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Monterey and Carmel

After being shut in at home for almost two years we are traveling again. We went to Bonaire in December and Fiji in March. As much as we would like, we can't do a big international trip every month. We filled in with some trips in the US that were less expensive (and required less dogsitting!).

A few years ago we had planned a trip to the California coast. One of my wargaming buddies from GMT weekends works at a boutique hotel on the Central Coast. We wanted to pay him a visit. We also planned to go to a hotel near Monterey that is right on the water. I had been there many years ago for a business retreat with HP. For some reason we had to cancel the trip at the last minute. I don't remember why anymore. We always planned to go back. Now that the pandemic restrictions were loosening, we made arrangements to go. We decided to split the week between the two destinations, with three nights in Monterey and three nights in Los Osos.

We got an early start, about seven am. Not as early as I usually try to get away when I am leaving on a long drive, but early enough. Although Sandy is more of a morning person than me, she doesn't like to get up super early if she doesn't have to. Since we were traveling on a Saturday we didn't have to worry about rush hour traffic in any cities that we passed through (for this trip it was Sacramento). Since the drive was about twelve hours and we had an hour time shift in our favor, we arrived by late afternoon. We didn't go all the way to Monterey though. Since we were paying a premium for a nice hotel right on the water, we wanted to get full days by the ocean out of each night of our stay. Instead we stopped short in Hollister, California and spent the night at a Fairfield Inn there. After checking in we headed out to explore downtown Hollister, however much there was of it. I didn't know anything about the town. We had just picked it because it was the last town of any size where we could stop for the night before we would get to Monterey.

It actually was a nice place. The main street downtown had wide sidewalks and limited one-way car traffic. There were several restaurants, most with large patios. For dinner we picked the Running Rooster. It featured burgers and pizzas, so both Sandy and I were happy. They had a nice patio seating area. The weather was perfect. We had a cool spring this year in Boise and I was ready for some warm weather. Here it was sunny and low eighties. Perfect. We were in California, after all. We had a nice glass of wine, the food was good and the weather was great. Our vacation was off to a good start.

The next morning we figured we had some time to kill around Hollister. We were only forty five minutes from our hotel in Monterey and we didn't want to get there way before we could check in. In the meantime, we went to Casa di Fruta. It was a place we had seen a few miles outside of town while driving in the previous afternoon. There was a fruit store, a wine tasting room, a candy and ice cream store and a restaurant, all in a faux farm-building motif. There was also a playground, wooded area and a small lake. Yeah, it was touristy but the stores actually had some nice stuff. We got some good fruit in one of the stores. Not surprising since we were in the heart of California fruit country. Sandy's stomach was a little off this morning so she abstained when I had some of their salted carmel ice cream. We both passed on the wine tasting. It was already open but it was too early for us. Then it was time to head for Monterey.

It was late morning when we got to Monterey so it was still too early to check into our hotel. Since we passed near it on the way into town, we decided to at least make sure we knew how to find it before we went anywhere else. That was probably a good idea. Turns out we did get off the freeway at the wrong exit. It took us a while but we were finally able to wind our way through the maze of tiny streets near the ocean.

You know that your hotel is right on the beach when you pass a sign on the road just before you reach it that says "Now entering SAND CITY". And it was right on the beach, behind a retaining wall that extended down to the sand. It felt like the coast too. Although it had been bright and sunny in Hollister, now there was solid overcast and it was cool, maybe high fifties, and windy. It seemed like a good day to keep doing touristy things so after we found our hotel we drove down to Cannery Row to walk around.

It was a real zoo, with crowds of people everywhere. The biggest attraction is the Monterey Bay Aquarium but the line at the entrance went around the block. We didn't even bother to try to get in. There were lots of street entertainers. One guy had a bubble blowing machine, was dressed in a clown suit and used a bull horn to yell stuff at people as they passed. Seemed like a heck of a way to make a living to me. There were plenty of tourist shops. Lots of them sold tshirts and eventually Sandy got annoyed when I had to stop in and check out every single one of them. I was good though and only bought two tshirts all day. Not bad since there were so many possibilities. Sandy did her damage when she found a Pebble Beach Resort store. She wants to start playing golf again this year so she got some nice golf outfits with PBR logos on them. And I don't mean Pabst Blue Ribbon. To her credit, all the stuff she bought, she found on the sale rack. They were pretty good deals. Buying a golf outfit, even with the logos, was way cheaper than playing a round at Pebble Beach.

We finally had a late lunch at Louie Linguini's. Anyone who knows me understands that it would be absolutely impossible for me to pass by a restaurant named Louie Linguini's. Since it was jam packed inside we ate outside, even though it was a bit cool. The food was good but not exceptional. When we finished lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel.

We were staying at the Monterey Tides. I was there once before, many years ago, for a work retreat. I've long since forgotten what the meeting was about but the hotel made a strong impression on me. It's right on the beach, which stretches a long distance in both directions. To the north there were no buildings visible, just a training area that was part of Ft. Ord in those days. When the fort closed in 1994 it became Ft Ord National Monument, which is managed as a natural area. To the south, the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove are visible across the water, but directly south there is little development. A wind blows in off Monterey Bay and there are always large waves crashiing on the beach right in front of the hotel. All I remember from my first trip there is sitting in boring meetings, staring out the window all day and watching the surf. I always wanted to return some day and now I was back.

