Day Seven: On the Road to Monterey

Today was a bit of a lazy, meandering day spent mostly in our rental car. We left the Fernwood Motel in Big Sur at 9:30am, stopped at the Bixby Bridge to snap a few pictures, and then wandered into Point Lobos for a quick three-mile hike and whale watching. From there we cruised up to Carmel-by-the-Sea, turned right on Carmel Valley Road to eat lunch at a small Italian bistro in Carmel Valley Village.





During lunch I suggested that we head out to Chalone Wineries, not realizing how far off the beaten path it sat near the Pinnacles deep in the Salinas Valley. The four-hour wine tasting excursion took us past horse farms and cattle ranches tucked into the Carmel Valley and through vast agricultural operations cultivating lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and strawberries along Highway 101.

We checked into the Super 8 Motel on Munras Avenue and then walked less than a mile into Monterey. As we headed for the tourist traps at Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row, we bought strawberries and pistachios at a local farmers market. One common site that puzzled me was the frequent spotting of Thomas Kinkade Galleries – why all the enthusiasm over this “Painter of Light”? As it turns out, Monterey’s Lighthouse Avenue is home to the Thomas Kinkade National Archives. Being the daughter of a non-commercial artist, I tend to poo-poo the Thomas Kinkades of the art world, now thinking of Kinkade as the Terry Redlin of the West Coast.







Tomorrow we’ll visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium before heading to Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area to visit Joe’s cousin.