After our great road trip to the North of San Francisco up to Fort Bragg, Eureka and beyond, we decided to explore southwards on the Pacific Coast up to Carmel -on -the Sea covering a round trip of 300 miles. While the northern trip was through wine country and redwood forests, the southern trip was through farm lands, pine forests and many tourist spots rich in history and scenic beauty. We had a very enjoyable weekend road trip for three days on 13-15 October. We selected California State Highway Route 1 which hugs the sea-coast for our onward journey via Pigeon Point – Santa Cruz – Monterey Bay to Carmel and on return took a diversion near Santa Cruz via Route 17 over to Route 101 for our return journey to San Francisco. 
The drive through Route 1 was memorable because of the number of small beaches on the Half Moon Bay, Historical Pigeon Point Light House where the Carrier Pigeon Cargo Ship wreck happened on 6 June 1853 and the beautiful Monterey Bay where we rode astride farm lands growing Artichoke, Lettuce, Pumpkins and strawberries.
The Monterey Bay extends all the way south of Santa Cruz City till the Monterey peninsula and Carmel highlands. A very important area from a geological point, the Monterey Canyon, one of the largest underwater canyons in the world, begins off the coast of Moss’s Landing exactly at the center of the bay. Many species of marine mammals including sea otters, harbor seal and bottle nose dolphins are found in this area. It is also in the migratory path of gray and hump back whales. Several varieties of Kelp grow in the bay some of these as tall as trees. The California State University founded in 1994 at Monterey and uses the facilities donated by the military.
We chose Hofsas House in Carmel town, a quaint hotel with old world charm for our stay for two nights. While Carmel-by-the Sea is famous for its white beaches, the town with rolling hill sides has fairy tale cottages, art galleries and the historic Carmel Mission. Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo first sighted this place with beautiful beaches and pine forests 50 years after Columbus discovered America. Carmel is famous for its celebrities including Clint Eastwood, the well known movie star who was the Mayor of Carmel during 1986-88. More than 200 movies and TV Commercials were shot in this scenic place. Today, Carmel is one of the costliest real estate in the US. Carmel town has excellent restaurants for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner and the waiting time is anything up to an hour. On a weekend, it is very difficult to get reservations for dinner. Mostly Italian, Mexican, Mediterranean and West Coast American food is available.
On the second day, we visited the Monterey Aquarium – one of the largest aquarium dedicated to the rich marine life obtaining in the Western Coast of US. The live Kelp Forest and a variety of Jelly Fish displayed was a great attraction. Thereafter, we drove through the Pacific Grove to the Point Pinos Light House and over to the beautiful 17 Mile Drive on the seashore amidst thick cypress forest on one side and the Pebble Beach on the other side. Pebble Beach has some of the finest golf courses where PGA tournaments are held, on the 17 Mile drive, there are 21 points of tourist interest, the Lone Cypress being the most photographed spot in the west coast.
We left Carmel on the third day and drove through mountain roads to Wood Side, on the Biker’s Routes and had a sumptuous lunch at the popular Alice’s Restaurant on the hill top. After lunch, we drove through the Silicon Valley crossing Mountain View- Google and Palo Alto where the well-known Garage Museum of HP is located. The visit to the Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, the Mecca of IT with Stanford University, Apple, Oracle, Google, HP, Oracle and Facebook was a pilgrimage for me, having worked with the IT Industry for 20 years after my Army Service. Besides, it was my wish to visit the HQ of Google at Mountain View along with my wife and son Raghu who works for Google at San Francisco. We followed Route 101 back to San Francisco.
