Thursday, August 24, 2006

17 Mile "Scenic" Drive, Monterey, CA

Experience Index: 1.5/5

Very overrated location. Sure, it is next to the ocean, but so are thousands of miles of coastline. $8.75 to get in here too, which I got the feeling were being spent, in some indirectly convoluted way, to justify keeping off real estate hunters from this area. Indeed, there are several mansions along the drive, punctuating the 18 odd "scenic" locations along the drive. Sample some of them: "Joe", where some Chinese guy used to live alone at land's end and sell trinkets to tourists in the 1800s or the so-called "Ghost Tree"...Eventually, I went from sight to sight finding nothing worth capturing on camera. Save this "Lone Cypress Tree" - just one little tree sitting by itself at the edge of the land. This is also the "Pebble Beach" logo & is copyrighted!

All in all, in my opinion, if you're not a Golf fanatic (the 17 mile drive runs through the Pebble Beach golf course), avoid Monterey & stick to the wonder that is San Francisco!


Friday, August 04, 2006

Mt. Rainier, WA

Experience Index: 3.5/5

Mt. Rainier is the 4th National Park I have visited. The others are the amazing Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Arches, probably 3 of the best of them.