The Orange Ninja and Friends: No Reservations

Monterey to Cayucos

We woke up this morning to some fog yet again. It seems to be following us everywhere we and of course each time we ask someone he or she says that this is the worst fog in a number of years…go figure. We packed the car and headed towards Big Sur. We were going to do the 19 mile drive around Pebble Beach and Ghost Tree, but since it was a Saturday, the traffic was pretty bad so we headed straight on the 1. We stopped by a café at the River Inn, which is right as you enter Big Sur where we had a great breakfast in the SUN (finally). The café was great and it even had Adirondack chairs set up in the river for people to eat in the comfort of the running water. You can even bring your inner tubes and go for a ride after you eat…We’ll remember to do this next time. We started back down the road, and the scenery was amazing. It reminded us a lot like Oregon; except there weren't any guardrails down here…I was guessing it was because of the budget cuts. All of the bridges are simple compact concrete bridges built in the 1930s but still look very rigid and sturdy today. With the girls passed out in the back, Mike and I sat in the front talking about the cool things we had seen in the past week. One of the place that we didn’t get to stop at because of time but are curious to go back to is the Esalen Institute which has hot springs right on the ocean. The only problem is that you can only go by reservation between the hours of 1 and 3 a.m. that is correct..a.m. Imagine how the ocean and stars must look sitting in a spring in the middle of the night. We exited Big Sur and headed up to the Hearst Castle. This place is amazing. It makes Neverland ranch look like a motel 6. It sits way up high on a hill overlooking San Simeon Bay, and has tons of fruit orchards, cattle, own fire station, and even a few zebra. We pulled into the parking lot, and tried to go for a tour, but since we didn’t have any reservations we weren’t able to go on a tour. So we picked up some tickets for the next day and headed down to Cayucos about 15 minutes south. In Cayucos we stayed with Mark Interian, a friend of mine from dental school, whose house is amazing. He has some great vegetable gardens, little bungalows, and a creek all on his property. After showing us around, we headed down to Moro Bay for sushi which Nikki and Bri were craving the past few days. We had a great dinner and then headed back to the house where we all fell asleep to the sounds of the creek below.