Duration: 16 Days 15 Nights (Feb 24~Mar 11, 2015)
Day 13: A Day Trip to Monterey & Carmel by the
Sea
My colleagues had decided to go for Gilroy Premium Outlet
today so I’d decided to book a day tour instead since I’d been to Gilroy before
and Livermore had emptied my bank account last week (link). One inconvenience
staying in San Jose was the lack of Day Tour starting from this location. In
fact, I had to rent a car (link)
in order to get to the meeting point at Fisherman's Wharf at San Francisco
(around an hour ride). I booked the day tour for Monterey & Carmel through
Gray Line of San Francisco and apparently I got the sweet deal at USD65 –
original price was listed at USD90 on the site (link).
Thus on the wee hours of 6am (foregoing Hotel Breakfast),
I took the Fairfield free hotel shuttle to San Jose Airport to pick up my car
rental from Hertz. I was asking for a compact car since I had no idea how to
drive a big car and ended up with a Toyota Corolla instead. After losing my
ways a few times (even though I have the GPS in the car), I finally found my
way to 101-North and headed to San Francisco!
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| My Ride for a Day! |
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| Sammy the Loyal Companion! |
The feeling of looking at the foggy hillside San
Francisco view from the highway during sunrise was definitely indescribable! No
photos on that though as I needed to keep my hand on the steering! Female
Driver here!!! =P I was supposed to arrive at the meeting point – Super
Sightseeing office (2627 Taylor Street) by 8.30am but I managed to get there by
7.30am.
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| Okay, i did take some picture during traffic light of the Bridge - The Oakland Bay Bridge i believe! |
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| Another Picture during Traffic Light |
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| Safely Arrived at Car Park! |
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| Let's Pay at the Machine - If a Machine Dummy like me can manage it, you can!!! |
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| The Receipt to be displayed on Dashboard |
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| While we are at it, This is the Corolla Dashboard with GPS & Reverse Camera |
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| Resting for a Day in Car Park! |
There was a car park right opposite the office
(Longshoreman Public Parking – 400 Northpoint Street) and one day parking cost
USD25. Basically it’s paid at a machine (by cash or credit card) and the
receipt should be displayed at the car dashboard. Since it was still early, I
walked to the Fisherman's Wharf seaside area for some fresh air and pictures.
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| The Gray Line Super Sightseeing Office is right Opposite |
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| Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf! Such Memory on the Sales Conference 2012... (link) |
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| What a timing to reminisce this place... *sigh* |
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| Having Breakfast in front of Ross |
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| A Bird Migration? |
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| San Francisco Sightseeing Bus? |
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| At the Wharf - now this just make me remember the team building during sales conference... |
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| Taking some shots near the Pier 39 |
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| Another Shot near Pier 39 with Alcatraz at the back, my visit on Alcatraz can be read here (link) |
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| A Zoom into Alcatraz |
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| Random Street at the Wharf |
Our bus departed the meeting point at around 9am and off
we went for a long day adventure. We traveled through the scenic Pacific Coast
Highway 1 to admire the coastline and the Pacific Ocean. It was still quite
foggy thus coastline further away was not visible. Our driver cum tour guide
made a brief stop for photos along the way and it was freezing!
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| Sammy is ready and has his own seat! |
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| The Coit Tower from afar |
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| The "Pyramid" Tower from Financial District |
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| San Francisco from afar |
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| Continuing on Highway 1 |
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| The Pacific Ocean |
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| I think there is a town over there? |
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| A Lone Tower? |
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| Greenery & Yellow Flowers |
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| A Brief Stop for Fresh (Freezing) Air and to be closed to the Sea |
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| Sammy was there! |
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| In a Freezing Weather... |
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| There is our Bus! Did i mention that the land is actually sand dunes? |
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| Someone climbing down to take pic! LOL!!! |
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| This is the Path! |
We then had another 20mins stop at some sort of ‘pit
stop’ countryside thus I took the chance to snap some photos there. The trip
continued on the bus for another hour before we reached the Cannery Row at
Monterey.
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| A Lighthouse |
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| The Sun has started to shine! |
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| Nice Color Combination of Yellow, Green & Blue? |
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| Our PitStop |
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| A Church there |
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| Road to Residential area surrounded by mountain |
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| Another Wooden House |
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| Finally it's time to leave... |
Cannery Row is the
waterfront section of Monterey which was previously known as Ocean View Avenue
in honor of John Steinbeck & his novel that described a colorful past set
amid the cannery culture of the time (link).
The bus dropped us in front of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and we were given 2
hours to explore the place. Since we only had 2 hours, I’d decided to skip the
aquarium and went to explore the area instead.
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| Some Snacks in the Bus |
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| Continue on! |
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| Sky is Clearing! |
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| We are at Monterey! |
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| Driving along the Coastline |
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| Yachts! |
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| Our Stop - Monterey Bay Aquarium |
I walked around the area and took pictures of the
landmarks in Cannery Row before getting clam chowder & sourdough bun as
lunch. After that I simply explored the souvenir shops along the row and took
more pictures. I didn’t even realize that over another side of the Bay Aquarium
– there was this Monterey Bay Coastal Recreational Trail even though it was
written on the map. Oops!
