Birthday celebrations, then big fog on the Big Sur

After a wipe out recovery day, the 5th September was dad's birthday and we were headed up the coast to Pismo Beach.  It was a sunny morning as we left Santa Barbara and although we encountered a bit of cloud on the way up the coast, it was a sunny day....until we reached Pismo Beach when we discovered our hotel shrouded in fog.  Our room wasn't ready so headed into town to have a look around, finding it to be a fairly popular seaside resort for the masses so we decided not to hang around.  Instead we found a nice and uncrowded restaurant next to our hotel for a bite of lunch and went the other way down the road to a small place called Seashell Beach where there was an italian restaurant recommended for dinner, within walking distance of the hotel.  And much nicer and quieter it was too, so we settled on that as a destination for 'The Birthday Dinner'.

And what a good chice it was, we freshened up, had a rest and took plenty of sunset photos, then walked the half mile to Del's Pizzeria.  It was heaving and we were invited to have a drink at the bar while waiting 15 minutes for a table.  In that time, I was overheard by the barmaid wishing father Happy Birthday and that was it, a treat was in store for him, whether he liked it or not!

We ordered Salad and Pizza and ended up with more than enough to eat heartily and bring home left overs for lunch the next day.  Then our waitress, a lovely young lady called Charlyann who thought my dad was 'precious'  brought him a slice of icecream mudpie with a candle, with the rest of the waiting staff in tow singing Happy Birthday!  Lucky him, such a nice treat for him to make the day that bit more special.

The following morning was our journey to Monterey covering the stretch of coast known as the Big Sur, and we were disappointed to wake to thick sea fog in Pismo, so got on our way in the hope that the sun would burn it off quickly.  It did lift a little, but not fully so we didn't see as much of the dramatic coastline as we had hoped.  It was a bit disappointing but at the same time, it was an interesting way to add a little more drama to the winding road with the Pacific deep below and the mountains rising to our right.

On the way we saw a viewing point for Elephant seals so we stopped for a look and were glad we did, it was a beach populatd with elephant seals coming in from the water for a few weeks to rest and regain bone mass.  They were piled up on each other on the beach but as we watched a couple of young ones came out of the water.  After some time at sea, they are exhausted, so its an effort to get up the beach and when they get there, they're so tired they just lay there!  Cute but tired!!

On we went, it was bizarre to see thick fog to the left and high hills with sun shining down on them on the right, a little spooky from time to time when visibility diminished and at one point, a bird of prey flew out of a tree ahead of us, heading right for us out of the fog and it was like a scene from a horror movie. 

It was a really interesting drive, sheer cliffs on the left, and to our right hills with pink pampas grass dotted over them and the odd gulley which was greener and boasted more dense floliage.  Beautiful and interesting and just a shame that there wasn't more if it to see through the fog.

But once we arrived in Montrey, all became clear, it wasn't long before we learned that the whole summer had been very cool and very foggy, and that it was less foggy up the coast now than it had been.  So in the scheme of things, we had no cause to be unhappy, we had seen a lot in the circumstances and there is always the chance to come back some day to do it again, it would be very enjoyable.