All good things must come to an end....

The vacation I looked forward to for so long is over.  Saturday we awoke early, went to Safeway to take care of business, returned to the cabin to clean, do laundry and pack.  All too soon it was time to head to the airport.  We finally arrived in Milwaukee at 9 am on Sunday.  We were tired and depressed having to return to the real world.  The airline lost my luggage, the shuttle took its time to pick us up, construction is all around the airport and we had a 90 minute drive home.  I am now home, chilled, waiting for my luggage to arrive.  Apparently it missed my connection in Los Angeles even with a 4 hour layover and ended up in Myrtle Beach.  Hoping it arrives this afternoon. 

As I reflect on my time in California I have one predominant thought - I WANT TO GO BACK NOW!!!!

Day 7 - Garrapata Moutains of DOOM!!!!!!

We decided on our last day to have an adventure.  We were going to hike the Garrapata Rocky Ridge Trail loop.   This is the description from a Monterey tourism website:  Keep an eye out for the Garrapata State Park sign, and then for a large pullout (probably with several cars parked in it) under a row of cypresses.  You’ll see a dirt road, and beyond it a tin barn.  This is the trail head for the Rock Ridge and Soberanes Canyon trails, a loop that’s seven miles long with an 1850 foot elevation gain.  Gird yourself for some steep ascents as you follow the Rocky Ridge Trail up the ridge, past a conveniently placed bench, and up to some panoramic views.  Once you’ve managed this uphill climb, it’s time for the steep descent into redwood-filled Soberanes Canyon.  Admire the views, but watch your footing.  Soberanes Trail leads through beautiful redwood forests (some of which are old-growth) on its way back to Highway One.

Sounds lovely except for the ascent but we were up for an adventure, something to remember from our last full day in California.  Well, we got that and more. 

At the beginning of the hike.

We start the trail and at first it is a series of switchbacks, easy elevation changes.  We see some wildlife, lots of rabbits, lizards and a road runner.  From the trail you just see the first mountain and foolishly we believe this is the top of the trail.  The trail becomes steeper and I am soon out of breath – damn allergies.  But I take a few deep breaths and continue on.  I keep telling myself “I can do it, I can do it”.  We reach the top of mountain one only to realize there is another mountain behind it and the trail continues up.  As I wheeze with each step, I tell myself at least we don’t have to climb back down this trail.  We meet several hikers, older than we are, and they tell us they do the trail all the time and they were moving slow and they had been hiking for about 3 hours.  Good news - we are also moving slowly but we know have an idea that the hike is going to last about 4 hours max.  We continue up the trail looking for the bench.   We find it.  The views are spectacular and we take a quick rest.

Rest Stop

As we head back to the trail we hear more hikers.  We can't see them but we hear them.  They finally come into view and we realized that we have to climb yet another mountain.  We wait for the hikers to pass and then we continue on.  I am overheating and at any opportunity welcome a cool breeze.

Catching a cool breeze off the ocean

Still we climb on and on and on and on.  Every time we come to the top of a mountain and think we are done climbing, the trail continues on over another mountain.  The mountains are deceiving - the ones in the front block your view of the ones behind it.  You only see them when you reach the top.  We climb so high we are now above the clouds.  Oh goody - sunshine.  Can I get any warmer?

Above The Clouds

We finally feel we have reach the highest we will go and now we just need to follow the trail around the ridge and we will soon be descending.

Can you see the little trail in the distance?

We keep on walking, giddy that we have reached the top.  There is one very steep section and it takes us awhile to get to the bottom.  Again I am happy we are going down and won't have to hike back up that section of the trail.  We keep hiking in the bright sunshine hoping soon the trail will turn down.  The trail is getting smaller and smaller and suddenly we come to a fence with a sign.  The sign says "This Area Closed by Monterey County Parks System"  WHAT!!! WHY  DIDN'T THEY POST THAT AT THE TRAIL HEAD!  We have two choices, carry on and follow the trail hoping it isn't impassable at some point or turn around.  We decide to turn around.  We have now been hiking 4 hours and are very low on water and nowhere near the trail head.  We should be done by now, not stranded high on a mountain top.  We start back and we are soon at that incredibly steep section of the trail that we had trouble getting down and now we have to climb up on it.  Amy starts up, I take about 4 steps and I get dizzy.  I quickly sit down.  I rest a few minutes, get back up, take a few steps and I get dizzy and now I am also nauseous.  Not a good sign - heat exhaustion here I come.  I take off my shirt, hoping to catch any breeze and wait for my body to cool down.  Amy is at the top of the mountain and is calling down to see if I am okay.  I let her know I am still alive and in a few minutes I try it again.  I now have my shirt over my head like Lawrence of Arabia trying to block the sun and catch any breeze that I can.  I finally make it to the top.  It is relatively level for a bit but then we have another climb.  Off comes the shirt, I drag my hot and tired body up the slope with a few breaks until we finally reach the top again.

