Monterey to San Francisco

From our motel in Monterey we rode down to Cannery Row, glitzy and expensive, and took a quick look around before heading to Old Fisherman's Wharf. We visited both these spots last year, when we had an amazingly good Alaskan crab dinner on the Wharf. We can't imagine why we didn't think of going there again for our anniversary dinner last night...

The Wharf's clam chowder is a must for a quick lunch. Although touristy it has a special atmosphere with genuine, fresh seafood and friendly sea birds.  You peered at people kayaking or diving around the kelp as you ate.

We headed for Santa Cruz and turned north to La Honda where Kurt and Cheryl Schaeffer live with their two sons, Pioneer and Simon. The road out of Santa Cruz started winding up into the mountains, (forests of soft trees inhibited our views of the valleys but were very pleasant to drive through) where we picked up the southern end of Skyline Drive, a single lane road used by traffic in both directions and with turns tighter than a hangman's noose. It was slow riding especially on blind corners, and we did encounter a surprising number of cars coming the other way. After a few miles the road widened out to two full lanes and with more open corners, so we were able to pick up speed again until we turned down Alpine Road with lots of tight blind corners. Our GPS took us unerringly to Kurt's front door, where Kurt greeted us enthusiastically. We soon realised that Kurt is an absolute bundle of energy and does everything with great enthusiasm. It's easy to understand how he manages to do so much creative work while working full time and raising two great little boys. Their house is on a large elevated block with fabulous views over the surrounding hills, a great place to raise their boys. It has wide balconies to take advantage of the forest views. We sat outside for a while but it was rather chillier than usual for this time of the year as the fog started settling on the mountains.

Cheryl and the boys were out when we arrived. We played with the boys after dinner, and Simon who is two years old started calling me "grandad". I quickly found I could get comfortable with that.

This morning we were treated to lumpy pancakes for breakfast, a real treat. Kurt then showed us his well-equipped workshop and some of the things he has made. He is quite a Renaissance man, with a wide range of interests and skills. He is an accomplished wood worker, metal worker, electronic gizmo maker and pretty handy with a sewing machine. The projects he showed us included an electronically controlled bench for moving tin cans under a punch which is used to make decorative patterns of holes in the can. These holes let light leak out when a bulb is put inside it. (I should mention he made the punch himself by making the patterns and casting the frame in aluminium). Another project was a cypher machine built from laser cut perspex, and another an X-Y axis table that moved a magnifying glass over a piece of wood to burn patterns on it. Kurt even had it programmed to compensate for the movement of the sun as the work progressed...

He then fired up the oxy-propane torch ready for a mini-shindig at which he introduced us to glass bead making. We had a great time with this - it is incredibly easy to get started, but clearly requires much practice to develop real skills.

It was soon lunch time, so we packed up our bike and followed Kurt and Cheryl and the boys up to Alice's Restaurant at Sky Londa (the intersection of Skyline Drive and La Honda Road). This is a well known destination for bikers on the weekend, and there was quite a crowd there when we arrived - together with some very nice bikes.

After lunch we said our farewells, and headed back down La Honda Road to the coast where we  picked up Highway 1 to ride into San Francisco. We headed for Union Square, an area we frequented on our stay last year, and found a secure public car park where we could leave the bike overnight (for $20). There are dozens of hotels in the area, so it was not hard finding somewhere to stay.

We are now travelling in sync with our planned itinerary for the first time since our journey began.