Day 14, 15, and 16

Left Hotel in Downtown San Francisco 9 AM Pacific Time. Stopped at the Golden Gate Park and Muir Woods North of the City. Final destination Mazda Raceway outside Monterrey, CA approx. 6:00 PM Pacific Time. Approx. 200 miles.

   After waking up in our swanky yet cheaply priced Hotel Room we checked out and drove across the surprisingly auto-friendly city of San Francisco to the Golden Gate Park. It's like  Central Park...but bigger. We checked out some of the gardens in the park got lunch and then visited the Shakespeare Garden where the hundreds of species of flora referenced in the Bard's works are well maintained in a serene setting.

We then got out of the city and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to check out Muir woods, home to the giant redwoods of Coastal California. 

We learned that the Giant Sequoia's in the western part of the state and the coastal redwood's despite both being really darn huge are in fact very different types of trees. Redwoods are more slender but much taller than the sequoias. Davis had to sit in the car while the Jersey Boy's checked out the coastal giants. Walking in sandals up and down Yosemite falls two days prior was finally taking a tole on his feet.

After Muir woods we drove down the coast on the magnificent pacific highway, CA Route 1. On the way down to our campsite outside of Monterrey we got the chance to stop at a fresh fruit stand by the side of the road. Rob our boy from the shore was psyched about finally seeing some beaches on our trip. 

After an afternoon's drive down the coast we finally arrived at our campground outside of Monterrey. We knew little about the site, only that apparently it is a great place for weddings. To our surprise our campsite was actually part of a Mazda Raceway complex. There were hundreds of designated sites we supposed were all booked on race days, however on this Tuesday night were were the only folks camping out. 

After grabbing dinner in the town of Monterrey, we enjoyed our seclusion at the campsite, made a pretty big fire and blasted some tunes from the idling Honda. Rob and Davis made it a late night. Doobin passed out on a picnic table. 

Day 15 

Left Campground 10 AM Pacific Time. Stopped in Big Sur and grabbed lunch with great company. Final destination outside of San Luis Obispo, CA 7:00 PM Pacific Time. Approx. 150 miles.

We woke up later than planned and hustled our way down to Big Sur, a place we had been hearing about from Californians for the past several days, to meet up with Davis' family friends, the Smiths and the Bartletts. 

We made it on time to the upscale restaurant of Nepenthe, featuring expansive views of the pacific coast. We met up with the Smiths and Bartletts and enjoyed one of the best meals of the trip. 

  After lunch we followed our company to an incredible beach north of Big Sur at the behest of Denise Bartlett. It was a stunning site unlike anything back east. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

After saying farewell to our friends we continued down Route 1 CA to our campsite outside of San Luis Obispo, stopping for dinner and White Russian ingredients along the way in order to celebrate Rob's birthday "in style" on the Pacific coast. In the midst of our celebrations we temporarily lost Doobin's phone (Davis lost it), but not before we witnessed a beautiful west coast sunset.

Day 16

Left Campground Noon Pacific Time. Made a brief stop in Santa Barbara. Final destination Pasadena, California, the Iwata residence 7 PM Pacific time. approx. 230 miles. 

We had a pretty slow start to day 16. Lunch was rough, despite the great food and atmosphere. The restaurant was a great local place with hundreds of interesting baseball caps hanging from the ceiling. Davis wanted to get one of their epic desserts but the Jersey boys could barely stomach the thought of more food so we hit the road. 

We were in the car pretty much all day except for a brief stop in Santa Barbara where picked up some honey and roasted almonds at a local farmer's market for our spectacular hosts in Pasadena. 

We arrived at our friend from W and L, Kathryn Iwata's home in Pasadena just in time for a delicious home cooked meal. Davis once again had a very difficult time using chopsticks. 

Since one of the members of our party was without an ID we couldn't go out to any of the bars in town to experience the LA night life and instead hung out at Kathryn's house reminscing about school and looking forward to the final day of the Jersey Boy's leg of the road trip. 

peace and love

the Three Dudes