The most Amazing Ghirardelli West Coast Road Trip Day 5 - Carmel to LA

[Guest]

Up for breakfast about 9am this morning, we have a long, long drive ahead. We had originally planned to stop in San Simeon last night but we thought we would miss too much in the Monterey area, and I think we were right. As it turns out if we had stuck with the original plan we would have reach San Simeon in the dark about 9pm!

Anyway, breakfast was good at the Carmel Village Inn loads of choice including hot food like eggs, sausages, yogurts, pastries etc
Most hotels have ice machines, as this one does. We stopped at a supermarket yesterday and bought a crate of water and a throw away polystyrene cool box. We had some plastic bags so filled these up with ice so we had a supply of water for the trip.

Would have been nice to see more of Carmel it was beautiful and Clint Eastwood was major here.

Off we headed along Highway 1. A great drive with loads to see and go wow look at that!.





The highlight was seeing dolphins out in the see. No whales for us but spoke to some people who had seem some early that day.







This is where we saw the dolphins but not quick enough to capture them on film.







The drive was amazing but can be a slow one, we eventually reach Elephant Seal Cove, its near Hearst Castle but its well sign posted with loads of parking.

The seals were huge until a lady told us these are teenagers at about 10 feet long weighing 2000lbs. Next month July, the adults come down from Alaska for the mating season, these guys will be 16 feet long weighing 5000 lbs! Apparently the teenagers disappear down the coast for a bit during this time as it gets very bloody evidently.
There were hundreds of elephant seals here.





Just past Elephant Seal Cove going South we see the entrance for Hearst Castle. Just on the right we see a small church in a field, I think its San Luis Obispo county, if you pull into this little town there's a great place called Sebastian's General Store, click on the link for a map. There's parking there, toilets etc but they serve the most incredible burgers. Best burger I have ever had (IMO). plenty to sit but only a single toilet. Its also a post office and wine tasting centre.
Suitably stuffed and watered we make the decision to head inland and take a quicker route to Reseda LA. We think time is running out.





Well we head inland and its still a good four hours to where we are staying tonight in LA.
We go along highway 46 and then onto freeway 5 near a place called Bakersfield.
We stop briefly for more Gummi Bear supplies and get out the nice air conditioned car to fond out its now 111 DegC!

Luckily it gets cooler nearer to LA. Still a nice drive but at least you can hit 70 mph.

We reach Reseda just before its getting dark. We're staying at a Howard Johnston Suites Inn, Reseda.

The rooms are good, free breakfast, parking and wifi for $75 a night. Its about a 15 minutes drive to Universal Studios for tomorrow. We had planned to see the Hollywood sign and the Chinese theatre but we don't get time. Take a short walk up to a Denny's for Dinner.
I have never had a Denny's for dinner just breakfast but the food was good, Fajitas and banana split, iced tea, reasonable and nice!

Bed soon after (pleased that I got another ice cream in) as we just have the one day for Universal Studios.

TRIP INDEX

[tinkerbell59a]

Bring back some awesome memories. x

[Guest]

Originally Posted by tinkerbell59a

Bring back some awesome memories. x

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It sure does!

[abiknox]

Great read as always! So is the bridge in your photos the famous one or is there another?

The views look amazing, Im really looking forward to Elephant seal beach & of course that burger

[Guest]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Great read as always! So is the bridge in your photos the famous one or is there another?

The views look amazing, Im really looking forward to Elephant seal beach & of course that burger

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You 've rumbled me! This was the first bridge we came to so thought 'that was it' stopped and took loads of photos and carried on driving. Then about 2 minutes down the road another bridge which looks exactly the same came up but we didn't stop this time. I think the second one is the famous one! You can just see it one of the photos looking back.

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by Big_Mark

You 've rumbled me! This was the first bridge we came to so thought 'that was it' stopped and took loads of photos and carried on driving. Then about 2 minutes down the road another bridge which looks exactly the same came up but we didn't stop this time. I think the second one is the famous one! You can just see it one of the photos looking back.

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I only rumbled you because you mentioned it the other day on my 17 mile drive thread! Great info fir future visitors though so thanks!

[orlandosgr8]

More stunning scenery and that burger looks delicious

[Guest]

Originally Posted by orlandosgr8

More stunning scenery and that burger looks delicious

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That burger was the best I have ever had!

[lovedisney89]

Great day amazing photos

[Guest]

The drive along the West Coast and especially Big Sur is just jaw dropping in its beauty. An dthose bridsges - amazing feats of engineering for their time. Shame you didn't get to San Simeon a lot earlier. The famous Hearst castle is up in the hills and you can also watch the elephant seals on the beach below.

The famous bridge (featured ona stamp) is Bixby Creek Bridge:

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