17-Mile Drive in Monterey, Morro Bay, and San Simeon
Almost coming to an end of this road trip. Leaving the Motel 6 Monterey at Seaside early in the morning after enjoying our Chinese 'pineapple buns' that we got from Napoleon Super Bakery in SF Chinatown and coffee in our room. The weather was again gloomy and I was just hoping that it won't affect our trip through the 17-mile scenic drive.
The entrance fee for the drive is now $10.25 per vehicle. We just followed the given map and the route painted on the road making whatever stops along the way as we pleased. We stopped at almost all the designated areas since we started early and had plenty of time to explore. Since we have been here many times, we knew what to look for and the sights were mostly familiar places which we just wanted to show our visitors.
Spanish Bay
Point Joe
Spy Glass Hill Golf Course
Bird Rock
Birds and sea lions
Cypress Point
Lone Cypress
Pescadero Point
The Lodge at Pebble Beach
After our drive through 17-mile drive, we had to get back to Hwy 101 instead of going down Highway 1 because of the road closure in Big Sur. This made our trip a bit longer than necessary since we had to back track around Morro Bay and then up north to San Simeon on Hwy 1. But then it was nice that we can visit Morro Bay again. We kind of felt in love with this little town since our trip here from last year.
Morro Bay
The iconic Morro Rock at this fishing village.
Morro Bay T Pier, this is also the otter viewing area.
Playful otters
Anchor Memorial Park with the Stacks in the background.
Marilyn Monroe somewhere along the Embarcadero.
Brickhouse BBQ
After several seafood meals on this trip, I thought it would be good to enjoy a BBQ dinner. We have been here at the Brickhouse BBQ the last time we were here and looking forward to return for another delicious meal. This is a small restaurant and it's like a self-serve type of place. You place your order at the counter, find a table, get your own supplies and wait for your food. When we got there the place was packed and we had to wait for someone to leave before we could sit down. We ended up sitting next to this family who were finishing up their dinners. The gentleman struck up a conversation with us and asked where we were from , etc. etc. After learning of our eclipse experience, he said his boss (they were locals) also drove up to Oregon for the eclipse and he was stuck in traffic for hours. He said it took him 9 hours to make 150 miles southbound on the 5 after the eclipse. Good thing we avoided that mess and went west on the country road that day, totally missed that traffic nightmare.
A repeat of another delicious dinner at Brickhouse BBQ.
This one is a 3-meat combo with chicken, tri-tip, and pork. Loved those tender pieces of tri-tip.
We decided that the 3-meat combo would be good enough to share between the two of us.
This one is with the ribs instead of the chicken.
ChC's 2-meat combo.
Their self-serve BBQ sauce came with several flavors. I enjoyed the mango sauce the best.
Brickhouse BBQ--939 Main Street, Morro Bay.
Courtesy Inn, San Simeon
Driving up from Morro Bay to San Simeon was pretty straight forward on the 1 and quite scenic too. It was still light when we arrived so we hurriedly checked in and went out for a view of the sunset.
Our rooms were on the ground floor in the back of the motel.
Indoor swimming pool
Seemed pretty nice but we did not use the facility.
Front of the motel
We just had to cross Hwy 1 (Cabrillo Highway) to the other side for the most beautiful sunset by the beach.
Stairs to the beach.
Pico Avenue
Back to our motel for the night.
Pretty spacious room.
