Enjoyed a free buffet breakfast at the Hampton which was actually pretty good – scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, and, yes, I had a turkey sausage. Sat out on my balcony to eat it but it started to get too hot and the sun was coming directly on me.
Anyway, finished breakfast, loaded up the car, checked out and thanked Audrey again for the half off room and off I went.
I was curious about which way the car GPS was going to take me. I had looked on Google maps the night before, and it had small roads as its first choice. I didn’t want to go that way. Luckily, the car didn’t either. BUT, right after I got on the highway I changed the radio channel and it went to FM and wouldn’t come back to SIRIUS! Luckily, I had something similar happen before so I knew what to do. I took the next exit, stopped along the ramp, hit the ON button for 10 seconds to reset the system, turned it back on, and good to go. Whew!
I’m going to put the route I took here, but, after I get to Carmel and settle in I’ll do a trip summary. I’m curious about which mountain ranges, rivers, etc I crossed. I know some of them but I’m sure there are many more.
What I ended up for this day’s trip was taking I-15S to CA / I-210 to US-101. There was a lot of construction and traffic, but that was all right by me. I was happy to drive less than 60 MPH for a while. Honestly less stressful. And the traffic wasn’t bumper to bumper it was just a little heavy here and there.
I knew I was going to get to the hotel way early and noticed a sign for a National Park Visitor Center so decided to take a little detour to use up some time. Plus it was somewhere I hadn’t been before:
This is the area where P22 – a popularly tracked mountain lion, was born. It’s in Calabasas CA.
I ended up getting some National Park maps – most noteably one for the US. Will be useful since I have my Lifetime Pass now!
So, it was a nice break, a nice day and a nice short way to be out of the car for a bit.
Then, back in the car. Got to the Kimpton. Room not ready yet. Put my luggage in storage and decided to walk down State St to the pier and check things out. State St is still closed to car traffic which is nice. Wanted to get a snack and found a winery that had food – Melville:
Had a glass of sparkling blanc de blanc and some hummus. Everything was really good and just the perfect size!
Stopped at the World Market and picked up a few things.
Then, back to the Kimpton. It had been over an hour since I first stopped in so I figured my room would be ready. Went to the front desk and asked. “It looks like it’ll be another hour to hour and a half” – WHAT???
I decided I would sit there and wait, rather than go for another walk. Asked for some water while I waited. My friend Ellen called – I was going to meet her and run some errands with her before I went to their house for dinner. If the room really wasn’t ready for another hour, I wouldn’t be able to go on the errands.
Then I hear “Terri your room is ready!”
All righty then. I told Ellen I’d call her back when I got to the room. It was about 3:20pm at this point, so I had a little time to relax before meeting Ellen at the post office around 4:20 – an easy 3 block walk.
So, after showering and getting myself organized, I walked over to the PO, met Ellen, ran the errands and then over to her house for a lovely dinner of Butternut Squash soup, frittata, garlic bread, and chocolate raspberry cake with ice cream.
After some great convo, I was starting to poop out, so, Ellen and Albert gave me a ride back to the hotel and here I am this morning.
The drive to Carmel should take around 4 hours. Yay!