beXnlog

CA: Rt 1

1/22/06: Up at a surprising 8am, we left the Bay headed south on the beautiful and famed US Route 1 - right after a quick stop at Trader Joe's in Berkeley, Berkeley Bowl Marketplace for 22 more blood oranges and Peet's for 2 more lbs of Lost Toraja. I suppose we didn't need to stop at Trader Joe's and Peets again but we certainly needed the blood oranges. They were so amazingly good: dark blood red insides, sweet and tangy intense flavor, wonderful peel aromatics ... it was obvious be and i had never eaten a real blood orange until CA, even though the ones from the box last year were good.

(I really wanted to stop in Soquel to eat at Theo's but the timing unfortunately didn't work out; they're closed Sun and Mon. Nicci Tripp is the only chef in Santa Cruz who makes his own cheese, and is perhaps the only one in the entire Bay area! Check out this review on Tana's site, who pointed me out to Theo's. It's definitely going to be a stop the next time we're out in CA.)

We lunched in the town of Monterey where we found a small placed called Ocean Sushi Deli. I ordered some inari (fried tofu pockets filled with sushi rice) and the vegetable roll while be had the sushi regular. We were grumpy from waking up so early and a bit freaked out by how quiet it was in Monterey, so i guess you could say we didn't know what to expect from a tiny sushi place with no one in it, but it was awesome! The rice was great and salted differently than we were used to, but the main thing according to be is how fresh the raw fish was. Granted, it made sense being that we were in a fishing town, but from what looked like a local neighborhood place and not a fancy Japanese restaurant, the fish was top notch. be gobbled up his sushi regular and ordered 2 more rolls to go!

I had done the white-knuckled Rt 1 drive a few years ago so this time be did the best part along Big Sur. The views are breathtaking but the drive is nerve-wracking, with mountains on one side and cliffs on the other, a weak metal guard rail protecting you from falling to your death. The turns are really slow and winding at many points. As a passenger you're able to enjoy all this stuff while the driver is concentrating so intently on death-prevention. We made it to Cambria just as the sun was setting; it's not a drive one can do in the dark!

We stayed at the Blue Dolphin Inn on Moonstone Beach which included a whirlpool tub and light-switch-on gas fireplace! Cambria seemed pretty deserted and lonely on a Sunday winter night but we found a pizza place open on Main Street, which was filling but only okay. Afterwards, we pulled over on the side of the road a few miles from town to do some star gazing in absolute pitch blackness - it was so dark we couldn't see the car inches away from us! The stars were incredible but we only spent a few minutes doing this since we heard a lot of rustling and crunching nearby, which prompted us to hurry into the safety of the car!

1/23/06: The hotel breakfast included a strange waffle machine. Paper cups of pre-mixed waffle batter were available for one to pour into the waffle iron, which beeped and prompted you to flip the contraption over. In 3 minutes you could open the machine to pluck out your hot crispy waffle. It was cool but unfortunately the waffle wasn't as delicious as it smelled.

We found a stretch of Moonstone Beach that was filled with semi-precious stones instead of sand or regular rocks! Later that morning, we drove about 11 miles north of Cambria to San Simeon and saw hundreds and hundreds of elephant seals and their new babies! It was crazy amazing to see SO MANY of them all over this one stretch of beach. Winter is a great time to see them along certain parts of the CA coast since they stop there to give birth. We took the main tour of Hearst Castle and watched the introductory movie as well; once i learned how ambitious and incredible the project was i could appreciate it much more. Did you know it was designed by Julia Morgan, one of the only two certified female architects at the turn of the century?

Back in Cambria, we had lunch at Medusa's Taqueria, where be had his first and best fish taco ever. It was so good that he still pines over it to this day! The fish was grilled instead of fried and it came with a great thin cilantro sesame lime sauce. I had a big vegetarian burrito which was yums: non-doughy tortilla, flavorful and perfect beans and rice, tasty fresh salsa and crunchy homemade tortilla chips. Again we were the only ones in the entire place and the food was amazing. I suppose winter really is down time for tourism along the coast. For the rest of the day we drove down to LA; more on that to come!

posted by beXn @ 1:26 PM