In the morning on February 28th, the last day of a short month, a ran a short 3 miles, wearing shorts! Then in the bright and sunny weather we drove south, to Carmel-by-the-Sea. We're staying there for the week, to give Dan and Kelsey a break from having visitors. We stopped along the way at a sandwich shop that had bahn mi's. We sat outside to eat. They were excellent!
I drove after lunch. The road immediately turned narrow and twisty. Ugh. Pretty views, however, of ocean, dunes, cliffs, and mist. Lots of farmland too.
Our hotel in Carmel, The Candlelight Inn, is nothing fancy but clean and quiet. We get settled and then go walk to find coffee and a small grocery store for bananas and more Lara bars, and beer for Lee. We drop our supplies off at the hotel and go walk along the beach. I remember the huge hill to get down there from when we were here before. The tide is out; we walked to the left for awhile and then returned. We took some stairs back to the hotel, a little boardwalk through the dunes. It was very nice until the end when we had to go up a very steep hill. Whew!
Then we sat by the hotel’s fire pit for awhile, until it was time to go to dinner. Carmel is very quiet right now and it was no problem getting reservations, even at very popular restaurants. We chose a place that had Japanese Shaba shabu, Flying Fish Grill. It was great! It’s been a long time since I had this, I’d forgotten how good it was.
On Tuesday, March 1st, we did the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach. We did this years ago when we came to Callifornia with the kids and drove up the coast but I have only the vaguest memory of it. We are only about 10 minutes from the entrance. It costs 11.25 to drive the road, and boy is it spectacular! We stopped at almost all the stops and admired the views, took a few pictures and walked around a little. We stared in awe at the waves, and at the golf course too. There are actually several golf courses there, besides the world famous Pebble Beach. There’s one that’s has several holes right next to the ocean, Spyglass Hill . We saw a couple playing a hole where the fairway seemed to go right over the water. Breathtaking, and intimidating! I can’t play golf, but for some weird reason I like to watch it.
We ended up at the visitors center right around 11:30 so we stopped at the market and got a Ruben for Lee and soup and a salad for me. There are several sit down restaurants but they are pretty pricey. The food was ok, nothing special.
We finished up the drive and went back to Carmel for the afternoon. Did a lot of being lazy, a little walking around. That night a carry out pizza and watched Biden's State of the Union speech. Its such a strange time in the world, with Ukraine under siege, inflation on the rise, the Republicans tying themselves in knots trying to condemn Putin without offending Trump. I wish we could at least unite ourselves as a country against Russia. It makes me sad.
On Wednesday, March 2nd, I went for a spectacular run along the coast this morning along Scenic Drive. I needed 8 miles so I ran along the coast for two, then ran two miles into Carmel along a residential street, and back. The 1/2 mile down Ocean Ave to the coast is very steep, but the rest wasn’t too bad. So pretty!
Found a late breakfast around the corner after at Pangaea Grill. I got poached eggs with roasted tomatoes, tapenade, and ciabatta.
At around noon we walked around Carmel for awhile and then did a couple of wine tastings. The first, at Hahn Winery, was ok, not great. The second, at Blair Winery, was fabulous. I liked almost every single wine, enough that we ended up buying 3 bottles to take back to Dan and Kelsey. Then we walked up the street and had a snack at a little French place, Patisserie Boissiere. We sat outside and I had fruit, Brie and pate, Lee had a roasted artichoke. It all tasted great, and it wasn't too much food either.
On Thursday, March 3, we went to the Monterey aquarium. We saw all the exhibits, and 2 shows as well. The show featuring Luna the otter was especially touching. We wandered through all the exhibits and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It’s a great aquarium if you’ve never been.
Later we ate a late lunch at the same French place as yesterday. I had a cup of French onion soup and a chicken sandwich on brioche that I could only eat 1/2 of. My next crochet kit finally showed up online so I happily crocheted for a couple hours until it was time for dinner
We had sushi for dinner at Akana. This is an old school traditional sushi restaurant run by a man and his wife. There isn’t even a sign outside; Lee found it online. we got the omicase (chef’s choice). One by one about 10 courses came out, so many good things that normally you can’t find outside Japan. Abalone, mackerel, all very fresh, made in front of us by a nice Japanese man. It was all great. Some things I don’t normally eat but I tried them since it was all so good, such as raw shrimp, fried shrimp head! The tempura was a mix of different veggies and shrimp mixed together in small strings. A lot of the sauces that could only be found in Japan, ginger sauce, garlic sauce. By the last three courses I was really too stuffed to enjoy them. A fish and mushroom soup, his homemade tofu, and a lovely hand roll at the end. I highly recommend this place if you like sushi and are a bit adventurous.
On Friday, March 4th, I ran 4 miles in the hills above Carmel. If I could run here for a month I’d be ready for the San Francisco Marathon and its hills! One more breakfast at Pangaea. This time I had steel cut oats with fruit, pine nuts and steamed milk.
We took highway 1 up the coast back to San Francisco. We have until 4 pm to return the car so we took our time. We stopped in Santa Cruz but the wharf was tacky and VERY windy. The drive to Pescadero Beach was gorgeous. Because of the wind the ocean is in a frenzy of whitecaps and very confused surf! No surfers! Before cutting over to I-280 was hung out in a coffee shop in Half Moon Bay. Its just too windy and cold to hang out on the beach.
Sounds like an delightful trip.
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