I am not throwing up - just trying to catch my breath!

As we head across the ridges I am saved by the clouds that roll in from the ocean.  Amy puts her fleece jacket back on, I revel in the coolness.  We continue on, walking down the mountains we worked so hard to climb up.  As we walk down, it is steep and I am amazed that we climbed up this trail.  I was working so hard getting up I didn't appreciate the view or how close the trail is to the edge.  Down and down we go.  I am now cool and my shortness of breath is no longer bothering me.  We keep going down and down and down.  Soon are legs, knees and feet are killing us and still the trail goes down and down and down.  We keep looking for the tin shack that is at the start of the trail - when we see that the hike will almost be over.  No tin shack and we continue down and down and down.  When we do come to a relatively flat section of the trail, our legs hurt even more.  Still we hike down - will it ever end? 

We finally meet another hiker coming up the trail.  We ask him a few questions about the scat we saw (coyote) and about the trail and it ending abruptly.  We find out that we missed the turn down.  When we rested at the bench, we were very near the connection with the other trail that would have taken us down.  Unfortunately, we saw those two hikers coming down another trail and assumed the trail continued on.  When we met a few other hikers on the trail, we assumed we were going in right direction.  All that extra hiking and we were not even on the right trail.  Laughing at our stupidity, we continue down the trail.  Finally after 5.5 hours of hiking we see the shack.  It takes us another 30 minutes to finally reach the end.  WE MADE IT!!!

FINALLY!!!

At the trail head we encounter a hiker who graciously took the "after" photo for us.  If only pain could be captured in a photo.  We get to the highway and realize our car is parked at the very end of the road.  We shuffle to the car and head to the cabin.  I really needed a diet coke. Back at the cabin we are in no mood to eat but before we take a vicodin we need to eat something. I have a few pieces of See's candy and ice cream. Amy has smores. Soon the vicodin kicks in and I am in bed by 7 pm. Amy stays up reading. I sleep well except for the sunburn. I forgot to mention that I have quite the sunburn - my arms and neck are bright red. My back a lovely pink. We wanted an adventure, we got an adventure.



Addendum:  I forgot to mention that we passed a rattlesnake on the trail.  Yikes!  All the pictures but one in this blog posting were taken by Amy - my camera decided not to auto-focus and we quickly discovered the mountains are home to a lot of bees!  I learned quickly not to take a break near any yellow flowers. 

Day 6 - Garrapata and the Elusive Sea Otter

Today we woke a little later and were moving a little slower after our hiking marathon yesterday.  We decided to explore the coves around Garrapata.  Two years ago when we visited this park and explored the coves, we had our first kelp ball fight and found our first wild sea otter.  It was overcast but the ocean views are spectacular.  We found our cove and had our kelp ball fight.  I found a large mushy one and when Amy caught it, kelp juice dripped onto her head.  Good times!  We decided to have a kelp tug of war.  Sounded fun but is was a bit sticky and icky.

We finished playing in the cove and then had to find a way back up to the trail.  It took a bit of crawling but I made it.  Amy is as sure footed as a mountain goat and just bounded up the rocks.  We continued hiking, following the coast.  As we neared the end of the trail we finally found them - the elusive sea otter.  Not just one but a family - mommy, daddy and a large baby.  I took hundreds of photos and I hope some of them turn out.  Between the telephone lens, my shaking arms and the ocean waves, more than a few will be blurry.  I am posting some - you may not be able to tell what they are but when I get home I will crop and blow up the little brown dots and hopefully we all will be able to see the adorable sea otters.

Aren't they so cute?

How adorable!

While taking hundreds of photos of the adorable sea otter family, we thought we found another sea otter but it was a sea lion swimming through the surf.  We followed him and he turned into our secret cove. 

Sea Lion in the Surf

After all this excitement we hiked back to the car and then drove into Monterey to pick up some candy at the See's store in the Del Monte Mall.  We also visited Whole Foods were you can buy individual brown organic eggs for fifty cents.  We picked up a few for breakfast and then head to our home away from - Safeway.  Amy is busy taking online courses for work.  I am updating my blog and facebook page.  As for tomorrow, we can do something incredibly stupid like pick a very strenuous hike or we can take it easy.  I vote for the incredibly stupid plan.  Home now for grilled cheese, beer and buttered noodles.

