The Ultimate Roadtrip ~ Wandering, Wine and Friendship

“Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.” – Emma Chase

There were three highlights that I personally was looking forward to on this trip: Hearst Castle, Big Sur and Napa. Of course, things are never simple and where would be the fun in going straight from point A to point B. The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) was closed between Hearst Castle and Big Sur causing us to have to come inland to Monterey and then back track to Big Sur.

All the better for us because this gave us more opportunities to wander and potentially an extra night in Monterey.

With the temperatures rising to the Nineties and 100s most of California was baking but here at the cost, the fog was heavy, drifting in across the ocean and over the mountains giving the landscape an ethereal quality.

Despite the steady traffic on the highway, we had plenty of opportunities to pull over and admire and photograph the view.

The magnificent Bixby Bridge with its reinforced arches welcomes visitors to Big Sur. With its graceful arch, stunning views of the ocean, it is one of the most photographed landmarks in California. Clearly it would be sacrilege not to stop and make our own nod to its beauty and take our pictures here.

Another beautiful landmark is the McWay falls is what is known as a tidefall, only one of two in California. When the tide is flowing in the right direction, the fall flows directly into the ocean and otherwise it drops into the cove.

Many people had the same idea as us and the parking lot where the hiking path starts was full. It’s a short ten-minute walk mostly flat along the creek to the overlook. The actual overlook was closed off, but people just walked as far as they could and stopped to take pictures and selfies.

I don’t know if we were following the crowd, or they were following us, but it was pretty crowded when we arrive at Nepenthe our lunch time spot with its beautiful views.

The view was not as obliging since the morning fog that had dissipated was back and all we could see was a sea of white except for the beautiful flowers adding a touch of color along the path.

The Seventeen Mile Drive in Carmel was not on our original plan but we incorporated it into our day taking advantage of the fact that we had to do the roundtrip between Big Sur and Monterey.

If you are thinking that this is a short interlude, let me assure you that in order to do it justice you need at least 90 minutes, ideally two hours as you drive a path between the pebble beach golf course and the coastline.

Unexpectedly the US Women’s Open was on when we got there, and many roads were closed with diversions. We finally executed a U turn out of the traffic and headed back out since we still had miles to go before we could sleep that night.

Growing up in nearby Pacific Grove, Steinbeck wrote stories spiced with tales of the cannery workers and roughnecks that he met and came to know in and around Monterey.

Cannery Row, one of Steinbeck’s best and most widely read fictional work immortalized this Monterey neighborhood full of fish packing plants, bordellos and flop houses and made it one of the most famous streets in America.

Today it’s an upscale promenade featuring touristy shops and top-notch sea food restaurants where in fact we had dinner. Steinbeck’s statue holds pride of place welcoming you to the area.

Napa, with its beautiful sea of vineyards stretching for miles, wineries that rival the beauty of European houses was a sight for sore eyes. After a good night’s sleep we were raring to embark on the sipping side of our adventure.

Celebratory champagne, excuse me sparkling wine with an accompanying cheese plate was a wonderful way to kick off our sipping adventure.

For a brief moment we had considered the Napa Wine Train but opted to do our own driving and choosing. It was kind of fun though to see it pass us by and wave to the people enjoying their wine and their adventure.

Lunch at the Long Meadow Ranch gave us a beautiful respite in our wine tasting day. Even more amazing though was relaxing under the inviting shade of trees amidst a bower of flowers.

Here we met a delightful lady who was enjoying the shade with her book and got to talking with her. She happened to be a native of the area and shared tales of the fires and boyfriends and a malady called O.L.D. that seemed to make her more forgetful. Well, here’s hoping she doesn’t forget us as I fully plan to look her up the next time, I’m in town.

Our last wine tasting experience of the day was at the beautiful Beringer winery with all its stained glass and wrap around verandah. We felt quite the Southern belles as we relaxed and sipped our wine in the beautiful surroundings.

Despite the drinking and eating we had one last meal in us which we got to enjoy in the beautiful ambiance of the RH Yountville. Many thanks to @Ushrani’s friend for her suggestions of places to eat and wineries to taste.

I did manage a few minutes to check out downtown Napa and go look for the gondolas that I had read about. I didn’t find the gondolas, but I did find people picnicking in the park, ducks swimming in the river and folks on paddles and kayaks enjoying their fourth of July holiday.

All good things come to an end and so did our beautiful sojourn. We decided to take the shortest and most direct route back home, but I guess we had one last burst of spontaneity left in us as we pulled into the beautiful Harris Ranch resort for lunch and a bit of a wander and a last glance into their cute shop.