Big Fun on the One

Day Twenty One: San Simeon to Oakland

It's a misty morning, Mermaid weather for sure. We have just enough fuel in the stove to make coffee and some eggs. Sweet neighbors offer us their fire if we need to warm up. We are actually reveling in this weather after the last 3 weeks of desert travel.

Three miles from San Simeon (we skipped Hearst castle, by the way) is “Elephant Seal Beach”. I think, yeah right. But, sure enough, the seals are on their southerly migration, and so the beach was full of them. They are all juveniles, and will grow to be twice their current (enormous) size. We are spellbound watching them snuggle and snore and spar. A park ranger tells us that they migrate as far as 2500 miles to the north, and that they are solitary swimmers. They typically dive 5000 feet for food. A Navy submarine can't even dive that deep. They are used to these fathomless, black waters so they have to throw sand over themselves as sun screen, even on this overcast day.

Hwy 1 (“the 1”) is fabulous. The roadsides are covered in succulents, and they're almost all in bloom. It's like the most perfectly orchestrated living roof with all of the crimsons, chartreuses, bright yellows and cool greens arranged just so. The highway traces the coastline exactly, weaving back and forth through canyons and heaving out over the cliffs. The coastline is rocky, allowing for dramatic crashing waves. After a foggy morning, the sun comes out as we ride through Big Sur. We round a corner, and the cliffs are carpeted with yellow all the way down to the bright lapis and turquoise water. It's stunning.

The Big Sur Bakery is a definite stop. It's perched on a cliff and surrounded by amazing gardens. All of their goodies are wood fired, so the air smells not only like buttery baked goods, but like a campfire too. We chose a walnut chocolate strudel and an almond croissant. The strudel and the croissant have exactly the same dough, but are delicious none the less.

The 1 gets busy just past Carmel as you're coming into Santa Cruz. It swells up and feels just like any other 4 lane. We decide to take a break in Santa Cruz. Alix recommended a Sri Lankan restaurant there, which is either now out of business or is too elusive for us. We found our way out to the harbor area which is a bustling downtown with equal parts chic boutiques and homeless people. We meandered around for awhile and then popped in to a Salvation Army thrift store. I found an awesome pair of jeans that actually fit (it's hard to get a Mermaid into jeans) and were only $4. I gotta shout out to my girl Mary, my all time favorite thrift store comrade, she would have loved this one.

Anyway, feeling triumphant with my denim booty (pun intended, I couldn't resisit) we head to Pizza My Heart for a slice. This is a sweet little pizza joint with trumpet vines growing all up the outside of the building. The inside is covered with vintage surf stuff, including a motorized surf board. They also have a self serve bar of pizza toppings with the standard Parmesan and red pepper flakes and also ground cumin and local hot sauces. It almost felt like home for a sec when an adorable dread locked blonde came in looking for scraps for her brand new hemp adorned puppy.

Back on the 1 and headed north to San Francisco we pass big artichoke and strawberry farms, and farm stand selling these things for cheap. Like 7 artichokes for $1. The air here smells like strawberries. Soon the road narrows again, a heavy, wet fog rolls in, and it gets cold. I can tell that our daily riding gear will be changing to suit the California coast. The Bedouin desert gear gets stowed, and out come the hoodies, scarves and thermals.

The 1 ends into 280 in San Fransisco. We are entering this town at the tail end of rush hour and in freezing cold, fairly dense fog. I'm navigating and the Pirate is captaining, and it's graceful. We cross the Bay bridge into Oakland like pros, and start to look for Sparkle's place.

Big Sur Bakery

Sparkle is a graduate of ASMY. She moved from Asheville about 6 months ago, and has easily found her natural niche as yoga instructor and showgirl in the Bay. She is kindly putting us up in her back courtyard (our second back courtyard!) in an old camper trailer compete with fairie lights. We take hot showers to warm up from the fog, then head out for late sushi dinner. It's happy hour after 10 pm, so dinner is cheap. We catch up over hand rolls and hot sake, then head home and nestle in to our sweet little Bay area abode.