When we checked into the hotel we got tickets for a free drink each evening during happy hour, which was from four to five. After taking a walk along the beach it was time, so we headed down to the bar for our free glass of wine. We got seats in the lounge where we could look out at the surf. It had been a bit chilly and breezy during our walk but with a fireplace in the corner of the room, we were warm and comfortable now. Then it was back to our room to settle in for the evening. We were on the third floor facing the water (all of the rooms faced the water). There were two chairs and a table in front of a large window. I set up my PC and we watched the Brewer game on MLB.TV with a beautiful view of the ocean out the window. It was mostly cloudy but very pretty when the sun went down and lit up the clouds in different shades of red. And Milwaukee beat the Marlins 7-3. It was another good day.

Next day was another gray morning but it was supposed to start to clear later in the afternoon. After that it was forecast to be nice for the rest of our trip. We started with a walk along the beach, which was nice even though the sky was overcast. The surf in front of the hotel was impressive as always.

We decided to spend some more time in town while we waited for the weather to clear. Today we went to Carmel. While Monterey was a tourist zoo with crowds of people, Carmel was a cute little town that was relatively uncrowded. But it was definitely upscale and expensive, which is probably what kept the crowds away. No tacky souvenir shops for the hoi polloi here. There were numerous local wineries with tasting rooms in Carmel and our first thought was to check some of them out. But they turned out to be very expensive - most wines going for $40 a bottle. That's a little more than we spend except for very special occasions. Even a tasting was $20-25. That was usually for four or five wines but if they only had one or two whites (which was all we were interested in) then it was way too expensive. So we nixed the wine tasting. While there were nice shops, everything was more expensive here, even the tshirts. They had a lot of nice ones, but I limited myself to just two.

We did find some nice small gift items for birthday or Christmas gifts for friends and relatives. We also found a shop with baked doggie treats, but even those were pricey. Sandy picked out a half dozen specially crafted cookies for Abby and they came to $56. That's a lot to pay for doggie biscuits, especially since Abby usually eats them in about five seconds.

Sandy did find a shop with custom-made jewelry that she really liked. She ended up getting a really nice silver pendant with a cypress tree on one side and a dragonfly on the other.

Before we left, we stopped at Cafe Carmel where Sandy got a latte and I got an ice cream. We figured that would hold us until linner time. By then the sky was clearing and we headed back to Monterey. We didn't go back the way that we had come, on the Pacific Coast Highway, which between Monterey and Carmel isn't anywhere near the coast. Instead we took a smaller road across the hills in the middle of the Monterey peninsula and through the town of Pacific Grove. There we parked at Lover's Point for the obvious photo op. Now the sun was out and the ocean was a deep blue. We drove along Ocean View Boulevard to the Point Pinos Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the grounds were closed so we couldn't even get close to it for a picture from the outside. The drive along the ocean was very nice though.

Heading back we stopped at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. There were more restaurants and tshirt shops there. We ate at the Old Fisherman's Grotto. Even in the middle of the afternoon the place was packed but it was understandable because the food (I had fish and chips) was very good. We made it back to the hotel just before happy hour ended so we could get our free glass of wine. We took it to our room where we watched the baseball game again with the sunset for a backdrop. The game was a real thriller, the Brewers beating the Braves 1-0. The only run scored on a wild pitch with two outs. To add to the excitement, the fire alarm went off. We got dressed and went down to the lobby and watched as fire engines arrived. After a while when the fire fighters just seemed to be standing around we asked the front desk what was going on. They said it was a false alarm. About that time the alarm shut off so we went back to our room to finish watching the game.

For our last full day in Monterey we had saved the Seventeen Mile Drive in Pebble Beach. As long as we had to pay money for a scenic drive, we wanted the weather to be nice. We made some stops on the way there while we waited for the morning clouds to clear. I had seen a jacket that I liked at Fisherman's Wharf the day before but didn't pull the trigger. It looked nice and was inexpensive. Since my Redwoods National Park jacket had died at the end of this winter, I needed a new medium weight jacket for walking Abby in spring and fall and this one would be great. That was our first stop.

Next stop was Carmel where we had lunch at the Alvarado Street Brewery. I like pepperoni but as often as I have pizza, I usually stick to just cheese to go easy on the grease. Today I splurged and shared a pepperoni pizza with Sandy. After that, we needed to go back to Cafe Carmel for ice cream to cleanse the pallet. We also hit a tshirt store for a dog tshirt we had seen that would be a good gift. Most importantly, we stopped at Robin's Jewelry again. Sandy decided that she wanted to get some earrings that would go with her new necklace. She had seen some that would be perfect on a poster in the store.

This time Robin herself was in the store. The bad news was that she said that she didn't have any move of the earrings that Sandy wanted. She said that she could make them if we were going to be in the area for a while. Unfortunately we were leaving the very next day. Robin committed that if we came by first thing in the morning, she would have them ready. She even took Sandy's phone number and said she would call if she was in before her normal opening time of ten o'clock.

Finally it was time to pay our money and take the Seventeen Mile Drive. We went counterclockwise and the beginning was just driving through wooded hills behind Pebble Beach. Eventually it reached the coast. We made several stops at various beaches and viewpoints. I got a picture of the famous Lone Cypress tree. But the main attraction was the golf courses and the huge mansions along the ocean. The golf courses did look extremely well cared for and very scenic. Afterwards I looked it up and green fees for eighteen holes at Pebble Beach is $600. That's more than I spend on golfing in a year, even when I play a lot of golf. I think I'll pass, thank you very much. Besides, I'd probably get paired with Donald Trump or Tom Brady or somebody like that. I wouldn't want to play golf with them. They cheat.

Near the end of the drive we stopped at some Pebble Beach Resort shops and Sandy got some more cool golf clothes. Then it was back to the hotel again for Happy Hour and watching the ball game. Tomorrow we would be leaving to drive along Big Sur to our next stop, Los Osos.