California Coast 2011

So, think about California... About driving the coast through the small surfing villages. About migrant workers picking strawberries, selling avocado and kiwi along the street. About the pines of Big Sur, the lighthouses on rocky outcroppings, the surf crashing over the rocks. I bet you never thought about pumpkins.

Neither did I.

Seriously, Californians go nuts over pumpkins. Half Moon Bay has a pumpkin festival. Pumpkin farms are all up and down the coast, and since it's pumpkin season, well, there are pumpkins everywhere. Lady on the airplane warned me that the pumpkin pickers clog up everything much like New England's Leaf Peepers. I should have listened.

Not 30 miles from the airport and I hit my first (of many) big traffic jams of the day directly related to the fat orange gourds. This gave me an excuse to check out the Ferrosaurus Rex iron dinosaur sculpture garden.

Further along... and finally clear of the jammed up freeway in Santa Cruz... the coast road reminded me why I came here. Warm sun, cool ocean breeze, the smells of stawberries and pine forests. Dinner in Carmel-By-The-Sea and a beautiful sunset show, followed by rounding Big Sur in the black of night led me to an old school motel in Morro Bay. Laid in bed with the windows open and the sea breeze drifting in, listening to the faint sound of a fog horn and the sea lions barking incessantly down in the harbor.

Gallery In Pages: California Road Trip 2011