Day 5 - Big Sur, Julia Pfeiffer & Andrew Molera

Amy is trying to kill me. Really she is. She looks so sweet and innocent but don’t let that fool you. The day started off as it usually does with a hearty breakfast and we hit the road heading south to Big Sur. Our first stop was at Big Sur Park where we hiked UP A MOUNTAIN! The view was beautiful once we reached the top. Then we had to hike down the mountain to find a waterfall. The only issue with hiking down a trail is that you will have to hike back up it. A few hours later we are back in the car heading south again. On our way to Julia Pfeiffer State Park we stopped near a lookout where several cars were parked. It turned out to be some sort of trail that went to the ocean. It was breathtaking. One trail took you through a tunnel to a hidden cove. The other trail took you to a beach where there was quite the wave action.
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Don't know how I didn't get wet taking this picture

Amy in the surf

The hike down was easy enough, the hike back to the car was so much fun. I finally make it and we are off again this time to Julia Pfeiffer State Park. This is an easy park, easy trails, gorgeous waterfall and views of the ocean. We hiked and had lunch. This time instead of a seagull begging food this time we had blue jays surrounding us. They were quite bold, jumping on our table to take food.

Worth the drive & hike

Lunch break over we head back north and our next stop – Andrew Molera State Park. The first hike is fine, it takes us to the beach where we watch the surfers and take a hundred pictures of the waves hoping one will turn out.

Surfers at Andrew Molera

The next hike is where the adventure begins. Should we take the easy trail back to the car or try the bluff trail. We pick the bluff trail. Not bad once you climb up to the trail. It follows the bluff and has wonderful views of the ocean and beach. Where I made my mistake is when we came to a trail with a significant climb and Amy says“should we take it?” I say “why not”. OMG – the trail climbed and climbed and the grade was significant. Finally it ended and at the end it was a crappy view. We turned around and then had to walk down the trail. A few slips but no falls and we finally make it back to an easier trail which takes another hour to get us to the parking lot.

Back in the car we head home into the mist. It was cloudy when we started out this morning, sun came out at Big Sur and stayed out all day until we left Molera heading back to the cabin. About two miles south of the cabin the highway is down to one lane where part of the road fell into the ocean. I’m sure that was a fluke and the rest of the highway is fine :/ As we approach our road we find most of it blocked by emergency personnel – a huge tree or trees have fallen on the highway. It was right in front of the llamas – I hope they are alright.

Finally back at the cabin, I look through my pictures and it is just as I thought – the pictures of the high surf and waves did not turn out. The ocean was silver, the waves were blue, the wind blew back the top of the waves to form a lovely mist and of course none of this appears in my pictures. I really have to read the manual when I get a chance. Tomorrow Amy says we can hike anywhere that I want to. How positively Machavellian of her. She knows I am incredibly stubborn and will ignore all my aching joints and pick some ridiculously difficult hike. Well, if I do collapse and die on a trail, it is a beautiful place to die.

Day 4 - Point Lobos State Reserve

The plan today is to visit Point Lobos State Reserve.  After another hearty breakfast prepared by Amy, we set out.  As soon as we park the car, we see our first sea otter.  We scramble out of the car, dropping everything to get a picture of the elusive sea otter.  I was able to get a few pictures before it swam away.  They are so darn cute. 

Sea Otter

 We then started to hike toward Sea Lion Cove.  You can hear the sea lions before you see them.  

Sleeping Sea Lion

The day was cloudy with a brisk wind off the ocean and fog. 

Mist over the meadow

We found seals, sea lions and a bird which I have named the Amy bird. 

Amy Bird

It flew over us several times at low altitude and I think it was attracted to Amy’s new red fleece jacket.  We continued to hike through cyprus trees and around each corner was another wonderful view.

Sea Lions

Seal 1

Seal 2

Seal 3

 We had packed a lunch and after 4 hours of hiking we stopped for lunch.   At the rest area we made a new friend whom I called Jonathon.   He (or she) was very friendly and shared our lunch of guava jelly and almond butter sandwiches, chips and cookies.  We have learned from out last trip that sea gulls do not like grapes.  What’s up with that?   

Jonathon Seagull sharing our lunch

After lunch we hiked some more and finally we headed back to the car.  Guess who was waiting for us?   Yes it was Jonathon.  I teased Amy that we had a sea gull stalking us all day and I have pictures to prove it.  Jonathon has a red dot on his beak, several of the pictures I have of sea gulls we are able to see the beak and it has the same red dot.  Unless all sea gulls have the same red dot, if not, we were stalked all day by the same sea gull.  Freaky!  We hobbled back to the cabin for a chai break and to get our hiking boots off.  Soon it will be off to Safeway to update our blogs.  Dinner tonight is noodles with butternut squash spaghetti sauce – yummy!

