Girl. Dog. Car.

Day 5: San Luis Obispo > Carmel

Sheryl 3 Comments

May 7th - San Luis Obispo, Calif. > Carmel, Calif.

+ First day on the open road without anyone to visit. The only plan is to drive up the coast end up in Carmel, Calif. for the night.

Left to Right: Ragged Point, PCH, Elephant Seals. Pepe Azul with Rowlf peaking out the window.

+ Had a wonderful, leisurely drive up the coast. Stopped to check out the Elephant Seals, Ragged Point, and Pfeiffer Beach (thanks for the recommendation, Andrea!). Stopped for coffee at the Big Sur River Inn and wished it was warm enough to enjoy it in the adirondacks that were placed at the edge of the river. Every aspect of Big Sur is picturesque. Just when you think it can't get any better, it does.

+ I overheard a conversation between a road crew worker and a guy with a backpack while stopped for construction. The gist was the guy with the backpack had been walking PCH. WALKING P C H. F the PCT, this guy's the urban Cheryl Strayed. We were near Ragged Point and the walker asked the road crew worker how many more hills there were. Dude, a lot. Man, that guy is hard core. Wish I could have talked to him to find out why he was walking, I just got bits and pieces--he sold his stuff; never did anything like this before; figures he can walk 25 miles a day; wasn't sure where he wanted to end up. You go walker, dude. You go.

Left to Right: Pfeiffer Beach (photos 1-4), Big Sur River Inn, Rowlf chillin at Cypress Inn's Yappy Hour

+ Dogs are not allowed at Point Lobos (womp, womp), so we continued on to Carmel and checked into our budget (for Carmel), pet-friendly hotel. The nice guy at the front desk gave me a map of all the pet-friendly places in town and pointed out the Cypress Inn as a place I should take Rowlf because "Doris Day likes dogs." Slightly confused by his statement, we set out on our town tour and when we made it to the Cypress Inn, I was stunned by the scene I saw through the window--a fancy hotel lounge, filled with people mostly over 60, having drinks and hanging out with their dogs. Lots of dogs. Dogs everywhere. It was the weirdest, normalest scene ever. Rowlf and I decided immediately to partake in Yappy Hour, as they called it. Met some nice peeps from Seattle who come to Carmel every year with their pup to stay in that hotel and enjoy pet-friendly Carmel.

+ Went for a nice walk in the rain after Yappy Hour and crashed early so we could get up and get in some off-leash beach time. Pretty satisfied with all of our adventures today. Yay us. :-)