California road trip to Monterey via Santa Cruz; preview of 3 theme parks; the road less travelled to Santa Cruz; subdued fun at The Boardwalk, Santa Cruz; On the Carousel… or not; and then we have an ice cream; lunch at Carmel-by-the-Sea; whisky and wines of the best; a visceral flinch; Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey; smelly old sea lions; Osteria Al Mare; scenes from Cannery Row and a couple of Steinbeck quotes

For my previous post about how we got to San José to embark on this California road trip (spoiler alert: by train), plus some almost inconceivably lovely photos of Roy, click here.

To Monterey via Santa Cruz

Today’s sightseeing felt like visiting a series of three theme parks, albeit with very different themes. Here’s a quick preview:

#1 The first was an actual amusement park, The Boardwalk at Santa Cruz.

#2 The second was the almost impossibly cute town of Carmel.

#3 And the third was Monterey’s Cannery Row, themed around Steinbeck’s novel of the same name.

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California Road Trip: Getting to Santa Cruz

Instead of taking State Highway 101 from San José to Monterey, an easier but possibly less interesting route, we set off on the notorious State Highway 17 to Santa Cruz – the shortest way to the coast.

Here is a map (all due thanks to the copyright holders) showing Route 17 from San José city down south to Santa Cruz. From Santa Cruz, we would then take Pacific Highway 1 south to Monterey, stopping at Carmel on the way.

The road winds precipitously through the Santa Cruz Mountains, famous for its redwood forests. I was looking for the promised deer and mountain lions: no luck. On this busy road, the traffic ground to a halt for ten or 20 minutes because the road authorities were dealing with this recently burnt-out bus.

#1 Theme Park: The Boardwalk at Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a holiday destination most famous for The Boardwalk funfair extravaganza – so much better than I was expecting. Though the dodgem cars, the carousel the cable car, numerous terrifying rides and the House of Horrors reminded me a bit of my hometown Durban beachfront in its 70s heyday, this one’s a hundred times bigger, swisher, brighter and downright nicer.

We found out that today, May 16, was the last day of school: that fact explained the emerging presence of kids – arguably A Good Thing at a funfair.

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On the Carousel? … or maybe not

Roy the Wise and Strategic

Did we go on any of the attractions? Nah. Definitely not one of the gut-stripping, big-boy rides, and not even on one of the tamer ones.  Roy is a wise and patient man. As we walk around, he lets me blather on about maybe doing the cable car, or the big wheel, or… and then watches me lose interest as we near the end of our perambulation.

And then we have an ice cream.

And then we have an ice cream. (This has happened previously, and at more than one funfair.)

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#2 Theme Park: Carmel-by-the-Sea

It was after 2pm by the time we got to Carmel, already full of tourists, and luckily found parking right outside Carmel City Hall – have you ever seen such a charming city hall? (Clint Eastwood would have spent time here while he was mayor of Carmel from 1986 to 1988.)

Our lunch at Portabella Ristorante was excellent: cups of soup to start, creamy mushroom (Roy) and crab-and-corn (me); followed by a smoked salmon salad for him and a bun-less Roquefort burger for me. All great, but almost the best thing was the complimentary warm sourdough bread served with a generous bowl of pesto. This place deserves its high approval rating.

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Whisky and wines of the best

More importantly than finding a souvenir – like a fetching landscape from one of Carmel’s 12 art galleries, or a bracelet from Tiffany’s – we needed some wine and a bottle of whisky.

As recommended by all the guidebooks, we wandered the cute, artsy streets lined with expensive shops and thronged with international tourists, until we found Neilsen Brothers Market. There, we had an interesting chat with a staff member, which started like this:

Me: Excuse me, I’m looking for a reasonably priced red with a screw top. It’s for tonight and I don’t have a corkscrew. (For our Antipodean friends, screw-top wines are much less common in the US than they are in Australia, where they’re the norm even for high-end wines.)

Visibly recovering from a visceral flinch, our man came up with what proved to be a lovely local pinot noir (about US$25). And then, to our amazement, he pointed at the Vasse Felix Filius cabernet sauvignon – for US$30. Not bad, considering it’s come all the way from Western Australia’s esteemed Margaret River region, and that it’s currently selling at our local Dan Murphy’s for A$28.

Because Monterey County experiences sea breezes and fog, it is able to grow cool-climate varietals like chardonnay and pinot noir

Because Monterey County experiences sea breezes and fog, it is able to grow cool-climate varietals like chardonnay and pinot noir – “the cool climate allows optimal ripening of the fruit”. What’s more, significant daytime and night-time temperature differences promote a good balance between acidity and tannin. All this, plus the ideal terroir and loamy soils of the Salinas River valley – which we’d be driving through the next day – is said to make for distinctive chardonnays and pinot noirs.

Carmel-by-the-Sea Beach

Lest we forget, Carmel also has this charming beach.

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Monterey

That evening, we’d have a chance to try not one, not two, but three local chardonnays from the super-friendly barman at Osteria Al Mare, at Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf.

Monterey Old Fisherman’s Wharf

Here’s Roy looking wistful as the sun sets over Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s wharf; and below, outside Osteria Al Mare.

 

“You’ve seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it’s an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it?”
―  John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday

“A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn’t say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn’t like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn’t shave.”
― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Twenty metres behind photographer me, flopping around on the slipway, lolled these enormous, smelly sealions, while many others gambolled in the water.

What a racket! – we’d heard them barking earlier in the day from the neighbouring pier, and now I knew what was making that unearthly noise.

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#3 Theme Park: Cannery Row, Monterey

Named in honour of John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel, Cannery Row, this waterfront road in the town of Monterey used to be home to a series of sardine factories. Since the last cannery closed in 1973, it’s been transformed into a tourist attraction offering shops, restaurants and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

There was the odd parking space available, but the parking meters refused our Visa card and we didn’t have change. So I left Roy in the car and explore the Row on my own.

Again – similar to Carmel-on-the-Sea – though you wouldn’t dream of visiting Monterey and not checking in at Cannery Row, it felt distinctly like a tourist trap. Nowhere really appealed to me for even a drink… except, maybe, for Monterey’s Tasty Olive Bar. And who knows? – if we’d managed to find parking, this tale might have ended differently.

Cannery Row Scenes

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The Stagecoach Inn, Monterey

We found it a comfortable and well-located motel – though not close enough to Cannery Row to go by foot, as Roy had hoped. I took a walk down to Aguajito Road, along a creek that morphed into a lake, and turned left down Del Monte Avenue. Within 20 minutes, I’d arrive at the road to Fisherman’s Wharf, right, so I turned back home.

Parting Thought

It has always seemed strange to me…The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second”.

John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

 

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Up Next?

Closing in on Newport Beach via San Simeon Bay and the lovely San Luis Obispo, Los Olivos and Solvang. (Plus lots more photos of Roy!)