Photo courtesy Ernest Fode
The lone Cypress Tree along the 17 Mile Scenic Drive. This Monterey Cypress is on of the planet's most photographed trees.
Ernest Fode
San Francisco was the last stop on my road trip through northern Nevada and California this past summer.
Having already seen most of the touristy places in and around San Francisco on previous visits, I decided to travel south to Monterey Bay as far as Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Driving down California’s rugged coastline I encountered one breathtaking view after another. The beaches, coves and huge crashing waves were spectacular.
The highlight of this trip was a stretch called “17-Mile Drive” which is widely recognized since 1881, as one of the world’s most scenic drives.
Two of the landmarks along 17-Mile Drive are the Pebble Beach Golf Resort and the Lone Cypress Tree, a 250-year-old Monterey Cypress that has survived to become one of the word’s most photographed trees.
Stopping in Monterey, I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then walked along historic Cannery Row.
Cannery Row, in the mid 1800s, was a bustling Chinese fishing village with sardine canneries. Today, these transformed canneries now house seafood restaurants, boutiques and tasting rooms.
At the end of Cannery Row is a rocky monument paying tribute to Nobel Prize author John Steinbeck, famous for his Cannery Row novel of the same name. I continued my drive south through Pacific Grove, the coastline town which boasts of having the oldest continually operating lighthouse in the USA along with its slogan of being the “Butterfly Town, U.S.A.”
Next was Carmel-by-the-Sea, a storybook picturesque town where you can walk everywhere since it is only one square mile in area. Besides being home to some Hollywood celebrities such as Clint Eastwood and Doris Day, this town is a collection of cozy inns, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants.
Stopping for lunch at the Hog’s Breath Inn, owned by Eastwood, I ordered the aptly named Dirty Harry Burger with a side order of Hog’s Salad.
Before leaving Carmel I stopped at the historic Carmel Mission, built in 1771 as the second in a chain of 21 missions built prior to California’s statehood.
Driving back to San Francisco on Highway 101 I entered the town of Gilroy. Gilroy is famous for its claim to be the “Garlic Capital of the World.” It proudly hosts an annual Garlic Festival and Restaurant Week. While purchasing some snack items in their huge Garlic World Supermarket, a local shopper, upon hearing I was a tourist, mentioned that with a good nose, one can smell garlic year round within a two-mile radius of Gilroy. She said she has never gotten a headache, flu or cold in her life.
With that in mind, I had one for the road. A cold bottle of locally-brewed natural 100 per cent garlic juice.
