Sunday, September 13, 2015

Point Lobos

Time: September 6th, 2015

Place: Point Lobos State Reserve, Mount Madonna Hanuman Temple

Company: Wife, daughter and parents

Highlights: Did not plan anything significant for the Labor Day long weekend. Ended up with a single day trip to Monterey-area (Point Lobos state reserve). Initially thought of visiting the Point Sur lighthouse too but it has many restrictions such as 3.5 hr walking tour, no visitors in parking lot, only 10 am on Sundays, etc. So ditched the plan. 

However, because of this ditching, we planned to leave the house an hour later (9 instead of 8), ended up leaving at 10 instead and hence got stuck in the traffic almost all the way, and what should have been a 2- hr drive became a 3-hr drive. Also did a brief stop-over at Monastery beach which I had initially thought was great but it wasn't this day. Then we saw 'parking lot full' with no access to vehicles in Point Lobos. 

So we had to park the car somewhere afar and walk some distance (to Whalers cove) to have a picnic lunch. The views were good though. Then, realizing that we could not cover everything by walk, went back to car, and got it inside (by which time, the 'Parking lot full' board was removed). Drove quickly to some other viewpoints such as Sandhill Cove, Weston Beach, China Cove, etc. Although not beach-like, it was quite a sight, with waves crashing against rocks and the bluish-green hue was mesmerizing. Because we also wanted to visit Hanuman temple, which was due to close at 7 pm, we had to hurry up. A good lesson learnt was that we should have left almost 2 hours early.

Thankfully, there was not much traffic on the way to Hanuman temple. We entered 30 mins before close and were greeted with a very warm arathi and prasadam. Did not expect to see so many people there on the middle of a long weekend. Very fulfilling and refreshing. Headed back, and home by 11-ish.

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