Pseudo Zombies and Beaches

8AM rolled around way too quickly.  I would like to say that I slept well, but being there were four people in the room and I am a light sleeper, not so much.  Still, we would be heading to Monterey to check out the coastline.  I couldn’t wait. 

So we got up, chowed down some of the complimentary breakfast and grabbed the largest cup of coffee humanly available at a nearby coffee joint before jumping into the car.  The ride towards Monterey is nothing to get excited about for the first hour or so, though we did notice that there was an abundance of traffic.  So we opted to take a breather at an outlet store area because David was feeling some In and Out Burger and they had one there. 

I have heard of In and Out Burger, but I am not into the whole beef thing, so I passed.  Though, I did catch a glimpse of the “Animal Fries.”  I have to be honest with you, it looked like puke fries.  I have seen piles on the sidewalk after a wild night of drinking in NYC that suspiciously look like these supposed animal fries.  It didn’t look appetizing at all!

So instead of watching David trying to eat the puke fries, I left with Angie to check out the nearby shopping.  We stayed for about an hour, hour and a half and we were back on our way.  Again, the traffic was horrible.  It was at a dead stop!  For some reason, none of us had really thought through this whole Labor Day thing.  Apparently, everyone and their mother wanted to go to Monterey.  We soon realized this probably was not the best idea, but we were halfway there so there was no turning back!

The good thing about all this traffic was that it gave me an excuse to take a nap.  Who could blame me, we weren’t moving at all and I hadn’t gotten more than 7.5 hours in two days.  Because the sun was so bright, I threw my jacket over my head and checked out for a good 45 minutes.  At first, my friends were confused as to what the hell I was doing as I looked like a complete idiot slumped on the seat, half of my body slipping into the area for my feet with a stupid grey coat covering my head.  But soon, they figured it out after I didn’t move an inch even after my name was called numerous times.  So they decided to let the sleeping beast lie. 

Well, let me tell you, there is nothing like a great power nap to get you going again!  I felt like a new woman! Though, I was confused as to where we were when I threw the coat off my head.  The views had changed from nature to a very questionable neighborhood.  It turned out that they had decided on an alternative route to avoid the traffic which had gotten worse.  They then realized that maybe the neighborhood we had drifted into wasn’t worth the losing of the traffic jam.  In the end, we lived and even found one of the best sandwich places of our lives, so it all worked out.  We also found Monterey.

Finally!  The promised land!  I had never been to Monterey before and had heard it was pretty amazing.  Well, I would never fully find out as the traffic was horrible.  You couldn’t even drive through the little town at all!  Parking was non existent and the crowds were everywhere blocking the streets.  This was not boding well for us, but there was no way that we were going to let this day get the best of us.  We would have fun and we would have it now!

So we opted to pay the small sum to get into Pebble Beach.  Do I like paying for beaches?  No.  Do I like avoiding huge crowds on holiday weekends?  Yes!  Between the four of us it was only a couple bucks each so we didn’t care.  Bye crazy crowds!

Pebble Beach is a private neighborhood with a ton of golf courses and rich people.  It also has the 17 mile drive where you can stop at scenic places and go onto the beach.  That was what we were about after being stuck in a car for several hours.

It really is a beautiful area with plenty of beach and rocks to climb.  It was a little nipply, but that is to be expected here.  We easily spent three to four hours at Pebble Beach as it truly is gorgeous and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I have seen in ages.  Though we had to pay to get in, I was happy with the choice as there was hardly anyone on the beaches which is exactly what we wanted. 

After the sun had practically set, we headed back towards San Francisco.  Angie decided to drive for a while as we were all pretty tired and she felt the most awake.  The rest of us were crap friends as all three of us fell asleep for the last two hours of the trip.  Yeah, I wouldn’t blame her if she hated us even just a little.

Once we got back to the hotel we decided to go to a Denny’s type place for some late night breakfast type food.  It was okay though nothing special.  There also were a lot of homeless people in the area as we were near Union Square.  Apparently, this neighborhood is over run with homeless people and drugs.  It was unnerving at times, because they would stare at you eating if you were by the window and try to come in and get food from people.  I live in NYC, I am use to the homeless, but what I have found is that the West Coast homeless tend to be a lot more aggressive.  So we grabbed the check and were back out on the street.

As we headed back to the hotel, we walked past a street person who was hiding behind a post office box.  He was shooting up heroine and had this look of euphoria that kept half of us up at night.  Me, I have seen it all, so I wasn’t shocked, but I have to admit it’s disturbing to see people who have so much promise piss their lives away on junk.

Look, the hotel was actually really good; it just becomes a zombie movie set at night due to the homeless and druggies.  Seriously, you can hear the groaning and screaming all night long, the only thing missing was the howling of “brains!”  There was one guy who was screaming for 45 minutes before someone finally open their window and yelled at the guy.  This just riled him up more.  Eventually, someone called 911 but not before yelling, “For the love of God shut the eff up!”  I have to admit, that made me laugh.  The cops finally did show up but it took three of them to get him into the car as he kept fighting them off and finally collapsed on the ground feigning a heart attack  so he wouldn’t have to go to jail.  Bizarre.  Finally, the neighborhood quieted down a notch and we were in bed by 2:00AM.  I love San Francisco, but damn the homeless are a serious problem.  They makes New York’s homeless look like English School boys!