Monterey & Carmel, CA
This is a continuation of previous post...
First, I think I should officially announce the launch of the #meadadventures clothing line! It's starting out as an extremely limited special edition...okay, just kidding. It's actually from a company called Bow and Drape, and it was a crazy awesome Christmas gift from my brother and sister-in-law this year!
Alright back to the road. On our drive to Big Basin the night before we had to skip a chunk of Highway 1 to reach the park. We decided that because we weren't in any rush, we should backtrack a little and pick up where we left off. Our first stop was in Davenport where we walked down some old train tracks to reach a beach known as "shark tooth beach". It is a little obvious as to where it got its name because it has a rock that looks like a very large shark tooth just off of the shore.
Monterey/Carmel was our next official stop for the day. The Big Sur International Marathon was the next day, and I had signed us up to run the 5k. We didn't have time to do more than that, but I wanted us to experience at least some of the magic that people talk about with this race. When we arrived in Monterey the traffic was a mess and ditching the car was top priority. Luckily, the race expo and a place I wanted to eat lunch at were close to each other so we found a parking garage in the middle of both and started walking. I had read nothing but good things about LouLou's Griddle in the Middle (specifically their large pancakes) making it the obvious choice for lunch. It is located in the Fisherman's Wharf area making the wait for a table actually fun. We walked to the end of the wharf where we spent our wait time watching seals play in the water and tons of sailboats coming and going. Even though we missed the window for ordering pancakes, the restaurant lived up to all of the good things that I had read. From there we walked to the expo to pick up our race bibs, and finished out the afternoon by walking a trail beside the ocean before deciding to go find our campground.
Due to the abnormally rainy season that California had this past winter, Big Sur fell victim to major landslides and flooding shutting down a very large section of the highway. Within that closed off area were a lot of the campgrounds that the area has to offer (including the one we originally stayed at). We knew about the closures in advance, and although it cramped a bit of our plan, we were lucky enough to find a privately owned campground that had some vacancies. This was our first experience with a privately owned campground, but it turned out to be such a hidden gem! The host was so nice, the campsites were clean, and it was less than 10 minutes from the start line for our race the next morning. After setting up the tent and relaxing for a bit, we decided to head into Carmel to find dinner and scope out the race start/route. For dinner we found a cute little place called Carmel Belle (actually the whole town of Carmel is cute), and later watched the sunset at Monastery Beach.
The race started at 7:30 am the next morning, but we felt like we were getting to sleep in due to the time difference for us. The portion of the race we ran didn't have all of the dramatic cliff views like the longer distances, but what we ran was beautiful and even some whales came out to cheer us on. Post-race we stuck around and enjoyed the music, fellow runners, and the sunshine. Tommy even placed third in his age group! Later we packed up and moved on...today was elephant seal day!!
