California trip 11 - Joshua Tree National Park

December 25th 2011
After a great Christmas Eve dinner at our friend Cody's house in LA and a breakfast in the sun in his backyard on Christmas morning, we arrived in the afternoon to Joshua Tree National Park, the land of Dr Seuss... Do you see where he got his inspiration for the Green Eggs and Ham characters? Which American hasn't seen his books as kids??
But the park is not only about these funny looking Joshua trees, its also a paradise for rockclimbers, and if you don't have the climbing gear some rocks are perfect for scrambling!
We set camp in Ryan campground and had a beautiful sunsets that lit up the rocks in bright pink/orange... The night was very cold (below freezing!) but the sky was full of stars, amazing!
The next mroning we went up to Keys View from where you can see the San Andreas Fault, scrambled the rocks at Hidden Valley and Jumbo Rocks.
In the town of Joshua Tree, we ventured into a ghost-town-looking saloon and were surprised to find a delicious place for burgers.

I have to say Joshua Tree was one of my favorite part of the trip...

Joshua Trees everywhere!Our tent at Ryan Campground:Keys View and San Andreas FaultHidden Valley:

Jumbo Rocks :

Town of Joshua Tree at the entrance of the park

California trip 10 - Santa Barbara

December 24th 2011
Another nice surprise during our trip was the pretty city of Santa Barbara, great scenery with mountains as a background and spanish colonial architecture. We had such great weather that day, December 24th, it was about 25°C (77F) and I was too hot in a long sleeved t-shirt!!
The best part of the visit was walking down the main downtown State Street and visiting the Courthouse with its garden and a great 360° view at the top. I especially liked the ceramics that we saw on Anacapa Street, reminded my of Spain! and that can only be good...

California trip 9 - Big Sur

December 23rd 2011
The next step of our journey was a much awaited one : BIG SUR...
It's really hard to describe what this place really is and also hard to point our exactly on a map - basically it's a mountain range (Santa Lucia Mountain Range) along a part of the coast with protected spaces, a National Forest and State Beaches and State Parks, a great place to hike with views on the ocean. There is no city or town there, just some campgrounds and a couple expensive hotels so we had booked a hotel in San Luis Obispo which was another 100miles/170 km more south.
Also, an important thing that we didnt consider when planning our trip in December, we had the shortest days of the year! So it was already starting to get dark by 4.30 and the sun set at 5.
Big Sur probably starts when you see the Bixby Bridge. We didn't have time for a hike but we drove down to Pfeiffer State Beach to see the spectacular rocks and purple sand... then continues our way south along the sunset... Beautiful!

California trip 8 - 17-Mile Drive and Point Lobos

December 23rd 2011-
Just south of Monterrey and Pacific Grove starts the 17-mile drive, a road with beautiful scenery all along. We took almost 2 hours since we stopped at the different lookouts and just took our time enjoying the view. It ends with Pebble Beach and its world-famous golf course.

The famous Monterrey sea otter in its natural habitat!

You need a close-up to figure out what is on this "Bird Rock":Seals! And alot of them...

Last stop of 17-mile drive, The Lone Cypress, loyal to its rock since over 250 years:

Coming out of the drive, you drive through the little town of Carmel, with its million dollar houses overlooking the ocean.
A little further we stopped at Point Lobos State Preserve, another must-see of the Central Coast.
It is a perfect place to spend a whole day just hiking the trails through the cypress forests and then following the rocky shores. We only could stay a couple hours but we still got to spot some whales in the distance! November and December is the season for them to migrate through the area.

Video : Sea lions barking under Santa Cruz Pier

California trip 7 - Monterrey

December 22nd 2011
The day we had in Monterrey was pretty much dedicated to visiting the Aquarium which had some really unique features : the jellyfish and the seahorses amongst others...


The local animal hero of Monterrey is the sea otter (loutre). It was almost extincted, chased for its fur, and is now back in the Monterrey Bay and a very important element of the marine ecosystem - eating the sea urchins (oursins) and keeping them from eating up the entire kelp seaweed marine forests. Pretty impressive!
The best way to end the day was with delicious pizza from Caffe Trieste on the main street of downtown Monterrey, my favorite restaurant of the trip!

California trip 6 - Santa Cruz

December 21st 2011 -
On our sunny day in Santa Cruz, we walked along Cliff Drive with the ocean on one side and amazing houses on the other side. We started from Steamer Lane, a famous surfing spot, which was packed despite the cold! I had never seen so many surfers at once "fighting" for the waves can't imagine how many there must be during the summer. We went past the "dog" beach, where dogs can be unleashed and play in the sand and water. A little further we reached Natural Bridges State Beach where we walked through a Monarch butterfly eucalyptus grove. At the peak of the migration season, you can see clusters of thousands of butterflies on the eucalyptus branches. This time we just saw a few in the trees but it was a little too cold for them to be flying around.

We had lunch in the cute downtown and ended up back on the beach, boardwalk (amusement park which was closed), and Fisherman's Wharf where the seals gather underneath the pier on the wooden structure, some just floating around...Before leaving the next morning we stopped in Capitola to see the postcard-perfect line of colored houses on the beach:Thanks to our friends and hosts Angela and Meeta for showing us around Santa Cruz and taking us to the delicious local restaurants!