The Journey to Casa Madera - The Pacific Coast Highway!

Thursday morning 7:50, November 11, 2010.  Heather and I have just come back from walking Alexa and there is Alfonso, Roberto and Marco waiting at the gate to get to work.  They are into the third week of what we thought was a minor renovation to build a new kitchen and improve the air flow and light in that area of the house.  There is still a pile of work to do before they can start to put on the new roof.

[caption id="attachment_92" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="this was only just the start"][/caption]

They are their usual selves, smiling, happy, ready to start their long day.  As Alfonso goes through the gate he says, yo tengo desayunos por ustedes.  For the readers who don't understand spanish, he brought us breakfast.  We told him we would get Alexa settled away and would meet him in the black hole that would one day be the kitchen.

[caption id="attachment_93" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Man it is so much bigger without cabinets!"][/caption]

Now as a background, we noted the day before that the boys had brought their own hot plate to heat up their breakfast as they don't eat before they leave their respective houses.  We come into the kitchen after filling our coffee cups and Alfonso tells us that he got the food from people who live by him who own a lunch truck.  The truck goes by our place twice a day with food for the people who work in the area.  They serve full meals at a reasonable cost.  And man is it good but more on that later!

[caption id="attachment_106" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Breakfast with the boys, Alfonso Jr., Marco, Alfonso Sr., Roberto, Me"][/caption]

First off Alfonso offers us both Cokes.  Ice cold right out of his cooler.  In glass bottles so you know they are delightful but we just cannot drink Coca Cola at 8:00 in the morning so we stick with coffee.  Coca Cola is the national drink in Mexico, most people may think it is Corona but it is not. Its plain and simple, Coke.  I am pretty sure it outsells everything else 4 to 1.  Even though you can buy Pepsi cheaper everybody in this country drinks Coke, a lot of it.

[caption id="attachment_94" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Need I say more?"][/caption]

But on to breakfast.  He offers us a choice of loaded tacos, one type is arrachera (a personal favourite) and the other is lengua.  Affectionately known in english as tongue.  Never a real high point in my menu but its a taco and we must be polite so we go for the lengua first.  Now I have never liked tongue, tried it a few times but it never did anything for me.  This taco was unbelievable.  It was absolutely delightful.  Everything had been mixed to perfection and everything just melted in your mouth.  The flavour was fantastic.  It reminded of some grape tomato's we bought at a farmers market outside of Marina, California as we were heading for the Pacific Coast Highway.

We left our hotel in San Francisco on November 9, 2008 at 8:03 AM dressed in shorts and light shirts as we were looking forward to a hot day in the car.  The sun did not disappoint.  At 8:00 it was warmer than it had been the entire day before when I seriously considered putting on my Saskatchewan Roughriders sweatshirt.  It was a very much appreciated gift from Mr. Cook and his cohorts and has come in very handy here on the cold mornings but I would rather no one who knows me ever sees me in it!

We worked our way out of the city into the California farmland.  There were farms everywhere.  We are used to seeing farms but being Albertan we are used to seeing waves of wheat, rye and canola, not lettuce, tomato's and other vegetables.  We were rolling into Marina, California when we spied a fast food chain where we could grab a coffee and use the bathroom.  Off the highway we went and lo and behold weren't they having a farmers market in the parking lot.  Well that had to be checked out and check it out we did.  We found some fresh picked grape tomato's that quite simply were the best tomato's either one of us have ever tasted.  They were sweet and juicy and well we could go on but then I would lose the G rating.  The 2 pound clamshell that we paid about 2 bucks for was gone before we got to Monterey.

We thought we might stop in Monterey to sightsee but realized that it is a long way to Los Angeles and even longer on the PCH so we kept right on moving.  The Pacific Coast Highway is a nice drive.  The road is narrow, twisting, hilly and very slow. It was the perfect road to drive to get us ready for what lies ahead in a few more days.

[caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It may be a winding road but it is beautiful"][/caption]

Traffic was not bad, the scenery was spectacular and the road was fun to drive.  At 1:25 we had been driving for 5 hours and had managed to go 291 kilometers.  The average speed after we left Monterey was 35 miles per hour.  We had a long, long way to go yet.

[caption id="attachment_95" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The California Coast"][/caption]

We stopped at Piedras Blancas which is just north of San Simeon.  There is an Elephant Seal Rookery there and you can get pretty close to observe them.  It was pretty cool.

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The face says it all"][/caption]

Still driving, lots to see on the road.  Looked a lot at the water and vistas, decided to pass on Hearst Castle.  Maybe next time.  Still 236 miles from LA.

We drove and drove and drove and drove.  Just when it seemed like we would never see civilization again at about 5:00 pm we rolled into Santa Barbara.  We decided at that point it was time to pack it in for the day.  We spent the next 45 minutes looking for an acceptable hotel.  We finally decided on a Best Western.

I parked the car and we went in to see if they had a room.  Yes, $170.00.  Man I almost swallowed my tongue!  We had seen some of the other hotels and they were not that great.  170 bucks, man we only paid a 100 in San Francisco!  Oh well they had nice bathrobes.