Central Coast

Alex and I have done so much traveling since my last post! I’m only going to highlight my favorite parts instead of telling you everywhere we went and everything we did. Okay, here it goes…..I think the last time I wrote we were in Santa Cruz. Well, we went to the Santa Cruz lighthouse, which has been converted into a surfing museum. It was pretty interesting, but there was no information about the lighthouse itself. After looking around the museum, I gathered that the lighthouse was actually built in the 1960s as a memorial for those who have been lost at sea. It was never used as an actual lighthouse. I did notice that there was a large foundation structure right outside the lighthouse next to the cliff. The foundation had mostly been eroded away by the crashing waves. I thought to myself, “I bet that is where the old lighthouse used to be.” I asked the guy at the museum what used to be there and he gave me a blank stare like he didn’t know what I was talking about. I then said, “It looks like a building used to be there because of the brick foundation.” He mumbled a little bit and said, “I think that used to be an out-building for the old lighthouse, but I’m not sure.” He definitely wasn’t very knowledgeable about the history of the lighthouse, but I’m sure he knew a ton about surfing, or at least he should since he works at a surfing museum. Anyways, that got me thinking. At pigeon point lighthouse I learned that 59 lighthouses were built along the California coast and there definitely aren’t that many along the coast today. I think that some of these lighthouses just eventually had to be torn down because of the shore line eroding away. Someday there won’t be any more lighthouses because the waves of the ocean are slowly washing away the land they stand on. It makes me think of that children's song, “Don’t build your house on the sandy land; don’t build it too close near the shore. Well, it might look kind of nice, but you’ll have to build it twice, oh you’ll have to build your house once more.” It makes me feel sad for the lighthouses.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

The Lone Cypress along 17-mile drive

We went onto Monterey and dove down the famous scenic 17-mile drive. I have driven down this road before and I love it every time. On one side you have the beautiful rocky beach and then the other side you have beautiful 20 million dollar homes. Lovely. Alex and I joked about setting up a fund for people to donate money to us so we could buy a house on 17-mile drive and whoever donates to us can vacation at our million dollar home. Sounds like a good idea, right? It costs $9.50 to drive along this road, but you can get your money back if you spend $25 at any of the shops or restaurants along the drive. 

Alex and I stopped at a café and I ordered some tea and tea-time food; scones, cucumber sandwiches, fruit and cookies. It was divine. The presentation of the tea and food was very elegant. We enjoyed our tea and crumpets as we watched people play golf.

Tea time

 We saw a crazy amount of Jellyfish at the Wharf in Monterey. It was kind of like being at the aquarium, except it was free:)

The highlight of this traveling adventure for me so far has been visiting the Carmel Mission. The original name of the mission was Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, but people today refer to it as the Carmel Mission. It was built in 1770 and was actually the first of the California missions to be built. Parts of the building were destroyed, but it was rebuilt in 1884. It still has the original bell tower and is still used as a church to this day. It is beautifully decorated and the cathedral art is amazing. I felt a true sense of love and worship to God when I walked through the Mission. It was a very different feeling from when I saw St. Peter’s Bascillica in Rome. When I went there I felt a sense of darkness and emptiness. It was very beautiful, but the beauty seemed superficial and vain. It was a lot more crowded at St. Peter’s and people were praying to statues; it just didn’t feel like a place of worship. It felt like a museum. The Carmel Mission was different even though parts of it were a museum. I really enjoyed my time there. The Carmel mission is also home to the first California Library; I thought that was neat.

The Library

The amazing waterfall

Big Sur was next on our destination after leaving Monterey. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Big Sur was because there is a waterfall that pours directly into the ocean that I wanted to see. Well, We went to where the Falls were, but the fog was so bad that we couldn’t see much. We stayed at the place for about an hour to see if the fog would lift, but I think it actually got worse. Too bad, so sad

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Famous Bridge at Big Sur

We went to Hearst Castle and I wasn’t too impressed. It was beautiful, but it almost seemed too overdone. It was built by William Randolph Hearst starting in 1919 and wasn’t finished until about 1928. It looks like it should be in Europe; I think that is what he was going for. In 1919 W.R. Hearst was making $400,000,000 a year in the newspaper business. That is the equivalent to $100,000,000,000 today. The indoor pool cost $400,000 alone to build, and he has a tapestry in the entry room to the main house dating back to Joan of Arc’s time that cost him $100,000.  He never told anyone how much money it cost him to build and decorate the castle, but I’m sure it was a ton of money. I’m guessing maybe 1 billion dollars. I couldn’t take very many pictures because my camera died.

Heast Castle Guest quarters

The Castle

Indoor pool

We are now in San Luis Obispo. We parked along the street last night and some stupid, I’m assuming, college student messed with our van while we were sleeping. He was with some friends and he knocked on the window really hard then started shaking the van for a brief second. Oh, college kids. He probably had fun, though. So, that’s good.