Seven of us decided to drive 200 miles – each way – for a steak dinner at F. McClintock’s in Pismo Beach. It wasn’t so much the destination as it was the journey, though it was a nice destination as well.
Our first stop was to the Paris Bakery in Monterey. Yummy! We drove around Monterey for a while, looking at parks and the Presidio, and then we drove to a Greek sandwich shop. It turned out that they weren’t open on Wednesdays. Go figure. Fortunately, there was a Subway across the street. With all our food in hand, we set off for the spot between Monterey and Carmel where there are good tide pools. The kids looked at all forms of sea life for a while. Sometime later, while I was watching the kids from a bench, some old people began to yell at me. My daughter had a bucket and a net with her on the beach, and I guess it’s a $1000 fine if you are caught with these items, and several thousand if you have any sea life in the bucket. No signs are posted anywhere, but the coast here is considered a National Preserve. I quickly got the contraband off the beach and began walking it to the car. I saw a police car coming my way, so I hid the bucket in a large aloe plant. The police were not looking for me, but they must have been looking for my kids. They parked right where my kids were and began to watch them. Those old folks called the police on us! The police watched the kids until I picked them up in the van. The police then moved on… and we grabbed the bucket and net from the aloe bush.
Next stop was Mission Carmel. Half our car had never been to a California Mission, so we decided to pop into one of the better ones in California. The kids were largely unimpressed. I guess they don’t like history too much at this age.
The drive down the coast for the next three hours was lovely. Many of the cars ahead of us were enjoying the scenery too… at 30 MPH. This got annoying as it cost us an extra hour on the road. We absolutely had to get to F. McClintock’s by 6:30 or we wouldn’t get a table until after 7:30. I began to pass cars whenever I could, which is not easy on a single lane highway. Just past San Simeon (Hearst Castle), it opened up to two lanes. There were still a number of people who don’t realize that you need to stay in the slow lane on a two lane highway, but I was able to weave around them (while still below the speed limit no less!). We got to the steakhouse with four minutes to spare.
The dinner was excellent, though pricy.
Our drive up 101 on the way home was smooth and fast. It still took us a little over three hours to drive the 200 miles.