We went to a beach in Santa Cruz, drove through a hilly place with some breathtaking views , and reached the small town of Santa Cruz. The beach was mostly empty but there were lot of families around having fun in the multitude of rides that were out there. Had a great couple of rides, Karthikeyan joined in one and chickened out and ran away before we could embark on the second one, which certainly was a huge ride. What was amazing was the Engineering gone into it, considering that it was made 60-70 years back in time.
From there we went towards Monterey, a nice small sleepy town, bought an ice-pack, filled it with beer bottles, packed some sandwiches and drove to a place called Pebble Beach. The drive took us to through agricultural part of that place, and had a first hand feel of what it is to be a farmer out here. There were lot of places where one can stop and buy fresh cherries et al;
Pebble Beach, well what an awesome place, it has a 17 mile ride with some 21 odd spots where one can stop, park the cark and soak in the landscape. There is the 'Lone Cypress Tree', which I am told is the Symbol of the state of California. That tree has withstood the ferocious winds for the last 250 years. It's solitude looks spectacular from a distance. This forest, the bay, the golf courses in the park and the entire Peninsula possibly was the most beautiful place I have visited in this trip.
The Monterey Peninsula has the Del Monte Forest where one can drive through the 17 Mile Road laid out. This forest and the landscape around is the Pebble Beach
Official Site of the Pebble Beach
Way back home, I dozed off and left Karthikeyan alone with his thoughts. Woke when we were approaching Mountain View and saw some fascination red coloured dunes and mountains on both sides of the road - massively spectacular, large, empty as long as your eyes can see.
Evening I caught up with another friend whom I had not met since 6 yrs - Vallal. We had a fantastic time together. He took me again to Pier 39, somewhere on the Ghirardelli Square, we went to a restaurant and got a table with a view of the harbour, had some good wine and dinner. I think the place was McCormack's or something spelled like that. We caught up with each other and he perceived the changes within me and had some very interesting things to say about me. I also discussed what all happened in my life particularly in the last 4 years. He seems to have discovered himself and his Spirituality came as a surprise to me. I was quite surprised with some of his hmmm...., maybe I can call it PREDICTIONS, which seem to be pretty accurate with what others have told me.I guess, I would leave that predictions etc from this blog for the moment.
We then went to have Ghiradelli Ice-creams where I saw chocolates being made right there. Had a long night and finally Vallal drove me back home at around 12.30. Poor chap, Karthikeyan was awake all that time waiting for me to reach his place.I guess he was bit irked with me for not informing about my arrival. Actually I completely lost the sense of time, I was too involved as I was catching up with Vallal after a very very long time. All in all a fantastic weekend. We did so much and saw much, experience which would remain within me for a very long time to come. Grateful to Karthikeyan and his family for making it a memorable weekend.
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