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| 1st Picture walking towards the Row |
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| They have lots of 'Skybridge' across the Street! |
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| Here is another one! |
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| One of the Landmarks of Monterey! |
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| Here is the Cannery Row Map! |
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| A View behind the Wire... |
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| A Closed Gallery |
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| Beautiful Flowers! |
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| A View from the Beach to 700 Cannery Row |
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| Lots of Yachts around |
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| Yet another 'Skybridge" with Monterey Sign |
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| Let's take a Selfie! |
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| More Flowers! |
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| This is actually a Shopping Mall |
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| Look at How Clear the Ocean is! |
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| Camwhoring! |
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| Clam Chowder & Sourdough Bun! I love Sourdough! |
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| Another View of the Seaside |
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| Skybridge between two Cannery Row Company |
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| The Famous Steinbeck |
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| More Memorial at Steinbeck Plaza |
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| Cute lil Doggie! |
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| Yachting! Not me though.. *cry* |
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| Clear Water |
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| Selfie! |
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| View of the Back |
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| Built over the Sea |
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| Ed Rickett's Backyard |
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| Cannery Worker Shack |
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| This is considered as one of the bigger room |
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| Walking Around without Direction |
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| Inside Monterey Canning Co. |
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| View from the Monterey Canning Co "Skybridge" |
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| View of another Direction |
I only realized my mistake when I got up and bus after
the 2 hours exploration and the bus continued on to the other side. *facepalm*.
The trail was breathtaking! There were people biking and jogging along the
trail but unfortunately I could only take the pictures from the bus! *double
facepalm*
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| Pacific Grove! How could i miss this?! *facepalm* |
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| They even have the 4-wheel cycle! I want!!! |
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| The Recreation Trail |
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| All along the Coast |
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| Beautiful huh? |
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| A Big Mansion! |
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| It's an Endless Trail! |
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| Still Going! |
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| Imaging Spending a day Trekking here... |
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| Bead Foam or Rock? |
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| The Trail is just never-ending |
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| Green & Sands |
We did have another photo stop near Point Joe at Pebble Beach area– some
people were having picnic there and seagulls were bugging them for food. =P One
thing I realized from this 17-Mile Drive was Coastal Drive in Americas was
totally different from Coastal drive in Europe such as Amalfi Drive (link).
Most scenery along the American Coastal actually looked rather bleak if compared to the colorful jewels in each different turns in Europe.
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| At Point Joe |
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| Sammy was there! |
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| Breathing in the Pacific Ocean |
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| Oh Dear!!! Tsunami Hazard Zone? |
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| Picnic Area with Houses at the back |
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| Seagull - I'm the King of Wildlife!!! |
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| There are just flat land at another side |
Another photo stop was a the Lone Cypress - Standing on a granite hillside off
California's scenic 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach, the Lone Cypress is a
western icon, and has been called one of the most photographed trees in North
America(Wikipedia).
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| The Ghost Trees with White Trunk |
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| The Lone Cypress |
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| Sammy was there! |
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| More Ghost Trees - the white trunk of Cypress in Monterey |
We then made another stop at some golf club attached with
some high-end shops which I had no idea why we even bothered. Since we were
here, I just took some pictures before jumping on the bus again.
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| I think this is the Pebble Beach Golf Club? |
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| Golfing, anyone? |
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| Sammy enjoying the view... |
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| Look at the Golf Cart! |
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| Getting Late there... |
We finally arrived at Carmel by the Sea at around 5pm and
stopped at Carmel Plaza for a 2 hours visit in the charming little city. We
were told this place is famous for artist & celebrity’s mansion & Clint
Eastwood’s Restaurant (he was the mayor of Carmel!). However, we were not
provided with any maps by the guide and apparently tourist map for Carmel was
actually difficult to find in Google!!! The guide also warned us not to walk to
the shore as it was too far away and we might not make it back in time.
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| Which Way should i go? |
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| Old Style Building |
Since I had no idea what to explore, I simply walked
around and asked around on how to get to the Clint Eastwood’s Restaurant. Another tourist kindly led me to the place and
told me it was no longer owned by Clint Eastwood now. After that, I stumbled on
the tourist information completely by accident just beside they close down (it
was just beside the restaurant!) and managed to get myself a ‘heritage trail’
map of Carmel by the Sea! *happy*
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| The Map from Tourist Information - Purple line is the Historic Walking Trail |
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| We really need to refer to this legend... |
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| The Clint Eastwood's Restaurant |
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| See the Label? - Eastwood Building |
I followed the trail and took pictures of the charming
little city. One thing to note was it was a very quiet & empty place –
hardly anyone was there at all. I was not sure whether it was due to the timing
(a Sunday evening) or it was a norm there.
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| An Art Gallery |
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| Harrison Memorial Library |
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| Beautiful Couple near First Murphy Park |
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| Pine Inn |
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| I think this is the City Hall? |
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| L'Auberge - 1st Apartment House in Carmel |
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| Church of the Wayfarer |
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| Morgan Court? |
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| More Art Gallaries |
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| Piccadilly Park |
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| More Buildings |
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| The Tuck Box |
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| Charming House |
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| Devendorf Park |
We finally completed our day tour and left Carmel after
7pm to start our long journey back to San Francisco. The driver was dropping of
guests in many different hotels and got lost at one thus the time was really
late when I finally reached my car park (around 10pm). In fact, if I did not
ask him to drop me off 1st when we reached Fisherman's Wharf, I
couldn’t imagine what time I would be there.
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| Carmel Plaza - all the Shops were closed! |
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| At Carmel Plaza |
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| Leaving Carmel by the Sea |
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| It's Flat Land all over... |
It took me another hour ride from San Francisco to San
Jose – the nightview at San Francisco was nice but I did not have the mood to
really tally too long since it was simply too late. I returned the car back to
San Jose Airport, settled with Hertz on some over-charging issue and grabbed
myself a free airport flyer bus to get to Airport/Metro Light Rail station
which was right in front of Fairfield. What a long long Day!
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