Today (Feb 3rd) was a day of winding roads, mountains and seascapes. We began by taking the most crooked street in the world. We’ve now seen the steepest in Dunedin, New Zealand, and travelled the hairpin turns of Lombard Street in San Francisco.

This was followed by about 8 hours of mountainous twisting roads as we made our way south on Highway 1 along the shores of the Pacific. The vistas are spectacular and one can’t help but pull over every few miles to take in the panoramic views.

We did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach, checking out Spyglass Hill and the Links at Spanish Bay (two golf clubs used in the AT&T Pro Am). Spanish Bay is right out at the ocean with lots of long grass (maybe sea oats) along the verge. We have Canadian Geese on our golf courses…they had deer! We presume they’re there to keep the grass at a moderate level. We stopped at Pebble Beach Golf Club for a brief visit and were warmly welcomed in to visit the club house. They are setting up for the Pro Am next week, so much of the golf club was off limits. We did take a walk down the road and got to visit the picturesque 17th hole. We stopped to chat with a golfer and decided afterwards it was probably Peter Jacobson.

The road from Pebble Beach down to San Simeon is quite something. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic in either direction and the weather was beautiful and sunny. We watched the sun set about 20 miles north of the Hearst Castle and then finished the last few miles in the dark. We would like to have visited the Castle, having seen pictures that David and Suad took on a recent visit, but time just doesn’t permit. Maybe next visit! We stopped in the little town of Morro Bay for dinner. The place was like a ghost town – obviously not their high season. We’ve tried to book at Holiday Inns whenever possible, so as to maximize our points. Tonight’s hotel was just out of San Luis Obispo, but we had to stop twice to ask for directions. I joked with the guy at the desk that it has to rank as the hardest Holiday Inn to find! The directions on their website didn’t include instructions when coming from the north on Highway 1, so it was a bit confusing. We’re now safely ensconced in our room with a fireplace (in California?) and George is sound asleep, having watched the CBC news.

For those who are snowed in, I had hoped to include a little movie of the surf at Pebble Beach, but alas WordPress can’t do that. More research required!