Day 3 - Monterey & Garrapata

Sea Lion

Amy and her new friend - just before he attacks

The day started quite early – about 1 am.  I was sleeping so soundly.  It is so quiet at the cabin.  The only sound is the stream that flows past the cabin.  It is completely dark except for a little moonlight that is able to filter through the trees.  I awoke to a noise and I just thought it was Amy.  However, as I was trying to fall back asleep I realized the sound was a scratching noise and it was coming from outside my window so it is not Amy unless she locked herself out but I think she would knock and say “Lori” instead of scratching the side of the cabin.  I could hear some animal walking behind the cabin, stopping occasionally to scratch at my window.  I went to Amy’s room to let her know we were being stalked by some kind of wild animal and I scared her “out the crap”.  We couldn’t see anything so we went back to bed.  Whatever it was woke me up again in an hour or so but I just rolled over and fell back asleep.  Apparently it has heard of our beer and smore parties and wants to get in. 

After a hearty breakfast prepare by Amy, we left for Monterey.  We quickly found the pier and the sea lions.  We walked over to area that has hundreds of sea lions.  Since the last time we were in Monterey, they have installed a fence between us and the sea lions.  We thought it was to protect the sea lions until Amy climbed over the fence to get a closer look.  When she did that a large bull took exception to her being so close and turned and started to bark at her.  We now know the fence is to protect the people.  We spent a few hours walking the pier, taking lots of photos and talking to the sea lions.  They are very possessive of their rocks and become quite vocal if another sea lion attempts to join them on that rock.  After taking about 900 pictures, we walked back to the pier and purchased a few fleece jackets.  They are very reasonably priced and you need them at night or when you are near the ocean and the wind is blowing.  After all this excitement, we went to a restaurant we found last time and had the exact same crepe – cheese, tomato and avocado – that we had last time.  Stomachs full, we drove to Garrapata State Park for some hiking.  It was spectacular.   We climbed up and down, round and round until we made it down as close to the ocean as we could.  There were a few tidal pools with crabs and starfish.  The wind was refreshing.  We searched in vain but could not find a sea otter.  Tomorrow the plan is to go to Point Lobos State Park and that is where we found sea otters last time.  We are currently in our home away from home (Safeway) looking at pictures, updating our blogs, drinking chai and trying to remember what was on our list to pick up.  We will remember when we get back to the cabin. Tonight’s menu includes mac & cheese, beer and smores for dessert.  It will also include a few Advil for the muscle aches. 

Seal (not sure what kind)

We found Patrick - still looking for Spongebob

Garrapata

The dreaded jellyfish

Day 2

The day starts with some bird cawing outside my window at 4:15 am.  It is still dark out, what is it squawking about?  I grab a cookie from the kitchen and go back to bed.  Fast forward 7 hours when I wake up again and it is after 11 am.  Amy has been up for hours.  She has showered, taken a walk to the ocean, read a few chapters in her book and her favorite pastime while in California – gathered sticks for the fireplace.  She had quite the collection on the deck.  I quickly get dressed because we need to get to town and find a wireless connection of the Internet because Amy received an offer on her house on Saturday.  While we were traveling to California, Amy received a message that she had an offer.  Perfect timing.  We went to our favorite spot, Safeway, and while Amy conducted her business over cell phone and free wi-fi, I stood in line at the Starbucks counter.  Very popular spot on a Sunday morning.  We then frantically researched trying to find somewhere in Carmel open on a Sunday that had a printer available for us so Amy could print out and sign her offer.  We found all we needed at the local UPS conveniently located in the same shopping center as Safeway.  We then spent a lovely hour or two, printing, emailing, signing, scanning and emailing documents.  We beat the deadline and hopefully all goes well and soon Amy will only own one house instead of two. 

After business was taken care of, we returned to Safeway to complete our shopping.  On our return to the cabin, we stopped to get an “ocean fix” at Garrapata.  The ocean was spectacular as always.  In the far off distance we could hear sea lions barking.  A few dozen pictures later we hit the road back to the cabin.  Dinner was grilled cheese and baked potato soup.  Yummy.  We walked to the ocean after dinner, took a few pictures of the cows and returned to the cabin for our nightly fire and smores.   I decided to check out the stars and while on the deck the bat we saw yesterday and named Betty flew very close to my head.  I am sure she was saving me from a big bug but she scared the crap out of me.  She flew so close I swear I felt her wings on my hair.  We are now relaxing next to the fire, reading and listening to my iPod with Brother Iz serenading us.  Soon is it off to bed.  Tomorrow we plan to visit Monterey to pick up fleece jackets, have a crepe, buy some See’s chocolate and stalk the sea lions around the pier.  I will have to drag Amy away – she does love sea lions.  I should tell her that sea lions attack and kill humans.  Just kidding!

