The end is nigh...
So to Sonoma, 1.5 hours from San Franscisco, 2 days fast-tracked wino tour. Of course, slightly hindered by the need to drive everywhere. Many an hour spent sobering up in the pub - me fashioned with a glass of water and bag of crisps.
We found the most amazing restaurant completely by accident in Santa Rosa, called G&Gs Earth and Surf. A brand spankingly new place with an amazing menu (chickpea chips no less) and a policy to source food from no further than 150miles away. The same went for alcohol. Not only all this, but it catered for my exact diet - vegetables and fish. This place was so good that we insisted on a three course lunch and went two days in a row...so much for that budget.
For wine tastings we found ourselves in Heraldsville, a sleepy, quaint little town with all manner of tasting options. Most fun was the Toad Hollow winery from which we purchased a bottle of rose and a bottle of bubbly...did someone say budget?
Probably a good thing we only had 48 hours here, but in reality it would have been grand to go the whole hog with a wine tasting tour. It's certainly on my to do list.
Next stop: Santa Cruz. Three hours of driving sees us in Santa Cruz, just before sunset. We are here following a recommendation from the man who sells jewellery opposite ferry terminal 4 in SF. Less than 24 hours to do the Board Walk. Our hotel is a motel and I'm excited. It's pink and floral, clean and spacious, but a 25 minute walk from the beach. Bit of a shame with limited time, still we hit the off-licence opposite for some choice picks for local beer and head on down to the beach in time for sunset.
The Board Walk is primary-coloured, tinny musical, fried food wonderment. According to budget we stick with things like the "make your own Santa Cruz Board Walk penny" machine and "Collect these Vintage Car Postcards for a dime" machine. The one thing we hadn't thought of is that there is no alcohol on the beach, so the 6 bottles of carefully chosen local beer we'd lugged all the way down, were lugged all the way back up again.
The hours worth of walking was rewarded with a midnight tryst at the local ice cream parlour, and boy was this place awesome. Marianne's late night ice cream parlour - it had to be done.
Next stop: Highway 1 to LA.
The longest drive of the West Coast excursion, 9+ hours and I think I stopped counting at 9 anyway. This drive was no without stops however, and on such a beautiful day as it was these stops were well worth the additional hours it took to arrive in LA. First pit stop was Monterey. This place felt proper seaside, with a proper sea breeze to help that feeling along. We stopped for brunch in this restaurant called First Awakenings which makes me hungry now at just the thought of it. After a quick wonder along the promenade we hit the road again, back to Highway 1.
The pit stops along the way consisted of serves into small roadside cubby holes, where we'd briefly leave the car to stand on the precipice of the road, look down to the turquoise blue Pacific Ocean and breathe in the vista that surrounded us. Quite simply put, this drive was breath-taking. We later read that highway 1 is one of the most dangerous roads in California, at the time I didn't consider it but there were a couple of white-knuckle moments: the lanky bridges spanning cliffs, the hairpin corners and the bottomless drop into the ocean made for some interesting driving.
Beat poets, red woods, humming birds, waterfalls, beaches full of seals, crashing waves, campsites, forest trails and wine...I would love to do it again, but this time with a whole month to spare.
So sunset passed behind us, twilight edged in, my eyes began to cross over and coffee was required. Following a small hiccup with getting lost in LA, we arrived at our hostel at midnight. Touted to be the best room in the house, we dragged our weary bodies upstairs to our private room and crashed out in preparation for a hectic last two days.
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