Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Shadows in my mind

Monterey!!


Matt and I got the chance to sneak away and soak up the sun. We drove down the coast and stayed right on the sea. Nothing better.

Walking the Fisherman's Wharf pier looking for dinner but stopped for treats first.

You can't tell, but we are eating over the water and sandwiched between the beautiful view of the sea and a cozy fireplace. Not to mention the delicious food.

Checking out the shops

And touring the town after hours

We loved having the whole place to ourselves. We wanted to walk all night but saw everything pretty quickly so we had no other choice than to hit up the hot tub then walk across the street to the cutest cafe/movie theater where we loaded up with baked goodies.

Got up as early as we could to do the same walk again but in the daylight. We saw a couple things the night before that were closed, like a free museum, so we had to go there. Matt and I both read Tortilla Flat last month. It's fun to imagine it way back when with Steinbeck.

Welcome to Cannery Row

Matt somehow behind my back read Cannery Row without me. Just when you think you know someone.

The start of 17 Mile Drive. It is said to be the finest drive ever to the most beautiful love of sea meets land.

picture perfect, would like to be laying on one of those tables right now.

My handsome man, capturing the Lone Cypress tree

running like a fool, in complete heaven. I was actually very happy because I could hear my friends barking just around the corner

see. you have to click on the pic to see them all. I was a little sad that around the corner had ocean in the way.

Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse on this coast

McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park -- the most beautiful thing EVER. This trip with all about walking hand in hand in the cool ocean breeze. Love was in the air.

Manzanita on our last hike in Big Sur (Buzzard's Roost trail at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park). I have been telling Matt about the beauty of these suckers forever. How I would eat them year round. He finally got to try the winter version when they are red with sweet powder inside.

At the top. Matt was hoping we would have a better view of the ocean. All I could think during the whole hike is, this is Big Sur? Feels like I'm hiking at my parents'!! Which is not a bad thing, but the best thing in the whole world.

We decided to take a different route down to make it a loop. It got dark the moment we left the top. We enjoyed frolicking in the dark and just had to laugh when we ran into this! What to do, we couldn't see a thing till we took this picture and looked at it on the camera - here's to bright flashes!!

It was fun. We thought we were going to just walk a couple of miles and it ended up at over 5. It was bliss though. Just me and honey in the woods.

Last but not least: The whole trip we were saving the best for last, a midnight swim. So we went to our hidden beach, Pfeiffer Beach (we heard it can be hard to find and worth the extra time). And it was all ours under the moon and stars. We had to cross a stream to get to it. By the time we did we just stood in awe. It was really a beautiful cove, but I was too afraid no one would ever see us again. I had never been to this beach before and could see rocks in the moonlight and had no idea if there was a dropoff or riptide. So we held each other tight and loved having Orion over us. Till next time, beach.

4 comments:

moonshinejunkyard said...

beautiful! i'm so glad you guys loved big sur. i really want to go back and stay at the tent cabins, and go to the secret beach every day! and listen to music shows at the henry miller library, and take hikes all through those hills. i love that you guys ended up on a night hike through the forest. that happened to me too, the thing about not believing this was big sur, when darin and i hiked to the top of one of the big hills to the east of the ocean to an overlook. i had thought we'd be right on the craggy coastline but we were far away off in the forest. i loved it, especially once you could see the ocean all out at the horizon. by the way you both look glorious in all the photos!

mattbeatty said...

Heather-- I almost think we did the same hike (I remember something like this getting brought up over the holidays . . .)--do you remember where it was? Our was the Buzzard's Roost trail/loop at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. About 5 miles total, a little over.

Sarah said...

We did that hike a couple years ago (although not in the dark). We thought we'd see the ocean more, too. I miss manzanita! And I think we went to the same beach (also not in the dark). We didn't really swim, but found some sweet starfish. You guys are crazy to be walking around in pitch black. What a fun trip, though!

Nadia said...

Looks lovely! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I think you did.