Day 1 - Journey to Carmel

I patiently waited by the window, like a cocker spaniel, for Amy to pick me up.  Every time I heard a noise I thought it was her and if I had a tail I would have wagged it.  Finally she arrived.  Poor girl hadn’t gone to the bathroom all day trying to get as much work done as possible before she left.  Bathroom break over, car packed up and we are on the Road Again.  That song stayed in my head until we got to Milwaukee.  We planned on making a quick stop to pick up Pad Thai at our favorite restaurant before we checked in to the La Qinta for the night.  Our trusty GPS (Cynthia) took us directly to the restaurant which we would have never found in the dark on our own.  As we were getting close to the restaurant, we both had the brilliant idea that we should have called ahead and placed a pickup order.  Phone number for the restaurant is now in our contacts on our cell phones.  We arrived at the restaurant, placed our order, they tell us 20 minutes, we sit down, Amy takes off her work shoes (she didn’t even take time to change into vacation clothes) and suddenly they give us our order.  Apparently 20 minutes in Thai translates to 3 minutes in America.   With the hot Pad Thai burning my thighs (say that fast 5 times) we are back on the road and Cynthia (GPS) is guiding us to our hotel.  Again, we would have never found our hotel in the dark with all the construction without our trusty GPS.  We check in and then enjoy the best Pad Thai in the world.  Good times!!

Saturday morning starts very early at 4:45 am.  We both have left over Pad Thai for breakfast J  Shuttle soon arrives and we are off to the airport.  We quickly checked in and made it through security.  Our flight time had changed from 7:20 am to 7:45 am – bit concerning because we have a very short layover in Memphis. We arrive in Memphis, find the gate information for our flight to LA, head to the gate and as we get there they are beginning to board.  No time for a bathroom break or to pick up a soda for the flight.  We luck out on the flight, Amy is alone in a row of three seats so I scoot over and we have plenty of room during the flight.  Without my carryon under the seat in front of me I am able to stretch out my legs.  Yippee!!!  I had brought my left over Pad Thai with me.  It hadn’t been refrigerated overnight but I just couldn’t leave my leftovers behind.  I had them for lunch on the plane and they were wonderful even if I get food poisoning.   We land in LA and have a long layover (3 ½ hours).  As we are searching for somewhere to eat lunch we run into a former co-worker Kay Schuster.  She and her family are on their way to Kona.  Amy and I decide that we have to buy a lottery ticket – the stars seem to be aligned in our favor on this trip.  We have to take a shuttle to our gate and they actually take us on the tarmac and we are passing planes and then we have to stop at a stop sign to let a large United jet taxi to the runway.  We arrive at our gate, get our seat assignments and wait for the little puddle jumper plane that will take us to Monterey.  The minutes drag on but fortunately we have Crabby Patties to eat and plenty of reading material.  Finally they announce our flight.  We have bulkhead seats so we can’t keep our carry-ons with us, we have to stow them several seats behind us.  Fortunately the flight is only 42 minutes.  We land in Monterey and our luck continues.  My luggage made it – I was concerned it wouldn’t given the short time between flights in Memphis.  Because we are a little early our rental car isn’t ready so they upgrade us to a lovely red SUV.  We are quickly on the road and heading to Carmel with the help of our GPS.  We head straight to Safeway to pick up necessities for the first night – beer, cookies, wood and smore fixins.  Back on the road we quickly arrive at the most fabulous cabin in the world.  It is exactly as we remember it.  We unpack and start a fire.  Now that we have kindling, it works much better than last trip.  Fire blazing, we make smores and down a few beers.  Wonderfully content, we head off for our beds. Day 1 of our trip comes to an end.

FINALLY!

The day has finally arrived. We are off to Milwaukee to spend the night before we fly to California early Saturday morning. This vacation has been the only thing to keep me sane over the last few weeks. I am sure Amy will concur. We will be able to pick up our favorite pad thai at the Singha Thai restaurant in Milwaukee on the way to our hotel. Can it get any better - noodles and a week in California? Think not! We will try to blog when we get a chance but hiking, stalking marine wildlife, eating mac & cheese and building fires can be very time consuming. I forgot to mention sleeping in, reading fiction, and maybe a nap or two. Later Gators!