Carmel By the Sea

I mentioned in my previous blog that the Sardine Factory Restaurant in Monterey was going to be one of the places we were going to check out.  After all, how many Sardine Factory Restaurants do you think there really are?  It was unique and I wanted to go.   It was MY plan.  Terry just made a face and said ICK.  So, my first plan of action was to check out their menu.  If they didn’t have something on it that was appealing to him I’d have to use Duchess’ leash to get him in the door.  However, I didn’t have to worry about that once I checked out the menu.  To begin with if this restaurant was one of caterers for an inaugural ball, I knew right to begin with we wouldn’t want to fork out extra dough just to say we’d been there, done that.  Well, we can still go there but I’m certainly not doling out $55 for a steak dinner, $9 for potatoes and still not have a salad.  So, other than a visit to their gift shop, eating anything other than a dessert was forgotten.

Coastal towns tend to get swamped with people over the weekend.  If the sun is shining and the weather nice, you can expect to see floods of traffic heading to enjoy that sun and surf.  Thus, on Friday we decided to visit Carmel before the crowds arrived.  We had no trouble finding a parking spot.  We were just lucky I guess.  It’s definitely a gorgeous walking town with quaint shops and art galleries.  We walked into many of them just to admire the paintings and photography.  However, we walked away with nothing.  It’s an expensive little town but we felt like we fit in.  After all, we were driving our jaguar and quite a few folks noticed it sitting on the hood of our truck.    

Want a Mary Frances Frog or Flamingo Purse?  Many unique and $$$ items were available in Carmel.

Next stop, Carmel’s beach at the end of Ocean Avenue.  Again, no problem getting a parking spot. I bet parking would have been a problem had we decided to visit on Saturday or Sunday instead of Friday.  It was just a beautiful, beautiful day.

Our route back to Monterey was via the 17 Mile Drive.  Last year we did this same drive and ended up paying close to $6.00 a gallon for gas because we didn't fill up first.  This time we made sure we had plenty of fuel before starting on our route.  There are many places to pull off the road at viewpoints and there always seemed to be a place to park.  In addition to awesome views of the coast, we also awed over the many multi-million dollar mansions.  It wasn’t long before the fog started to roll in.  It seemed to move in fast.  We were lucky that we did this route when we did.  It was  a beautiful drive.  We’ve done it several times before and I’m guessing we’ll probably even do it a few more times in the future.

Pebble Beach Golf Course	Our next house!

 

Next it was almost time for dinner.  We were a little early but who said dinner had to be a specific time?   This time it was for a little pub food at the London Fog Pub on the dock back in Monterey. We like eating at pubs.  Maybe it's the Irish in me.  The food was good and with our “doggie” bags in hand we headed back to the motorhome to share our meal with Duchess.

Our RV park is on the Monterey Pines Golf Club.  This weekend is a big weekend and it’s a wonder we even got reservations.  The US Kids Challenge Golf Tournament is being held here this weekend.  We decided not to get on the course or   even the driving range for a few days.  It wouldn’t be fun being shown up by a 5 year old.  You should see some of those kids hit that little golf ball.  However, maybe we should ask for a tip or two.

Just down the road is the Monterey Fairgrounds.  We noticed it was pretty full with RVs so decided to check it out too .......... then, we discovered that it was $50 a night!  That was $50 a night to stay in the fairgrounds in your own accommodations.  Nope ... we didn't figure we needed to take a second look.

A DNA tidbit  --  For those interested in DNA between the major sites, take a look at these comparisons.  My DNA is on the top three sites listed.  We all have favorites and 23andme is mine for many reasons but most of all because of their chromosome viewer and advanced results. Ancestry DNA is my least favorite even though their regular website is topnotch because of their historical records.  Gedmatch is free and almost all DNA can be transferred there -- another topnotch tool. 

‘Tis life on the road.

“I don’t regret the things I did wrong.  I regret the good things I did for the wrong people.”