Farewell to Monterey/Pebble Beach

Well, here it is Monday evening and we are packing things away and doing a little straightening and cleaning as we prepare to depart early in the morning for the Paso Robles area.

Steve Marino, leader first three days of the tourney on the 14th tee Saturday

My photos tonight were taken Saturday with my Bushnell binoculars, so the quality will not be up to par to my Nikons.  (I sneaked the Bushnell's in as they don't really look like a camera.)  Cameras are not allowed during the actual rounds of the tourney.

Padraig Harrington on the 14th tee

It has been a long week.  Even though there is a tremendous amout of excitement and natural beauty to behold here in Monterey, we are glad it's coming to an end.  We are tired.  We met a lot of fine folks (marshals) in the volunteer tent, as well as talking with many folks from all over the country that came in for the golf at Pebble Beach.  Half the RV Park here at Monterey Pines (Navy Post Graduate School) was filled with marshals volunteering at the tourney.

Hole #7 taken from the 13th green

We will camp at Paso Robles for a couple of days and plan to go out to San Simeon to see the Hearst Castle and gardens on Wednesday just off the PCH.   After that, who knows.  Guess I'll pull a Al Bossence from the The Bayfield Bunch, and say, won't know till Thursday morning where we'll head out to next.  You're right AL:  It's nice to be in that position.

Joe and Nancy after a long day on Pebble Beach looking for whale breath

So, I guess the next blog will be after our visit to the Hearst Castle which will post probably Wednesday evening, the 16th.  Here is a little photo my bride took while I was snapping away on the 18th at Pebble Beach on Tuesday.  She wanted to take a picture of me in my knickers.  I could add a couple of lines about her and my knickers, but I better keep it PG-13.

Joe

Until next time, Joe & Nancy



Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey to Big Sur

Carmel Beach

Well, After a long day on the links at Pebble Beach on Tuesday, it was time we took a day off and drive the 28 miles down to Big Sur and back on Wednesday.  So, I loaded up the cameras and the first stop was Carmel Beach about 10 in the morning.  I took a few shots and then just motored down the PCH and stopped at maybe 10 turnouts along the way, including a little road up the mountain near Big Sur where I took a few more shots.  Folks, we are enjoying some absolutely gorgeous weather here in the Monterey area.  Wish we could pipe some of it back to the East Coast for our friends and families there.  So, instead of rambling on about that, I am just going to post a bunch of photos and rest the text for this blog.  I hope you enjoy them as much as Nancy and me did when we took the photos.

We had dinner here

So, I hope you enjoyed the ride down to Big Sur.  We'll spend Thursday back on the links, and Friday and Saturday as well.  Wednesday night we were treated to a fine "kickoff" dinner for all the AT&T volunteers at the Marriot in Monterey,  and it was catered by Marriot as well.  After dinner we were treated once again to a show by several stars, including Michael Bolton, Clay Walker, Kenny G, Ray Romano, Hootie, and Master of Ceremonies was Tom Dreeson.  There were other comedians and performers as well, and the show went way past our bed time, (10:30).  Until next time, Joe & Nancy 

Pebble Beach AT&T ProAm, Tuesday

Joe & Nancy next to the 18th green

We were up early this morning and headed out for the Pebble Beach Golf Links for our first day of volunteering at the AT&T National Pro-Am.  It was really bright all day, but cool (mid fifties) and windy. But that was ok, cause most of the country was in round 9 of bad weather.  Today was a practice round for the pros and at 1:30 there was a shootout between some former and current San Fancisco 49ers and Giants. 

 Mike Krukow (Giants) & Jerry Rice (49ers)

Nancy was a hole marshal and kinda hung out on holes 4 & 17 most of the day until the players passed and she "slinkyed" over to 18 for the final hole.  The charity shootout was played on only 5 holes, 1-3 and 17-18.  I kinda lucked out.  Early in the morning at the volunteer's tent, the committee chairman came in and asked if anyone had US Open experience.  I raised my hand and he asked would I like to be a team captain for the day.  I said sure, why not.  So, what did I get myself into now?  I got to drive around in a golf cart all day delivering water and other volnteers to their respective holes they were marshaling.  It was a tough job.  I mean the sun was so bright and the reflection off of Monterey Bay just made it all the more challenging.  But you know, someone had to step up to the plate and raise their hand.

Matt Cain (Giants)

 Jerry & Dwight Clark

Cody Ross (Giants) World Series hero

High-fives all around

Mike Krukow with a delicate pitch at 18

Looking back down the 18th fairway towards the tee

What a beautiful day we had on one of the most picturesque & famous golf courses in the world.  And we get to do this for five more days and the forecast is for more of the same old weather:  mid sixties and real bright sunlight.  I will need to get back to the motor home and get a massage and some bengay on my wrists and arms as driving that golf cart all day has just wore me out. 

