No, I didn't take this picture. I found it on the web.
I was very excited as we set off north (past Cal Poly, John!). It was a bit of an overcast day and the mist was heavy, covering the tops of the nearby hills. As we drove closer to the coast it became clear that the mist wasn't going away. We entered Morro Bay and sure enough--fog--mist--low clouds--it all adds up to poor visibility. This isn't unusual for the California coast, but it is still frustrating. We could only hope it would burn off soon. Off course, the temps were in the 50's--doesn't bode well for burning off.
Still, what coast we could see was spectacular. Every once in a while gray seas came into view, crashing onto the rocky shore below. The four lane highway became a two lane highway and then the two lane highway quickly became quite windy. Driving in spring may mean more fog, but it means less traffic. I think the bicycles outnumbered the autos. And no RV's.
We drove past San Simeon and waved in the direction of Hearst Castle. Soon we were driving over those spectacular bridges near Big Sur. We drove past some kind of seal down on the rocks (the sign said Elephant Seals, but they were too gray and too small). We zoomed past windswept Monterey Pines and jillions of wildflowers. What we could see was amazing.
Soon we arrived in Monterey and found our first Carnegie library of the day. This is a large building which belongs to a university. It wasn't very exciting and had been remodeled extensively.
The drive over to Pacific Grove was fun. We navigated up into the Monterey Peninsula and around its rocky shores and into the lovely little town of Pacific Grove. There we found another renovated building, but this one was done right. It's still a public library. The city added on to the building FOUR times over the years. With each addition the architect strove to keep the character of the original building. You can seen remnants of the original perimeter of the building on the interior. Well done, Pacific Grove!
That curved area is the reading room. It's beautiful. You can see one of the early additions on the right.
We took a potty break at a McDonalds that didn't look like a McDonalds, and then we're off towards Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz still boasts two of an original four Carnegie buildings. The first was on the east bluff and is currently a museum. It had an add-on, too, but the original had bent wings, which was interesting. (No pics to do it justice due to the large trees in front.) The curator wasn't sure about the history of the building, but she's a UW grad, and that's worth a $5 donation!
We dropped down to the beach and visited the Santa Cruz boardwalk and the wharf. I remember going to the boardwalk with friends on Senior Cut Day in 1976. We went down in my friend's convertible--four girls and one guy. We have family who own a cabin in the nearby hills, so I've been in Santa Cruz on several occasions.
While out on the wharf we came face to face with a bunch of sea lions sunning (sun?) on a floating pier. Think any of them were in San Francisco the other day?
It's still a weird town with many identifies and each neighborhood has a character all it's own. It can be rather confusing. But the downtown is pretty and has many eateries. Which is why Jenni and I went right back to the same sandwich shop my brother, John, introduced us to last year.
On the west bluff we found the second building which is still a library. Small and ordinary, but had a charm all its own.
After fueling at Costco--I was rather surprised to find one in Santa Cruz--we hopped back onto the Carrillo Highway and headed north towards Half Moon Bay. We went online (I love our smart phones) to check out possibilities for motels in Half Moon Bay, read a few reviews, and decided we didn't want to pay a lot of money for a decent hotel. So we decided to drive up to Pacifica and cut over to South San Francisco where we would find our last Carnegie building of the day.
During today's trip we drove past several small bits of construction--landslide clean up, replacement of washed away road--and had already driven past a large construction site where a new bridge was being constructed. This was nothing compared to the marvel of engineering we south of Pacifica. Two new holes are being bored through a large hill. We were quite amazed by it, but couldn't see where the tunnels emerged on the other end A mile further down the road and we got our answer: We found the opposite ends of the two tunnels and they emptied out onto two amazing bridges--same graceful design as the new bridge we saw further south. I think we found out where all of California's road funds are going. If you want to check out this massive project, pull up Pacifica on Google Maps Satellite and scan a bit south past the houses.
The South San Francisco building is another beautiful library and once again I'm frustrated with a closed sign. Pooey.
As an aside, South San Francisco is a town all its own and is not to be confused with south San Francisco, which includes the Mission District. South San Francisco is much prettier than the Mission District.
We're now in a comfortable hotel and watching Deadliest Catch. Tomorrow we'll head north crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.
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