WARNING, this post is HEAVY in graphics.
April 15, 2013
We were urged by many friends to hop down to the Monterey, Pebble Beach, Carmel by the Sea area. "Don't miss", they kept telling us. "You will be in photo heaven", they kept telling us. They were correct, of course! We drove via Sand City to Pebble Beach and the 17 Mile Drive.
Sand City, is, well, sandy! There are signs on California Highway 1 that say, "Drifting Sand". I don't have to drive it daily, nor clean up the highway after a particularly bad storm, so, I delight in the signs and the sand.
This first photo was actually taken on the way home this day.
The wind picks up the sand at the top of the dunes and blows it elsewhere, if you look carefully, you can see the sand in the wind.
17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach offers something for all, houses, beach, ocean waves, ocean critters, places of interest for movie buffs, and of course, golf!! Please note there is a fee to drive the 17 Mile Drive. It is a private road.
For the most part many of the houses are behind gates and/or beautiful collections of flora. Photos of houses are rather hard to snag, and I did not try too much after I realized just how difficult it would be. They really frown on your stopping in the middle of the road, jumping out and taking photos. LOL So, here are a couple of lovely homes, the best two photos of houses of the day.
The following two photos were taken at a pull off they call, "The Restless Sea". Restless due to the submerged rocks (many are granite) and terrain.
China Rock area. Chinese fishermen built lean-to hones against the rocks in the late 1800s to early 1900's.
NO, I did not edit these photos for color. In fact, the most I did was resize the photos for the blog, and on one or two photos I did a auto correct or a little balance of the brightness and contrast. However, most of these photos are just as they came out of Sony Too. Yes, that is a turquoise color in the water. And, yes, it changes to a darker blue. The water color was gorgeous beyond words!
Bird Rock and Seal Rock Picnic Area.
Sony Too zooms on Seal Rock, many birds and what are those tan spots at the bottom left??
More Sony Too zoom, and yes, we have seals (now, there are at least 3 kinds of seals that frequent the California coast, and I do not know which these are).
Zoom on the top of the rock and there are more seals (that was some climb!). The birds are either Brandt's Cormorant, which are 33 inches long and have a wingspan of 50 inches, or Pelagic Cormorant, which are 20 inches long and have a wingspan of 40 inches.
Every way you turn, the views are stunningly beautiful.
And, we have fencing, Ice plant, teal water, waves, sand, coastline, rocks, and total beauty!
The Lone Cypress, recognized as one of California's iconic and enduring landmarks, this cypress is reported to be more than 250 years old. It is hard to see on this photo, but, they have it supported well by wires and such. If reports found on the internet are true, the tree has been held in place this way for at least 65 years.
Pescadero Point area, in panoramic!
Lucky artists that can paint here.
Peeble Beach Golf Links, plaque celebrating Bing! THE original Bing!
And, there it is, the infamous, Pebble Beach Golf Course! Man was thrilled to just be there. We agreed that the fee of close to $450.00 for 18 holes was more than our budget could handle. But he can say he was THERE!!
* Of course, I did some research on the Lone Cypress before publication of this post, cause, well, I found something that indicated the Pebble Beach Company has any image of the tree copyrighted. Really, I don't need that kind of trouble. I found oodles of other photos in a quick search. I also found a bit of a controversy. There are conflicting reports that this is the tree that is 250 years old. I figure I could spend about 100 hours researching this and still not know which story is correct. It is a gorgeous tree and photo tho, isn't it?
**So, here is the disclaimer, I took these photos, I am not selling these photos, I put photos on my blogs for the enjoyment of friends and family. Except for the photos of my family that appear here on Reflections, I can tell you that thousands and thousands of other people have taken similar photos of all the beauty across this nation similar to those I post. Pebble Beach Company has not asked me to photograph the sights along the 17 Mile Drive, nor have they paid me anything to do so. Please see my Disclaimer page here on Reflections.
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