A very scenic drive: Morro Bay to San Francisco

Our very pleasant and clean Morro Bay hotel, the “Holland Inn”, had the token continental breakfast, but no room to sit for eating it, so we took our trays back to one of our rooms for a bit more comfort. Soon after we were on our way north. We wanted to take the curving coast highway all the way to San Francisco, with a short interruption around Monterey. There was a bit of a discussion if we should take the famous Seventeen Mile Drive, but since there was also a call for arriving in San Francisco in daylight we agreed that we'd likely encounter enough scenic beauty by just taking the regular highway.

For me, this day's drive was another special gift. The road, close to the ocean at first, then climbing up higher and higher affording spectacular views of the coastline far below, the vegetation almost mediterranean with the intense purple and blue of lavender and lupins covering hillsides, the high cedars around Big Surf – I could have stayed right there and not leave for a long time.

It helped, of course, that the sky was as blue as the flowers, the sun glittering on the water.

We stopped once at an elephant seal viewing spot. Dozens of these huge animals were enjoying the warm sun and sand, huge bulls raising themselves up from time to time, their trunk-like noses stretched for an even fiercer display of their masculinity, roaring their warning at a careless rival coming too close to one of the females in their harem while enjoying their favours themselves, the (by now?) undisputed top guns.

I walked a bit further to the other end of the viewing area where younger elephant seals played along the rocky shore. Some of them were trying to join the main group, which looked like a difficult and – to me – painful undertaking. The unyielding cliff on one side, pounded by the surf from the other, time after time washed over by waves or pressed against the big rocks, their progress was very slow. In the end, however, they made it, likely not bruised and hurting from the incessant pounding they had received. How fat these animals are, their massive bodies quivering with every movement! Without this layer of insulation they would not be able to live in these cold waters, and maybe it is this same layer of fat that makes them seemingly oblivious to the hardness of the rocks.

A few of us had decided early on that one very important item in the full menu of every day's program would have to be a good walk to offset the effects of sitting in a car for several hours. This time, of course, we were aiming for another beach walk, the last opportunity to do so on this trip. We found a nice spot to eat our lunch, a picnic bench right on the beach, the only drawback the exposure to the wind that made cheese and avocado a bit gritty from the sand.

Again the firm, moist sand stretched invitingly far into the distance, and we happily took advantage of it. This time my feet didn't get as cold by far as the night before: the sand was still warm from the earlier sun, even though the sky was now mostly covered in clouds.

After this nice, long rest our legs didn't complain too much when they were folded back into more cramped conditions again: our destination, downtown San Francisco, was only a couple of hours away at the most, according to 'Susie'. She obviously had not taken into account the much heavier traffic, basing her calculations on the stretch of road we just had driven. Still, we reached the San Remo hotel, only a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf, without too much trouble. Here, the traffic was much lighter than I had expected, the whole area feeling like a good place to come for a holiday.