The Dogs of San Francisco

It’s been an eventful few days. Had to move out of the place I was staying in Monterey at the end of the month, but I couldn’t take the time to drive down to my next destination until the weekend, since I had to work Thursday and Friday. So I stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights, and then drove down to San Simeon on Saturday. I took back roads almost all the way, which I didn’t even realize was an option until I poked around on the map. Amazing how sparse civilization was, driving down that way. I don’t think I passed more than two gas stations, three restaurants (two of which were next to one another), or indeed more than a few dozen houses. Just a whole lot of wild lands, and a whole bunch of vineyards, and a few other kinds of farms. Very pretty. I’m glad I didn’t try to drive down at night, would have been a shame to have missed all that.

And now I’m staying at a nice place called the Silver Surf Inn (no relation) in San Simeon, an oceanfront community on the southern end of Big Sur that consists of a hundred or so houses, two or three stores, five or so restaurants, and like ten huge hotels. Almost entirely empty, partly because of the time of year and partly because the Pacific Coast Highway is shut down halfway through Big Sur, so nobody’s driving through, and San Simeon is pretty far out of the way unless you are. But it’s still quite pretty here, and the weather is lovely, and the hotel room was quite inexpensive.

Oh, and the hotel has a hot tub. And allows pets, although I haven’t seen any here at the moment.

Savvy (2) is either a local or is staying at another hotel across the road. She is what her owner describes as ‘an original German shepherd’, i.e. what German shepherds used to be before they were overbred into their current form. To me she looks like she’s half German shepherd and half coyote, and I adore the look.