We headed north of Highway 1 up to Santa Cruz to look for the twin lighthouses there. Our GPS had brought us to a residential place so we thought we missed the location. Good thing I asked the guy walking his dog after I parked the car and he told us to go walk downhill and at the corner make a right going to the marina. After we made a right,there we saw the magnificent white lighthouse at a distance inviting us to come closer and appreciate its alluring posture.
We circled the fascinating lighthouse and took a lot of pictures of it then we also appreciated the surrounding beach with young surfers playing and toying the finicky waves expertly manipulating their surf boards on the surf waves that is trying to kiss the sandy shore.
After roaming the Walden lighthouse we went to the other side of the bay to see the other twin lighthouse. We coasted the shoreline roads until we get to a small cliff where the Santa Cruz lighthouse was located. We alighted from the car and walked towards the small lighthouse sprawled on a well manicured green lawn on top of the cliff. It was closed for renovations but still good for picture taking. We took more pictures of it for our own online memento.
From there we left Santa Cruz and headed to Pescadero going north to look for the Pigeon Point lighthouse which is only twenty-four miles from Santa Cruz as indicated from our GPS. We took the ever winding and narrow Highway 1 going north which was very mystical to us the previous three days.
We enjoyed the sceneries at the highway and also counting at how many pumpkin patches we passed by along the way. Shortly after forty minutes we can visibly see the huge white lighthouse from the distance. We can see how beautiful it is from a distance. What a very stunning piece of beauty!
We made a left on a small dirt road leading to the lighthouse and we were in awe when we saw it up close and personal. It was not operational anymore but its beauty was still there despite the lantern getting rusty. There were community organizations campaigning for the restoration of the decaying lantern.
There was also a school within the grounds where the lighthouse was located and there were children playing at the playground nearby. This lighthouse was the huge one we saw today and was very majestic to look at. There were wire fences around it signalling that it's not functional anymore. Poor thing, it's such a beauty to look at from a far.
After taking so much pictures for our own online collections we decided to leave the place and look for the last lighthouse on our list. We continued going north taking the same road which is the Highway 1 going to Montara, CA trekking the coast lines. We missed the exact location as stated from our GPS so we went down and anxiously asked for the right direction at a nearby Peruvian restaurant which was apparently closed. So we asked the visitors and locals who were there coming from the nearby beach coming out of the restaurant's parking lot.
We went back south and found it luckily on the right side. The lighthouse was the smallest we saw today and is also beautiful at its own right. We also took a lot of pictures of it and then toured around it reading all the informations placed around it. There were two painters doing some painting of the lighthouse. They did a good job of painting it and John was been very interactive with them and had spoke to them both and also had befriended them nicely.
After seeing all four lighthouses for the whole day we decided to go to San Jose and look for the Gilroy Outlet Malls there for John to do a lot of shopping after doing three days of driving and fun adventures.
We drove more than seventy-five miles from Montara going to Gilroy Outlet passing the city of San Jose taking Freeway 101 South. John shopped a lot for his families back home especially his mom and siblings. I actually bought a reasonable Coach leather wallet for myself.
We left the outlet malls after three hours of endless shopping. It was already dark there and at 2100H we decided toleave for home. We took Highway 138 going east towards Interstate 5 and we were led to a dead end by the GPS because the road was closed and I missed the detour sign earlier because I was driving fast maybe. I turned around and drove slowly for the GPS to pick-up another route and luckily it guided us to a new route hitting Highway 138.
We drove for another 30 minutes at Highway 138 until we hit Highway 5 which was even more straight and fast. The drive was very quiet and boring on that dark and eerily scary highway. John and I were conversing about different things that amused us especially about families, work, and future plans of travels. I also tuned my iPhone to Pandora for a wide array of my favorite music collections.
The drive was very silent and I have to maintain my speed at 75-80 mph to cutback on our time and also to hit our target travel of four hours from San Jose to Los Angeles. We drove for almost four hours and got to Los Angeles 20 minutes before 0100H. We were so tired and hungry so we decided to passed by the Thai restaurant in Hollywood and ordered some food for our very late dinner.
After we ate I noticed that my gas tank was already bottomed down so I decided to fill it up at the gas station near the apartment in preparation for my clinicals tomorrow then we headed home after that. We were so tired and very sleepy as well. We bade each other good night and I slept off all my fatigue to regain more strength for my clinical job the next day.
It was a very fruitful and progressive three days road trip going to northern California and I am so happy that we did it together. If not for John coming here I haven't roamed California that extensive and fun way. Thank God.
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