And Nancy?  She was on her feet all day.  She's doing just fine.  :-))  until next time, Joe & Nancy



Three California Missions, and more...

Mission San Juan Bautista



After our visit to Joshua Tree NP, we left 29 Palms Golf & Rv Resort Wednesday morning, Feb 2nd and headed for Edwards AFB near Rosamond, CA.  It was an uneventful 24 hours till Thursday morning, except that it was 17 degrees when we woke up.  It has been unusually cold this winter in the Southwest.  We couldn't wait to get away and head on over to the coast.  So we packed up and headed for Paso Robles. 

When we arrived in PR, we were greeted with temps in the mid sixties.  Finally!  We stopped at the local Walmart and as we always do, Nancy went in and asked permission, as some do not allow overnighting.  We got the permission.  So, we settled in and and tucked in as we were really bushed, having drove over 400m the day before and 250 today.  So, we crashed and at exactly 1215 AM we had a knock at the door.  Who could this be?  Santa Claus?  No, it was one of Paso Robles' finest, telling us that they have an ordnance against overnighting.  We explained to him that we asked and recieved permission.  Of course when he asked for the name of the person, we didn't catch her name.  We will from now on though.  He let us slide, and I assured him we would be up and gone by sun up.  It took us a while to back to sleep, as this was pretty unsettling.

Well, we were up and gone by 6:30 and headed for Monterey and the RV Park at the Navy Post Graduate School, right next to a beautiful golf course.  We checked in at 1030 and had set up everything in an hour or so.  It was only about 100m up highway 101, so we did a little driving around, got some groceries and made plans to go see a few of the California Missions on Saturday within 40 or 50 miles. 

We drove the 30 miles over to our first mission, San Juan Bautista, just south of Gilroy, CA (acclaimed to be the garlic capital of the world).   

Mission San Juan Bautista is the largest of the Spanish missions in California.^[9] The mission was used in the 1958 Hitchcock film Vertigo.  It was founded on June 24, 1797.

Main sanctuary of the San Juan Mission

Porch or portico of the mission (siesmograph down at the end)

The Mission showed signs of disrepair, and in fact had been rebuilt more than once since original construction.  We had a pleasant walk-around.  This mission was destroyed by earthquake once, as it lies on the San Andreas fault.

Two meat cooking pits

The garden of the mission was rather small, but organized. 

Main street of the small town of San Juan

We left here and drove to Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad , in Soledad.  The mission was founded on October 9, 1791.   It was the thirteenth of the Spanish missions founded by the Franciscan Order.  This mission was out in the middle of a large (many large) complex of agriculture, ie, vegetables and vineyards.  The mission was much smaller than San Juan Bautista and obviously operated on a shoestring budget.  I must also let you know that all three missions we visited today were still very much active in their communities and had mass each Sunday, as well as weddings, meetings and local use for special events.

Mission Soledad sanctuary



Part of the garden at Mission Soledad

Off we went to see our last mission and it would be about an hour drive to Mission San Antonio.

Mule deer on our way to Mission San Antonio

All that's left of the old Dutton Hotel (formerly part of William Randolph Hearst ranch)

We came upon a pack of Mule deer and remnants of an old hotel on our way to the Mission San Antonio.  The deer, hotel and the mission itself all are on an Army base, Fort Hunter Ligget, a very large training base. 

Mission San Antonio de Padua 

Located on eighty pristine acres on what was once the Milpitas unit of the sprawling Hearst Ranch, Mission San Antonio de Padua sits within the “Valley of the Oaks” on California’s scenic Central Coast.  This was by far the most impressive of the three we visited today.  Well maintained and well used.  It was also the largest.  It was more than double the size of Soledad and just larger than San Juan. 

 Mission San Antonio de Padua 

Part of the little aquaduct into the mill from the mission's resevoir

Porch of the San Antonio Mission

Garden

Sanctuary

There were too many items to photograph here and I couls add many more.  To see the entire album, visit my album page on line here.  https://picasaweb.google.com/home

Well, off we went out the back gate of the Fort Hunter Ligget.  Nancy had seen a sign about a mile back that pointed to the west and said, Route 1:  14 miles.   So we figured, how rough can it be over the Santa Lucia mountains to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).  This is a very big base. 

PCH way down there

We finally made it over to the PCH.  Wow, what a drive to this point.  Remember all the rain California had about six weeks ago?  Well, when it rains a lot here, things fall and crumble down.  The PCH was in total repair and one lane in many stretches.  But oh what a view everywhere. 

PCH looking south

PCH

End of a great day

Well, it was now around 6 and we had 55 miles of PCH to go to Monterey, and we were hungry.  We stopped at the Big Sur River Inn and had a nice dinner and got back to the MH around 830.  We slept good.  Well, tomorrow is Church at Pacific Grove and I think I'll just spend a Super Day close to the MH and see if I can find a football game on TV tomorrow.  Till the next time, Joe & Nancy