First thing Saturday morning, after our morning ritual of coffee, checking blogs and emails, Paulette and I took Molly and Rylie down to the Marina Dunes Beach for a run. The sun was out and it looked like it was going to be another beautiful day. We spent about an hour on the beach and then headed back up the dunes to get ready to explore the Monterey Peninsula and, for Paulette, a chance to check out a few Quilt Shops.
I never get tired of seeing the ocean waves pound up on the shore
We left the RV park, in perfect weather, at 10am and headed north on Hwy. 1 in the general direction of Santa Cruz - about 45 minutes away. We passed through small towns like Castroville, Moss Landing, Watsonville, Rio Del Mar and Capitola before arriving in Santa Cruz about 11am.
We nurture Pampas Grass in our front yard and here it’s growing wild
This area of the Monterey Peninsula seems not to be too tourist based. Instead, agriculture seems to be the main industry, in particular, artichokes. The Monterey area is the world’s largest producer of artichokes. Who knew? I do now as there are thousands of acres of artichoke fields wherever you look. Every time I have an artichoke from now on, I will think of Monterey!
An example of a typical building in Salinas’ Old Town
After driving around Santa Cruz and looking at some of the interesting sights, we headed back south down Hwy 1 and turned left at Castroville on Hwy 183 towards Salinas. Paulette wanted to check out a fabric store there which turned out to be a good one because she came out with bags full of fabric for making more quilts. While she was in the store, I took the muttzos for a walk around Salinas’ Old Town. Salinas is the birthplace of Pulitzer and Nobel winning author John Steinbeck(Grapes of Wrath, Mice and Men etc.).
Fisherman’s Wharf at Monterey adjacent to Cannery Row
From Salinas, we headed back to the coast and the beautiful city of Monterey. Paulette found another quilt shop to look at, so I took Molly and Rylie on a scenic tour of some incredible coastlines. The views from the many lookouts along the Monterey waterfront are just spectacular. After I picked up Paulette, we went back along the same route so she could see how beautiful the ocean waves were as they crashed over the rocky shoreline. Sure beats a quilt store, if you ask me!
The Pacific Ocean crashing against the rocks in Monterey Bay
Next up on our tour was Carmel By The Sea – and, unlike the towns to the north, this is place is pure touristville, but still very interesting and attractive. Getting a parking spot in Carmel, anywhere, seems to be almost impossible, so we just drove up and down the shop lined streets, packed with visitors who I’m assuming were tourists like us. It was great to see Carmel, but we’re not into window shopping in hundreds of little shops anymore – especially with two dogs in tow. We looked, but we didn’t see Clint Eastwood either.
More ocean waves in Monterey Bay
By the time we left Carmel, it was just about 4pm and we were all pretty tired. But, we had one more visit to make before calling it a day and that was another walk down to the Marina Dunes Beach. After parking the truck in our RV site, we had just enough time to hike down the path between the dunes to the beach in time for the sunset. Again, Molly and Rylie ran wild on the beach and just loved it.
Driving along Ocean Rd. in Carmel – packed as always
We are leaving Marina Dunes RV Park on Sunday morning after spending an extremely enjoyable 2 days here. The location of this park is perfect, both for touring Monterey and for it’s location to the Marina Dunes Beach directly across the street. The park is exceptionally clean and well taken care of and both cable and free wifi work great! We will definitely stay here again if we ever return to this area – and, we probably will!
We said goodbye to Marina Dunes by watching the sunset Saturday
Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!
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