The Big Sur

Forget Santa Cruz and the "bird" incident, say hello to Monterey Bay, 17-mile drive and the Big Sur. We first visited the acclaimed Monterey Bay Acquarium. This is a great place that supports the preservation of an enormous stretch of marine life across the Monterey Bay Area. This area is reason enough alone to visit the Central Cali Coast. But... we didn't take any picture while we there. We didn't fell like it, especially after the bad experiences with tigers in Vegas. Still, if you want to get an impression, visit the Aquarium's website on and check out the great webcams they have of for instance the sea otters.

From Monterey Bay we did the 17-mile drive along the towns, beaches and nature of Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and Carmel. The latter two are beautiflly located a famed retreat for the rich (and the to a lesser extent the famous). Golf courses and cozy but useless shops are abundant. Still, we got a sort of "cult" feel in these "resorts" (yes the grounds are privately owned by a corporation that protects its "citizens" with verve). Mainly stuffy old people but an experience nevertheless. As with everything in California, it was highly overrated and overpriced. Just remember that in California, there is no real glamour. There's only real superstar here: Mother Nature.

Anyways, we decided to make the long and winding drive along the stunning Highway 1 to Santa Barbara. Man, Sois has turned so many tight corners already during our trip but this was again challenging. But after both feeling dizzy and lightheaded, we still got constant rewards from the scenery with the culmination of Piedras Blancas where there were large colonies of elephant seals. We went on a bluff (verhoging) to see them dabble around and watch them play, fight, swim, and sleep (much like Sois in the famous "walrus"-houding"). So Check those pictures out.

Our final stop before Santa Barbara would be the Hearst Castle where an eccentric millionair spent more than 3 decades building his ultimate palace in the hills along the sea. Guess what, this was also a "spoof" and for those of you still interested in some modern kitsch, just watch the National Geographic documentary (it's probably out there somewhere on the Web).

Great, so now we're in Santa Barbara, relaxing from all the driving and as you might have noticed updating the blog. Stay tuned for more soon... (PS. The Big Sur is not a place, but an area that stretches from the end of Monterey Bay along Highway 1 to the collegetown of San Luis Obispo).