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The next morning we headed for one last chat to the seals at the end of the pier, and after another few hillclimbs we picked up our rental car. I decided that a bit of a drive through San Francisco was needed, and I also managed Lombard Street in the monster car without scraping anything.
We drove across the Golden Gate bridge, parked the other side, and walked halfway back across. The tops of the bridge uprights were shrouded in fog, as is often the case. And so we drove to an old fortress viewpoint high above the bridge thinking that we’d perhaps be able to look down on a blanket of fog with the spires sticking out. Instead, we just found ourselves looking down at a rather ghostly looking fog-shrouded bridge. Impressive all the same. We drove back across the bridge, and headed off down ‘route 1′, a very bendy and breathtaking drive.National Geographic’s Route 1 narrative sums it up nicely.
“Route 1, opened in 1937, climbs as high as 1,000 feet (305 meters) above the sea. From Soberanes Point watch for sea otters, which are protected along the entire coast.
After driving through Carmel Highlands, where impressive houses perch on granite cliffs above the sea, you reach the start of Big Sur, which extends 90 miles south to San Simeon. On this fabled coastline, redwood groves reach skyward, the Santa Lucia Range plunges into the sea, and waves are beaten to froth on ragged rocks. It’s a place of elemental power that can make human affairs seem inconsequential.”
As we pulled into Santa Cruz, Tracy got rather excited. This was where she worked in 1997 for the summer, and never in a million years did she think she’d be back. It really is an “all-American” resort. It’s Blackpool for the yanks. We arrived early evening, and after taking a few sunset pictures, we headed downtown for a rather excellent pizza and pitcher of Bud at the Bar and Grille. The main street through town (and that’s all it is) has a “nice” feeling to it. The populous seems to be a cross between ex-hippy, and worthy youngsters protesting outside the Gap store. That and street artists. Altogether a pleasant experience. Slightly the worse for wear, we then headed toward the Asti bar, Tracy’s old drinking haunt, and so to bed.
A 360 tour of Santa Cruz town area is available from santacruz360.com.

Tags: america, travelogue, usa

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