The ‘road trip’ part of the road trip begins. We picked up our car and wended our way through the streets of San Francisco. After a quick back-and-forth over the Golden Gate Bridge (well worth the toll), we began our journey south. Our final destination for the day was Monterey.
Big Red Bridge
Crossing ‘The Gate’
Two problems with a convertible quickly manifested themselves as we began our trip:
With the top down, there is very little room for luggage. We fit one large suitcase in the trunk (with other small items), two smaller bags behind the driver, and one small female (alternately Babs or Kelly) wedged into the rear passenger seat. Every other available nook and cranny was stuffed with smaller bags and sundries.
And…
Even in bright California sunshine, it’s really, really cold in the back seat of a ragtop at highway speeds (front-seat passengers enjoyed the full blast of the heat).
Babs Chilling
A must-stop on the road to Monterey is the tiny village of Pescadero, specifically Duarte’s Tavern and their signature Olallieberry pie.
Olallieberry
Shop in Pescadero
I have been told — by subject matter experts and without equivocation — that everything is better in a Porsche…
Cool Cars in Pescadero
The restaurant was packed so we took our pie to go…
Eating Pie by the Sea
Monterey is probably most famous for the Steinbeck novel Cannery Row and they milk it for all its worth.
Cannery Row Monument
The town is also famous for its aquarium, although at $50 per person, it’s way overpriced.
Big Fish
Small Fish
Venus Rising
For future reference, we stayed at the Monterey Plaza Inn & Spa on Cannery Row. The place was nice enough but felt very corporate. There was nothing (aside from the name) that said “Monterey’ and unless you had an ocean-view room (ours overlooked a parking lot) it could have been in Philadelphia or any other American city. That said, the restaurant served us one of our best meals on the trip.