here's mum flopping over and trying to prod the kid downwards but golly, I have no idea how these critters have survived if the calf takes five minutes to work out that the top end of mum does not have food but about 2/3 the way down does.


Apparently the chaps are all ready to make more baby elephant seals. I guess it takes all kinds cos I wouldn't want him making love sweet love to me!


And one intrepid ground squirrel with a great beachside home.

One of our aims was to visit this place, even though they can't spell Hurst.

Alas, it was closed on New Year's Day.

So onwards, ever onwards.

Things I have learned

Today's thing I have learned is that dishwashers suck. Even manual dishwashers (ie me) can suck, but I'm really talking about the ones where you stick your dishes in a machine and hope they come out clean.

One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!

Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.

We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.

I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.

Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).

Dang.

Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!

Dang.

Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.

Dang.

But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.

Day 1 - A drive to Big Sur

Over Christmas and New Year, DH had some time off. He brought home a cold for Christmas and passed it on to me, thanks ever so, still suffering the effects 3 weeks later...

Anyway, since he had this time off, we decided to go for a drive down the coast. We had been told the drive along the Big Sur coastline is a great deal of fun, if you don't get carsick. Sounded exactly like my sort of road!

So off we zoomed. Traffic was not as bad as I expected for New Year's Eve. Soon enough we had passed through Monterey and bypassed Carmel-by-Sea.



Soon the coastline started getting lumpy and bumpy and a bit more exciting. So did the road, well at least it began to wiggle more but was no more lumpy bumpy.



We stopped at the first bridge.



Mr Grumpy had not had lunch and things were looking grim. A snack bar and an apple helped but lunch was needed and lunch was not available.

We drove further, over many bridges and around many corners. Whiz, whiz, whiz! The road is mostly cut into the side of a very steep sided hill, though around the part where you go past the Big Sur visitor center, it swings inland for a bit. (And thank heavens for a bakery where DH got some sustenance.)


130,000 acres of Big Sur burned in June/July. Massive wildfire. The hill in the background of this pic is representative of what remains. The countryside looks so rugged there - any rain that falls will wash away whatever topsoil remains. It will be interesting to see how much of it regenerates and how well it regenerates.



Alas we had started our drive rather late and the sun fell low in the sky waaay too early for us.


We stopped for afternoon tea at one place but the cafe had already packed up for the day and the restaurant was pricey. I rather liked this driftwood sculpture of a bird.

We did get rather a number of shots (ahem!)



of the coast around and after sunset.



It is gorgeous.



I drove the next however many miles to Ragged Point in the dark, missing out on many spectacular views. Alas I did not make it to the 55mph speed limit very often - 45mph was more prudent, especially given the amount of roadwork happening along the way, with lanes not marked in any way shape or form. Staying on the road involved taking a punt and pointing the car at the middle of the darkest bits. I may love my corners but I also want to arrive at my destination in one piece.

This road is one of the Great Coast Drives. It certainly compares with the Great Ocean Road back 'ome. I think it was built with a similar goal to the Great Ocean Road - that of job creation. Tourism of course followed but really the road was created to provide jobs. It is an amazing drive and we will have to do it again, when it isn't dark. LOL

Entering Yosemite from Mariposa

Another video! I hope these are working ok.



This is a short one of the rock entryway when you come in from the "north" via Mariposa. I think it is sometimes called the El Portal entrance. So exciting! Excuse the wonkycam. I don't think I'll ever hand hold something straight.

Pure comedy gold

One of the more average videos we've taken. LOL



Context - it had rained at Yosemite and refrozen. Some of the paths were so slippery you could not walk up them without crampons or walking off the paths and hoping to find non-slick spots. Going up was bad, coming back down was fraught. It was easier to sit on your butt and slide than try to walk down. I have no dignity left. DH was disparaging of my ability to slide - he took about 5 seconds to do what took me 30 - well that is what you get for having 80-odd pounds over me weightwise!

An Act of Bastardy

Man I am getting really really REALLY annoyed with the "lady" who thinks our car park is hers.

So when we got our car, there was always a silver Audi parked in the spot I later found should be ours. So I parked in the next space along thinking I had muddled the numbers up.

No.

No I hadn't.

Someone moved in and wanted their spot. Fair enough too. So I got booted out of the spot that wasn't mine. But the witchqueen in the next spot won't give up "her" place. She knows it is not her spot but it is convenient for her to park there. We've stuck notes on her windscreen, I've complained to the office practically every day for the last two weeks. But it is convenient for her to steal someone else's spot. She got away with it for two months and now she wants to keep it.

It isn't hers.

Is this typical behaviour for someone who drives a silver Audi and/or comes from Illinois? Have they "made it" and can trample on anyone as they choose? Or is it a reflection of an egotist?

Of course since very space is allocated to a unit, I have to park in the free parking about 400m from our unit. You have to be early to get one of those spots. Normally not that big an issue but at present, walking 100m tires me out. Normally I would ride my bike but with an ear infection, I can't.

The other thing is we are *paying* for a carport space. We are being denied our right to our car park. I obviously have been in the USA for too long cos I am wondering whether we can threaten legal action against her and this place.

I wish they would just danged tow her car as the note threatens. I guess they are not allowed.

Grrr

Travelling

Since New Year's eve, we have

1. driven down the Californian coast to Big Sur
   
2. seen elephant seals on the beach, including a particularly dumb baby
   
3. failed to see Hearst Castle (it's shut on NY day)
   
4. seen Moro Rock (a place DH remembers from a trip 22 years ago)
   
5. visited a soda lake
   
6. driven across the San Andreas faultline
   
7. climbed up out of the seemingly endless central plains to see a 130 year old engineering feat
   
8. brushed the edge of the Mojave (I am SO not going there in summer!)
   
9. driven more of the endless plains in RAIN!
   
10. finally reached Yosemite.
    

It is snowy in Yosemite and gorgeous. I just wish I had not picked up DH's cold - am pushing too hard and now have blocked ears, half deaf and hurties! Especially since we keep having to climb up 3000' or so the drop back down. Plus a cough that even worries DH - which is an achievement, LOL

Tomorrow night we will be home. Thereafter I can assault you with pics, bad videos and tales of derring-do! (well at least the first two.)