Day Three: Monterey, the 17 mile drive, and San Fran!!

Hello loyal followers,

What a beautiful day!! We woke up today in the middle of a grove of redwoods in out little tent cabin. Since we didn't have too far to go and wanted an easy day, we slept in, packed up the car, then got on the road. We left the Big Sur area (heading north, as always) and wound our tiny car through the forest and back out to the ocean. It was only about 30 miles to Monterey, but the drive was spectacular! Up and down cliffs, towards the ocean and then away, through hilly farmland and across dunes...

After passing miles and miles of artichoke farms (I had never seen those before) we made it to Monterey. We paid our $9.25 for the privilege to drive the 17 miles through the Pebble Beach area and around all the famous golf courses. We got to see a few of the courses, views from the hills above the peninsula and the super famous "Lone Cypress" tree that sits on a jagged rock that just out into the Pacific (its just a tree that has sat there for over 250 years, so it has become a bit of a symbol of the area).

We made it up to the Pebble Beach golf course and Taylor had to go see the first tee and the Pro Shop. After that we ate lunch at the Pebble Beach Cafe (Taylor couldn't believe they let us in wearing our flip flops). After consuming our all-too-expensive grilled cheese and burger, we finished up the last few miles of the 17 mile drive and got back on the road to San Fran.

We just made it here and checked into our hostel. Its pretty late and we don't know the city yet, so we might just hang around for the night.We have our own private little room with our own bathroom, and its pretty nice for a hostel. There are people here of all ages, which is a little surprising (there are little kids running around and the people that checking in behind us looked like they were 80!) so it's an interesting place to stay. We are going to have our dinner in the hostel, make a good plan for a full day of sightseeing and then get up bright and early and do a whole day of the city tomorrow.

I can't wait to see the Golden Gate bridge, go tour Alcatraz and stroll through Chinatown. So much more to come!

~Kristyn