As beautiful as it was, though, going to Carmel and Monterey was a little bittersweet: our trip was more than half over! It also marked the end of our beautiful and amazing sojourn in Sonoma County, which is absolutely one of the nicest places I've ever been!
But it's hard to feel bad for too long when the view out out of the full-wall of windows in your hotel room looks like this.
We actually were able to see whales from our window the first morning! They were too far away and moved too quickly for me to photograph, though.
Most of this leg of our trip seemed to be spent eating, but we also took the 17 Mile Drive after hearing some of the other guests at the Tickle Pink Inn raving about it.
It. Was. Boring. As. Hell. And the biggest waste of $9.25 and our time I can imagine. I don't even have a good picture of it, it was so boring. Maybe it's worth it if you actually want to golf at Pebble Beach, but I saw much more beautiful scenery for free driving to Carmel from Jenner.
Still, there were some beautiful things other than our hotel room in Carmel; we did manage to take in some gorgeous scenery on a walk at Point Lobos.
A note: if you come to Carmel in March and want to go hiking, bring something warmer than a sweatshirt. :) We left pretty quickly before I froze to death. THWARTED!
We left Carmel early on Saturday to give us time to soak in Big Sur down the PCH, and make a stop at Hearst Castle before our last destination before the honeymoon was over.
I had high expectations for Big Sur, I'm not going to lie. And if we'd started our trip in Los Angeles and gone gradually north up the coast, it probably would have met them. But after seeing the amazing views further north—rocky cliffs next to the wild Pacific, with redwood and fir forests on the other side of the road—most of Big Sur just couldn't compete!
It was still pretty gorgeous, though... I definitely will be back, someday.
After a few hours in the car, we passed the elephant seals at San Simeon before getting to the visitor center at Hearst Castle.
Sadly, this is the only picture you'll see from us here, because when we got inside, we discovered that every tour had sold out, for the entire day. THWARTED AGAIN!
Luckily Mr. Spaniel and I had been there before so it wasn't the end of the world, but if you're planning on stopping by on a Saturday, it's probably a good idea to know what time you'll be there and reserve your tickets in advance!
Want to see where the adventure began?
Honeymoon Roadtrip
Sebastopol and Occidental
Timber Cove
Happy Cows Come from California
Thanks for posting! We were planning to base our honeymoon around Big Sur. But maybe we'll aim farther north! thanks!
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