Big Sur to Joshua Tree

A couple of weeks ago, it was my birthday -- a lovely spring birthday if I do say so myself. To celebrate, Mountain Man drove up from Arizona on his magnificent new motorcycle, and we took the weekend to drive back down the California coast.  I thought I'd take you along on our adventure. 

 

We set out on Friday night, taking off from Berkeley, having a nice dinner in Palo Alto, and then heading down to Monterey. No pictures of that, I'm afraid, as it's hard to take snapshots when you're speeding down the freeway in the dark of night!   But this enabled us to get a good start on Saturday morning.  As the morning fog rolled out, we were cruising down Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast.  It was BREATHTAKING

We had great fun stopping along the way to see the Elephant Seals. What comical creatures they are, conked out about the beach, snoozing in the sunshine, tossing sand on themselves now and then. 

When we got down to Morro Bay, I had a good time watching the sea gulls, too.  I know they're noisy, bothersome jabberers, but I like 'em. 

By early evening we'd made it down to Santa Barbara.  We were staying with friends up in the hills, and there we could stretch our legs, recover from the road, and watch the sunset with a drink in hand. 

Sunday, we turned east. Inland.  Past the wind farms on the flanks of Mount San Jacinto. Then turning north towards Joshua Tree. 

We ended the evening -- and the weekend really -- in Pioneertown.  It's an old movie set built in the 1940s for Westerns, now sorta revived with a roadhouse that was bringing in one of our favorite indie singers that night.  We camped beneath a Joshua Tree ... 

with tumbleweeds blowing through. BIG tumbleweeds. Big, scratchy brambles they are.

 

We had a good night indeed, capped off by champagne in mason jars. Love it. 

And thanks for coming along on the adventure with us!