Monterey in March

We just returned from Monterey. While we were there something felt strange. We asked ourselves, have we ever been here in March? I combed through the many Monterey posts and it was true: we had never visited in March.

For the most part, the reasoning for this was simple. When the kids were young, there were many visits in April centered around Easter and spring break. When baseball became a central part of our lives, opening day was usually towards the beginning of March, and we played a couple games a week until the vacation window during spring break.

When the kids were older, Jennifer and I often went in January and February because the weather was often warmer in Monterey than at home. March is typically pretty nice in the Sacramento area, so we tend to enjoy the March weather at home.

Anyway, on the first day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive.

The weather was pretty damn perfect.

Afterwards we enjoyed a beer at Fieldwork, followed by an awesome meal at Alejandro's.

The next day we rode north with expectations of riding into Fort Ord. I knew the trail through Fort Ord Dunes State Park would be closed due to a campground project that will run through 2027. We would have to ride the less desirable trail along Highway 1 like last time and take the exit trail to 5th Street.

Unfortunately between visits they bulldozed the entire bike trail leading to 5th Street and were using it to truck in dirt.

<rant mode> This kind of shit has been happening for years. It really seems like municipalities will close off cycling infrastructure at the drop of a hat. Need to do road work? Close the bike lane! Want to organize a running race? Close the bike trail! Need to build a campground? Close the bike trail! Need to truck in dirt? Bulldoze the bike trail!

This isn't any new issue. I've been seeing the trend for a long time.

This past spring and summer I wanted to ride in Tahoe before we sold the condo. Then I saw that there were some trail closures due to a Marlette Lake dam repair, and I completely lost interest. These are some of my main trails up there.

The closures seem extremely excessive to me for one tiny little dam. But if you are a cyclist, you already know you are a meaningless pimple on the ass of society. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program. </rant mode>

We simply rode past the closure and continued to the north end of the trail. After turning around I had calmed down enough to start taking pictures again.

The weather was great and I told myself that things could be worse: I could be home working in the yard.

Afterwards we had a beer at Dustbowl and dinner somewhere that escapes me.

The next day we rode south again. I took some video. It's not my greatest work, but what can you do.

After that we packed up and headed home. It was a short but much-needed break from all the hard work we have been doing.

Later.

Pelagic Passage

We go to Monterey so often, I am running out of synonyms for "ocean" to use for titles.

Another trip to the coast in the books.

We drank beer:

Walked around and took pictures of stuff:

Had coffee:

Rode along the ocean:

Had more beer:

Had more coffee at a French bakery:

Dealt with a proliferation of every one of these things on the trails:

Saw some otters up close right near shore:

More sightseeing:

And even more beer:

Not pictured: way too much remote interaction with our Nevada real estate agent as we navigated a weird sale. Otherwise, we had a really good time.

Later.

Fort Bragg

Jennifer and I ran up to Fort Bragg for a couple days to see her cousin's new(ish) brewery.

Patrick was the longtime brewmaster at North Coast Brewing (which is located right around the corner from Tall Guy) before opening his own brewery.

We had a nice visit with Patrick and took the grand tour. The beer was great and the location is one street removed from Highway 1 in a quaint part of town. I already want to go back.

We only went riding once, but this was by design. We both rode a lot leading up to this trip, so one mellow ride was just what the doctor ordered.

The trail along the ocean was only a couple turns from our hotel. Within a couple minutes we were riding along the water.

We reached the end of the trail to the north and turned back after a selfie.

The riding shares some obvious similarities with Monterey, but it was different enough that we slowed down and looked around a bit more.

After reaching the southern end of the trail, we headed into town. I was looking for a haul road I found on Google Earth that runs east out of town. After a few wrong turns, we found the somewhat hidden entrance.

The road follows the Noyo river upstream. It was paved until we hit the bridge.

After the bridge it turned to gravel and there wasn't much enthusiasm to continue. On our Jones bikes it would have been fun, but the mini velos were out of their element on the bumpy, rutted surface.

We turned around and headed back to our hotel. Normally we aren't satisfied with only 17 miles, but it was a perfect ride for this trip.

I broke out my little Canon PowerShot SX210 IS for this trip. Most of the pictures in this post were taken with it. This is a camera that has traveled the world with us for 15 years, but I think there are probably better options now.

When only carrying my iPhone, I often get frustrated when I can't zoom in on an animal or some other interesting subject.

The 14X optical zoom is nice for those situations, something you can't get with a smart phone. (The current iPhone 16 Pro still only offers 5X optical zoom.)

The compact size is great. It's smaller than my phone, but twice as thick. With that compact size comes a small sensor that only performs well when there is plenty of light.

The image stabilization works well for photos, but not for video as you can see below.

If you made it through that without getting motion sickness, congratulations.

Anyway, the TLDR version: Tall Guy has great beer, Fort Bragg is a cool place to visit, and the perfect camera does not exist.

Later.

The Shore

After finishing a big real estate project, we often find ourselves drawn to the sea. Off to Monterey.

We rode at home on Monday morning and left around noon. By 4:30 we were checked in, unloaded and sipping a beer at Fieldwork. Good stuff.

After beers we ate at a place called Alejandro's on Alvarado Street. We walked right by this place for years and never tried it, and that was a mistake. The food was excellent. We started with the ahi ceviche (ceviche de atún), which was fantastic. The chips come with four sauces, all of which were great. I had the mole enchiladas while Jennifer had a vegetarian chile relleno (chile en nogada). Both were terrific. Highly recommended.

The next day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive. At 54 degrees, the weather dipped a bit below refreshingly cool into grab-a-jacket territory. The June Gloom is real.

Still, what's not to like riding along this scenery?

Later we went to the grocery store. Next to the store was this:

I haven't eaten at a Carl's Jr. in years, and I don't thing anyone will be eating at this one for a while. Burned to a crisp.

The next day we decided to head inland seeking sunshine. As we rode north along the coast, conditions were cool and overcast.

As we climbed into Fort Ord, the blue sky was teasingly close.

Eventually we climbed above the marine layer and it was glorious.

I had a new route mapped out, but we ran into some road closures due to the Army and BLM preparing for prescribed burns. Although it wasn't in the original plan, we climbed up to Laguna Seca once again. Jennifer handled it no problem.

The views from up top are great.

Then we descended back down into the gloom. All told we rode just short of 30 miles with over 2000 feet of climbing.

The next day we rode north to the end of the trail and back, a nice 25-mile ride. We did not see the sun even once. Nothing about the ride really inspired me to take a photo.

That night marked the return of Peter B's, a mainstay of our Monterey dining and beer experience for many years. The restaurant had been closed for four months during a $2 million renovation.

The restaurant itself looked great. The booths and walls were removed from the main dining area leaving it brighter and open.

Unfortunately that's where the improvements ended. The beer menu lacked anything I was really interested in, so I had a Legend of Laguna IPA, the only beer that's always on the menu. It typically falls somewhere between great and awful. (I was far more excited about my new Cal Poly shirt than the beer.)

I rarely complain about my food. I have a discerning palette, and appreciate great food, but I also realize I am not "great food rich." If you frequent breweries, you should be pleasantly surprised by great cuisine, but expect mediocrity. Still, a restaurant promoting an all-new menu should perform.

They did not.

Again, I am not a complaint person. However, they left a comment card with the bill, so I let them have it. I believe "bland, boring and uninspired" was part of my review.

Today we opted not to ride in favor of getting a jump on Friday traffic. Still, we hit a major slowdown on Highway 101 because of construction that cost us an extra 45 minutes of drive time.

Another nice getaway in the books, and some lessons learned: Try new things and be adventurous.

Later.