NOVEMBER 08
Saturday, the mid point of our holiday, was a day of transitions as we travelled a lot of miles as we moved from the areas north of San Francisco those to the south of that great, if vulnerable City.
But thoughts of that were far from our mind as we packed up and set off with a fruit pie at Duarte's Tavern, in the vicinity of Pescadero firmly on our minds for breakfast.
I had called in at Duarte's a long, long time ago, and had been introduced to "Olallaberry Pie" and had, in turn, introduced my Beloved to the same delight on one of our first visits to California about ten years ago, and so a re-acquaintance felt long overdue.
However, the journey south to San Francisco took far longer than we had anticipated and, having sat in a long queue of traffic, we took a swift diversion up the Marin Headlands to take our ritual pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city beyond it from that most famous of vantage points, possibly with an idea to post the pictures for the folks back home, although, in the end, that didn't actually happen.
We did, of course, know that we'd be returning to the city before heading home, and could have put off this stop for a "photo op", but it was a nice morning and, as things turned out, it was just as well that we took the opportunity when it presented itself, even though the city lacked that impressively classic white sparkle which we'd seen on earlier visits because of the brightness of the sun and the slight mist still hanging on to the morning.
So, with that all done and dusted, we headed back down and into the city, causing ourselves great angst over the payment of the toll for those travelling across the bridge in a southerly direction. You see, the famous tollbooths are now unmanned and empty, and will be disappearing forever fairly soon, we were told. Instead you just drive through and either pay with some kind of CityPass, or the number plate recognition system identifies you and send you a bill.
After making a few enquiries, and reading through our Rental Agreement, we decided that the Car rental Company would probably just add it to our bill eventually, and that it might be unwise to set up a payment that was linked to the Registration Plate of a Rental Car that we were unlikely to ever drive again, so we are now fully expecting the entire weight of "Federal Law" to land upon us at some future date long after we've forgotten all about it.
Hungry as anything, and troubled by this as yet unresolved situation, we decided to call in for breakfast at our favourite little Mel's Diner on Lombard Street, the place where we had usually had our farewell meal to the city on previous visits, because Duarte's still seemed to be an awfully long way away.
After this, we negotiated our way through some Big City Saturday traffic and found ourselves heading southwards once more on the Pacific Coastal Highway and, eventually, we did arrive at Pescadero where we took a moment to stop at a lovely little beach and watch the Pelicans fly by.
Pescadero itself seems to have made some improvements since we were last there, not least by developing a huge Bird Sanctuary / Nature Reserve just next to the highway about which we had not previously known, and, had we not really needed to get a move on to get to Monterey in the early afternoon, we would have spent far more time there, and we added it to our short list of places to be investigated later, if we found the time.
We did try to stop for Coffee and Fruit Pie at Pescadero itself but at that time, half way through a busy Saturday morning, the little town was far, far too busy for us to find a parking spot - must have been all those bird watchers - and so we turned the car around and headed southwards again, arriving as planned at a packed Monterey in the early afternoon of a Saturday on what turned out to be a "Holiday Weekend…"
After making a few enquiries, and reading through our Rental Agreement, we decided that the Car rental Company would probably just add it to our bill eventually, and that it might be unwise to set up a payment that was linked to the Registration Plate of a Rental Car that we were unlikely to ever drive again, so we are now fully expecting the entire weight of "Federal Law" to land upon us at some future date long after we've forgotten all about it.
Hungry as anything, and troubled by this as yet unresolved situation, we decided to call in for breakfast at our favourite little Mel's Diner on Lombard Street, the place where we had usually had our farewell meal to the city on previous visits, because Duarte's still seemed to be an awfully long way away.
After this, we negotiated our way through some Big City Saturday traffic and found ourselves heading southwards once more on the Pacific Coastal Highway and, eventually, we did arrive at Pescadero where we took a moment to stop at a lovely little beach and watch the Pelicans fly by.Pescadero itself seems to have made some improvements since we were last there, not least by developing a huge Bird Sanctuary / Nature Reserve just next to the highway about which we had not previously known, and, had we not really needed to get a move on to get to Monterey in the early afternoon, we would have spent far more time there, and we added it to our short list of places to be investigated later, if we found the time.
We did try to stop for Coffee and Fruit Pie at Pescadero itself but at that time, half way through a busy Saturday morning, the little town was far, far too busy for us to find a parking spot - must have been all those bird watchers - and so we turned the car around and headed southwards again, arriving as planned at a packed Monterey in the early afternoon of a Saturday on what turned out to be a "Holiday Weekend…"
All this talk of fruit pie is a bit Twin Peakish... Meet any dwarfs?
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, i just started re-watching Twin Peaks this week, so you may be on to something there...
DeleteAt the very least, it may have triggered a memory which led me back there...