Probably the most famous section of the California coastline is the Monterey Peninsula - about 120 miles south of San Francisco. It is home to Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, Spyglass and several other golf courses - all well publicized with the old Bing Crosby (now the AT&T Pro Am) golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It's also home to the rich and famous - Clint Eastwood was recently mayor of Carmel and Doris Day has a hotel there. Many of the wealthy live on the Del Monte property on the peninsula - it is a gated community with a toll road running through it giving the public access to Pebble Beach and the coastline by driving along 17 Mile Drive.

Monterey is known for Cannery Row and the author John Steinbach and has a wonderful aquarium with enormous display tanks.  The village of Carmel is full of old world charm and quaint homes.

We decided to stay at Moss Landing, 20 miles north of Monterey, as they had a new RV park alongside the harbour and we could hear the seals honking every morning!
 

Monterey

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Cannery Row, Monterey	The Monterey Aquarium	Seals basking with the birds

17 Mile Drive

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17 Mile Drive - the Lone Cypress and the 18th at Pebble

Carmel

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Most homes were covered in flowering shrubs in Carmel	One of Sandy's favourite ocean-side homes in Carmel	Even the businesses in Carmel were attractive

Just outside Carmel is the Laguna Seca Recreation Area - home of the Mazda Laguna Seca Racetrack, where AMA and World SuperBike races are held.  It also has a RV park but we didn't find out until after we'd booked into Moss Landing, otherwise I'd have stayed here.  It's probably the most famous US racetrack after Daytona and I really enjoyed just being able to drive in and look around - the Corkscrew corners are much more impressive than they appear on TV.  Laguna is close to the Big Sur area of the coast and this is perhaps the best part of all the Pacific Highway. Heading south from Carmel, there's a 75 mile stretch that's carved from the hillside with spectacular ocean views - there's really nothing like it anywhere else.  Just to make sure we got our money's worth, we covered this road 4 times - going as far south as Morro Bay, plus we took a great canyon road across the hills to Nacimiento and back along Carmel Valley.
 

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Laguna Seca racetrack and the Corkscrew	Hwy 1, near Big Sur

On one of our trips down Hwy 1 we visited the Hearst Castle at San Simeon, about 100 miles south of our RV.  It was built by Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, and almost bankrupted him due to it's extravagant design - the upkeep was so high, he eventually turned it over to the state as an historic monument. 
 

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The main house	The outdoor and indoor pools	Library and dining room	The main guest house

After another week of great weather and trips, we head for Sequoia, King's Canyon and Yosemite National Parks ...