Labor Day Weekend: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park & Nepenthe

We are back from our long weekend getaway to Big Sur, Monterey and Pebble Beach. We made it home in record time: just over 6 hours. No traffic in L.A.--yay!

But, back to the beginning. We left at 5:30 a.m. in the morning on Friday. I thought we were so prepared this time...D had cleaned the car out and we packed almost everything the night before. Unfortunately, in cleaning out the car, we failed to realize that we had left the cords for both our ipod AND the DVD player back at home! Argh! Let's just say that we heard k and n sing "She's a Grand Ol' Flag" one too many times this past weekend.

It was a nice change of pace to go up the 101/1 instead of the 5. We made many stops, of course, but our first sight seeing stop was Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The main attraction was McWay Falls, which was pretty spectacular. It is a nice easy hike and k did it without complaint.


McWay Falls, "the only major California waterfall to tumble in the Pacific".


(n has some ink on his face from coloring in the car.)




I would say Julia Pfeiffer is definitely worth a stop and the $10 parking (we used our pass). One tip is that the parking is self-parking, so bring small bills. We encountered more than one party in search of change.

It is illegal to walk down to the beach where the waterfall is. However, someone did, and left this message:

Interpret that as you wish...

Our next stop was for lunch at Nepenthe. In preparation, I had read this book:

I enjoyed reading about the history of the restaurant, and the pictures are beautiful. It made me anticipate our trip even more.



It was quite foggy, so the view was limited, but by the end of our lunch, it had cleared up some. We chose the inside seating because it was more comfortable for the kids, but the building is open on both ends, with large windows, so there was still the outdoor feel.



We ordered the famous Ambrosia Burger and a French Dip, along with a "half" order of fries. (The full order cost $8, but the half order cost $6.50. The half was plenty for us, though).




At around $15 each, these were pricey lunch entrees, but the view/experience justifies at least part of the cost. Next time, we'll probably try Big Sur Bakery for lunch, since we ended up not eating there for breakfast the next day as planned.

The grounds of the restaurant have a magical quality:



Our trip was off to a good start!