<– Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats  | OVERVIEW | Day 30-31 – Apr.18th-19th: Bay Area Fun  –>

I had big plans for today — a trip out to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, a walk through downtown Santa Cruz, and an excursion to the Mysterious Mystery spot.

Alas, all that was put aside as I wore a path between the bed and the toilet. Was it the sushi or the artichokes? Who knows, but something didn’t agree with my stomach this morning.

I felt much better by the afternoon. We even made it to dinner the Santa Cruz Diner for dinner (though I had breakfast), which has appeared on a number of food shows.

That’s a mural inside the restaurant. Ann was concerned the mermaid might get her! BTW, she is the understanding wife who hadn’t combed her hair yesterday. She’ll do anything for a photo!

Tomorrow, our plans to locate the worlds largest Monopoly board, visit the Pez Museum, and visit with Dan and see his Traveller will still occur.

One thing I did have time to do today was plot the remainder of our trip. The top is cut off, but I’ll provide that later on in the trip.

<– Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats  | OVERVIEW | Day 30-31 – Apr.18th-19th: Bay Area Fun  –>

<– Day 27 –Apr. 15th: Strolling Monterey  | OVERVIEW | Day 29 – Apr. 17th: Revenge of the Sushi –>

World’s largest artichoke in Castroville

Monterey was our launch point today. Before we headed north, Ann submitted a request to re-photograph the western side of Fisherman’s wharf. It took a few wrong turns, a couple mistakes, and dumb luck to find a good spot from which to take the photos she wanted. That’s where we discovered a memorial to Father Juniper Serra (he was news to me) who was responsible for forming a variety of spanish missions along the coast of California. Unfortunately, he’s seems pretty forgotten in his current spot on Monterey.

A hazy Monterey morning.

With photographs snapped, we continued toward our second goal, Castroville.

Our drive from Monterey to Scotts Valley, Ca, on Wednesday.

As we approached Castroville, the highway was lined with never-ending fields. It had been six years since I’d seen these fields, as I used to live just north of them in Aptos, California. I’d driven through the fields many times and seen folks working the fields no matter the weather. It always looks like hard work, often they are hunched over for hours. Hoodies are a popular item, as they are loose, flexible and offer sun protection. Whether hot or cold, field hands wear them.

Eventually, we arrived in Castroville. Apparently, Castroville is famous for two things. 1) it is the birthplace of Norma Jean and 2) It is the self-proclaimed artichoke capitol of the world and holds an artichoke festival every year.

Norma Jean and artichokes came together in 1948 when Norma was named the very first honorary Artichoke Queen. History would show that such an honor didn’t keep Norma from leaving Castroville nor did it keep her from changing her name to the more familiar Marilyn Monroe.

We didn’t travel to Castroville to learn more about Marilyn, but rather to find the world’s largest artichoke. The area surrounding Castroville provides 75% of the domestically grown artichoke crop. The other 25% is grown in other areas of California.The unusual thing about the artichoke plant is it is basically a weed, a type of thistle. But, a yummy thistle it is!

The town of Castroville is pretty small, so it wasn’t hard to spot a giant artichoke once when we arrived (see photo at the top of the post).

We took some photos. Then, Ann spotted ‘Fried Artichokes’. She’d never had them, so we set about having some for an early lunch. We also added an order of spinach and artichoke dip. Life was good!

Fried artichoke hearts

Spinach and artichoke dip

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<– Day 26 –Apr. 14th: Gorditas Make Me Sleepy  | OVERVIEW | Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats –>

Today we didn’t do much but relax and wander around Monterey on a mostly cloudy day. Monterey has two wharfs, one more tourist-oriented and one more local-oriented. We started at the latter by grabbing some clam chowder at the Sandbar & Grille Restaurant. The chowder tasted good, but had a too many potato chunks and too few clams.

After lunch we got on our tourist vibe with a walk to the other more notable wharf.

The ‘tourist’ wharf even had an unofficial greeter:

It doesn’t look like his fishing is faring to well.

Visitors strolling the wharf.

At the end of wharf Ann got busy with her camera, so I got busy photographing her.

As we left the wharf I decided to see if YELP could find an interesting ice cream place. Sure enough, YELP found Kai Lee Creamery in Pacific Grove. So, we headed west until reaching the cannery row area, with some recognizable places.

Kai Lee Creamery was started six months ago by Butch Adams who had no experience in the industry. His goal is to make ice cream that is organic, gluten-free, non-soy, all-natural, vegetarian, and handmade.

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<– Day 25 – Apr. 13th: Port Why-Knee-Me | OVERVIEW | Day 27 – Apr. 15th: Strolling Monterey –>

Henry is looking toward the coast on our way from Paso Robles to Highway 1.

Today’s goal was to drive Highway 1 north to Monterey, California.

Today we drove from Arroyo Grande – Pismo Beach area to Monterey.

We started off this morning with a quick visit to Pismo Beach to say we’d been there and done that. One thing we didn’t do was give into the temptation for some pastries from Old West Cinnamon Rolls, though my mouth sure watered as we passed their store front.

Pismo Beach pier.

After a short walk on the Pismo Beach pier, we drove north to Paso Robles to visit the highly recommended Pioneer Museum. When we arrived, I discovered that I hadn’t read the fine print; it was only opened Thursday through Sunday.  Still, there were a few exhibits outside, so we entertained ourselves for a little while.

The front of the Pioneer Museum. Me wondering how I missed the fact that the museum is only opened from Thursday-Sunday

Ann took the news of the museum’s closure pretty well. I only stayed in jail for a little while.

I got a little worried when she found this witch’s pot and began uttering the words “Double Double Toil and Trouble“.

If you travel anywhere along the coast you are likely to run across signs with bells for El Camino Real, one of the early roads through California. Bells were added along the route at the turn of the 19th century.

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