The 17 Mile Drive, Carmel-By-The-Sea & Big Sur, California

The 17 Mile Drive, Carmel-By-The-Sea & Big Sur, California

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 30, 2016

On our 5th day in California, we left Monterey to do the 17 mile drive and then visit Carmel-By-The-Sea & Big Sur.  It was basically a really long day in the car.

We stopped at several places along the way.  It was like each view was better than the last.  Just be careful climbing around on those rocks!

Dave was pretty excited to see if he could get the wind off the ocean to lift him into the air so he could start flying.  It didn't work.

I like to stay on my belly when I'm climbing large rocks near steep cliffs.

The kids thought it would be more fun to stay in the car rather than come look at these views with us.  That was until the large fire engine pulled into the parking area where we had stopped.

We weren't sure what was happening when the three firemen came walking out to the rocks where we had been standing.  I asked one of them if everything was OK and he replied that everything was fine.  We then kept walking behind me further towards the rocks and yelled out to someone else that was still up there "Hey, did someone here get bitten by a squirrel?"  The guy told him he thought that those people were further down the beach.  I didn't know what to think about that but I did keep a suspicious eye on any squirrels we saw for the rest of the day.

We kept driving further and further down the Pacific Coast Highway fascinated with the ocean views and the incredibly rocky shoreline.

There were pleasant signs that kept reminding me that this place wasn't Disney World.  They don't warn their guests of potential dangers.

The 17 Mile Drive starts at Pebble Beach golf course I guess.

I didn't know the 17 mile drive featured deer so we were excited to pull over and take pictures of this happy little family.

This "Lone Cypress" tree is a Monterey cypress tree and is the official symbol of Pebble Tree golf course.  They literally have the image of this tree copyrighted and there are signs posted there that any pictures taken of it cannot be used for commercial purposes.  So if any of you want to send me $500.00 for looking at this picture, we could really piss them off.

Avery liked climbing on rocks and cliffs further than my comfort level would have liked.  He ended up fine, but not without constantly hearing from the nervous old lady that lives deep inside of me.

I'd been to Pebble Beach golf course a couple of times so I knew right where to take the family.  Until I saw this sign that said we weren't allowed to be on this part of the course.

When we arrived at Carmel-by-the Sea, we figured it was good to spend some time on the beach.  We just love wearing sweatshirts and jackets there.

Wonder Twin Powers.  Activate.

We thought these people's house looked like something out of The Hobbit movie.  We then wondered  how strange it would be if they pulled into their driveway as we were having our picture taken in their front yard.

We loved the views near the Bixby Creek Bridge which according to Wikipedia cost $203,334.00 to build back in 1931.  I'm guessing it would cost a bit more than that if it had to be built today.

The views all the way down to Big Sur were just breathtaking.  While we were driving down the 101, I kept thinking of the song "Ventura Highway".  It turns out this song was about the same road we were on, just much farther south than where we were at.