California Road Trip - Day 9, A spooky mansion...

We awoke to cloud again and this set the tone for the day, I'm afraid. We packed up and went down to breakfast where we met Barry, April and Sally again.They'd had a lovely dinner the previous evening and had gone to Celadon in Napa town. They were off to tour some vineyards on their own and we wished them a great day and said goodbye. We'd really enjoyed meeting them!

I must confess to dreading the journey to San Jose and Monterey today and wished that I could be driven like I was yesterday! However, we set the SatNav and off we went, driving around San Francisco on its east flank and avoiding all the bridges. I had imagined we'd be going over the Golden Gate bridge again, but the road took us through towns such as Dublin, Antioch and Walnut Creek, places we'd seen on the BART stops. The roads were very busy and most of the journey was on the freeway, unfortunately. After a while I got used to the hectic pace and settled into the driving again.

We had a reservation at the Winchester Mystery House at midday and made it with ten minutes to spare. I was dismayed, though, to drive into the car park and see warning signs about thefts from cars...just what we wanted to see when we had all of our luggage in the car, some of which was on the back seat and clearly visible!

This, of course, made me really anxious about going in for the tour as it was about an hour long.We put our coats on top of the case and hoped for the best, but I was on tenterhooks the whole time and didn't really enjoy the tour at all.

I didn't really know what to expect but the whole house felt like a theme park and there was hardly any of the original furnishings left. Sarah Winchester was the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune and had lost both her husband and daughter when she was still quite young. She went to see a medium who told her to move out to the west and to never stop building her house otherwise she would die.Work continued on the house throughout her life until she died at the age of 83.

The house was originally set in over 100 acres of land but it has been gradually sold off until the mansion now sits in an area inhabited by shopping malls and offices. The gardens are beautiful but after the tour had ended we decided to skip the extra "behind the scenes" one and leave as I was terrified our car would be broken into and damaged. (I later checked on Trip Advisor and there were several reviews from people who had had their cars broken into, despite a security guard being present).

I felt very disappointed as I had expected something a lot better for the $40 we paid. The house is a series of tiny rooms with odd staircases and the number 13 and daisies repeated everywhere. There were a huge amount of windows and part of the house had been damaged by the earthquake of 1906 but the rooms hadn't been restored, just left as they were. It didn't feel authentic to me at all and reminded me of something from one the theme parks in Florida!

We set off for Monterey and the road wound up and up over a mountain pass. It was foggy, damp and dismal, not at all how I expected California to be! Over the other side we drove onto Highway 1 that goes all the way to Los Angeles.

I had hoped that the weather would improve here as there are beautiful views of the coastline, but it remained stubbornly overcast, much to our dismay. Our SatNav had some difficulty finding our hotel for the next three nights - the Mariposa Inn and Suites. However, we found it and at about 2.30pm we were checking in. The man on reception joked about football and was quite funny!

The hotel

The path leading to the pool and jacuzzi

Our lovely little Hyundai

Our room

The rooms were all outside and it did resemble a motel more than a hotel, but the facilities were great and the location was brilliant, as we were opposite a shopping mall with several restaurants. Our room was large with one huge bed, a fridge, microwave and safe, a lovely clean bathroom and tea and coffee making facilities. The only real drawback was the window which looked out onto the intersection and had some sheeting covering it as there was a lot of painting work going on.

We dumped our bags and walked over to the Del Monte shopping mall. I remembered coming here with my parents and Sophie 21 years ago and there was a Macy's we shopped in. We decided to have a late lunch at a pizza restaurant and enjoyed a half sandwich each and a salad. Sophie managed to have a chat with Mike but it was 11pm at home and he had work the next day!

After eating we explored the shopping mall and went into Macy's where I spotted some shirts that would fit the bill for Keith's friend who had given me $80. They were $55 each so I had a word with one of the staff and asked if we could get a discount as we were British citizens and could perhaps get them tax free? He said 10% would be the best offer so we went off in search of more presents and Sophie went and had a look at the women's Levi's upstairs. There was a customer service desk so I went over to see if there was anything about tax free shopping and a woman came over to see if we needed help. We explained we were British and she said she could do us a deal on the clothes...the shirts came out at $22 not $55, and another garment we'd bought was also greatly reduced! As the deal was so good I dashed downstairs and bought another shirt!

We wandered around some more and I stocked up on car fragrances from Bath and Bodyworks. I have a little owl from the shop who sits on my visor and the scent is lovely, so I bought another three.
I normally buy them in Florida so I was delighted I could get them here!

We decided to eat in the area this evening and went back to the room to check on P.F. Changs, an Asian restaurant.. The menu looked good so after showering and changing we walked the short distance across the road and were shown to a table.

The restaurant was quiet and we had a very amiable waiter who looked after us very well. We shared a starter of tempura cauliflower and the portion was huge! How they think one person could eat it is beyond me!

For our mains Sophie chose Garlic Ginger Chicken with brown rice while I enjoyed Sesame Chicken with white rice. Again, both portions were huge so we asked for them to be boxed up so we could take them back to the room for tomorrow night.

Sophie's meal came with the world's supply of broccoli on her plate:

The meal was delicious and Sophie enjoyed a glass of wine with hers. I was craving some spirits so I asked for a cocktail which contained Vodka and Prosecco. However, it was like drinking sugared fizzy water! After the meal we shared a New York cheesecake and I ordered a measure of Woodford Reserve, an American Bourbon. The waiter brought back a huge measure so we tipped him generously!

The bill came to $100 without a tip...eating out is not cheap!